Chapter Two
Organizational Culture.
Socialization, and Mentoring
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices, 3/e
Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
After reading the materials in this
chapter, you should be able to:
• Discuss the layers and functions of organizational culture.
• Describe the three general types of organizational culture
and their associated normative beliefs.
• Summarize the methods used by organizations to embed
their cultures.
• Describe the three phases in Feldman’s model of
organizational socialization.
• Discuss the various socialization tactics used to socialize
employees.
• Explain the four types of developmental networks derived
from a developmental network model of mentoring
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Organizational Culture
• Organizational culture
- set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit
assumptions that a group holds and that
determines how it perceives, thinks about and
reacts to its various environments
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Organizational Culture
Characteristics
• Passed on to new employees through the
process of socialization
• Influences our behavior at work
• Operates at different
levels
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A Conceptual Framework for Understanding
Organizational Culture
Figure 2-1
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Organizational Culture
• Shaped by four components:
- Founder’s values
- Industry and business environment
- National culture
- Senior leaders vision
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Layers of Organizational Culture
• Observable artifacts
- Consist of the physical manifestation of an
organization’s culture
- Acronyms, manner of dress, awards, myths
and stories, published lists of values,
observable rituals and ceremonies, special
parking spaces, and decorations
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Layers of Organizational Culture
• Espoused values
- represent the explicitly stated values and
norms that are preferred by an organization
• Values
- concepts or beliefs that pertain to desirable
end states, transcend situations, guide
selection of behavior and are ordered by
relative importance
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Question?
What represents the values and norms that
actually are exhibited or converted into
employee behavior?
A. Espoused values
B. Valued behavior
C. Enacted values
D. Basic assumptions
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Layers of Organizational Culture
• Enacted values
- represent the values and norms that actually
are exhibited or converted into employee
behavior
- Based on
observable behavior
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Layers of Organizational Culture
• Basic assumptions
- Constitute organizational values that have
become so taken for granted over time that
they become assumptions that guide
organizational behavior
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Four Functions of Organizational Culture
Figure 2-2
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Types of Organizational Culture
• Constructive
• Passive-defensive
• Aggressive-defensive
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Organizational Culture
• Normative beliefs
- thoughts and beliefs
about expected
behavior and modes
of conduct
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Types of Organizational Culture
Constructive
• Employees are encouraged to interact with
others and to work on tasks and projects in
ways that will assist them in satisfying their
need to grow and develop
• Associated with achievement, selfactualizing, humanistic-encouraging, and
affiliative
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Types of Organizational Culture
Passive-defensive
• Overriding belief that employees must
interact with others in ways that do not
threaten their own job security
• Associated with approval, conventional,
dependent, and avoidance
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Types of Organizational Culture
Aggressive-defensive
• Encourages employees to approach tasks
in forceful ways in order to protect their
status and job security
• Associated with oppositional power,
competitive, and perfectionistic
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Outcomes Associated with
Organizational Culture
1. Significantly correlated with employee
behavior and attitudes
2. Congruence between an individual’s
values and the organization’s values was
associated with organizational
commitment, job satisfaction, intention to
quit, and turnover
3. Did not predict financial performance
4. Mergers frequently failed due to
incompatible cultures
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Embedding Organizational Culture
• Organizational
members teach each
other about the
organization’s
preferred values,
beliefs, expectations,
and behaviors
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Embedding Organizational Culture
1. Formal statements of organizational philosophy, mission,
vision, values, and materials used for recruiting,
selection and socialization
2. The design of physical space, work
environments, and buildings
3. Slogans, language, acronyms, and sayings
4. Deliberate role modeling, training programs, teaching
and coaching by managers and supervisors
5. Explicit rewards, status symbols (e.g., titles),
and promotion criteria
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Embedding Organizational Culture
6. Stories, legends, and myths about key people and
events
7. The organizational activities, processes, or outcomes
that leaders pay attention to, measure, and control
8. Leader reactions to critical incidents and organizational
crises
9. The workflow and organizational structure
10. Organizational systems and procedures
11. Organizational goals and the associated criteria used
for recruitment, selection, development, promotion,
layoffs, and retirement of people
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Organizational Socialization
• Organizational Socialization
- process by which a person learns the values,
norms, and required behaviors which permit
him to participate as a member of the
organization
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Phase 1: Anticipatory Socialization
• Occurs before an individual joins an
organization
• Involves the information people learn about
different careers, occupations, professions,
and organizations
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Phase 2: Encounter
• Employees learn what the organization is
really like and reconcile unmet
expectations
• Onboarding – programs aimed at helping
employees integrate, assimilate, and
transition to new jobs
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Phase 3: Change and Acquisition
• Requires employees
to master important
tasks and roles and to
adjust to their work
group’s values and
norms
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Practical Application of
Socialization Research
1. Managers should avoid a haphazard
approach to organizational socialization
2. Managers play a key role during the
encounter phase
3. Organization can benefit by training new
employees to use proactive socialization
behaviors
4. Managers should pay attention to the
socialization of diverse employees
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Question?
What is the process of forming and
maintaining developmental relationships
between a supervisor and a junior
person?
A. Senior leadership
B. Mentoring
C. Socialization
D. Orientation
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Mentoring
• Mentoring
- the process of forming and maintaining
developmental relationships between a
mentor and
a junior person
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Functions of Mentoring
• Career Functions
- Sponsorship
- Exposure-andvisibility
- Coaching
- Protection
- Challenging
assignments
• Psychosocial
Functions
- Role modeling
- Acceptance-andconfirmation
- Counseling
- Friendship
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Mentoring
• Diversity of developmental relationships
reflects the variety of people within the
network an individual uses for
developmental assistance
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Mentoring
See Belle Rose
Ragins’s article
abstract on barriers
to mentoring at
Human Relations
Online
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Mentoring
• Two sub-components
- Number of different people is networked with
- Various social systems from which the
networked relationships stem
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Developmental Networks Associated
with Mentoring
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Figure 2-4
Mentoring
• Developmental relationship strength
reflects the quality of relationships among
the individual and those involved in his
developmental
network
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Personal and Organizational
Implications
• Job and career satisfaction are likely to be
influenced by the consistency between an
individual’s career goals and the type of
developmental network at his disposal
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Personal and Organizational
Implications
• A developer’s willingness to provide career
and psycho-social assistance is a function
of the protégé’s ability, potential, and the
quality of the interpersonal relationship
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Building an
Effective Mentoring Network
1. Become the perfect protégé
2. Engage in 360-degree networking
3. Commit to assessing, building, and
adjusting the mentor network
4. Develop diverse, synergistic connections
5. Realize that change is inevitable and that
all good things come to an end
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Video – Pikes Place Fish Market
• In the accompanying
video, “Pike Place Fish
Market” (14:37) the
culture of Seattle’s
world famous Pike
Place Fish Market is
fun!
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