SBenegaL

Category: Organizational Behavior

  • Changing Organizational Culture

    In the last byte, we looked at assessing the organizational culture. In today’s byte, we begin looking at how change in organizational culture could be initiated. 

    We could visualize the process of changing the organizational cultural in the following diagram.


  • Assessing Organization Culture

    In the last byte, we looked at socilization as cultural communication. In today’s byte, we begin look at ways to  assess organization culture. 

    There are two widely used quantitative assessment instruments:
    1. Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI)
    2. Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap Survey
    OCI focuses on behaviors that help employees fit into the organization and meet the expectations of coworkers. The two underlying dimensions of the OCI are task/people and security/satisfaction. 

    Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap Survey focuses on the gap between what actually happens in the organization and the expectations of others in the organization. It has two underlying dimensions – technical/human and time(short/long). 

    While quantitative methods listed above are precise, comparable and objective – the use of qualitative methods like interviews and observations offer a detailed, descriveptive and unique measure of the scenario. Thus, “Traingulation” methods are generally prefered in study of organizational culture.

  • Socialization as Cultural Communication

    In the last byte, we looked at the outcomes of socialization. In today’s byte, we look at Socialization as cultural communication.

    It could be interesting to note that socialization is definitely a powerful cultural communication tool, but it needs to be understood well: The transmission of information about cultural artifacts is relatively easy, the transmission of values is more difficult. But it is the communication of organizational assumption that is most difficult. 

    The source of this problem is possibly that members of the organization themselves may not be consciously aware of the assumptions and therefore difficult to communicate.

    Socialization serves one primary purpose amongst others – the transmission of core values to new members of the organization. Interaction with role-models, training that newcomers receive, behavior with respect to rewards and punishment etc are all means by which the newcomers are exposed to these values. 

    If newcomers are expected to adopt the values of an organization, it is essential that the message reflect the underlying values of the organization. Both the individuals and organizations should ensure that certain actions are taken for the success of socialization processes.

  • Change and Acquisition phases in Organizational Socialization

    In the last byte, we looked at the encounter stage of organizational socialization. In today’s byte, we look at the change and acquisition phase and the outcomes of the process. 

    In the change and acquisition phase of organizational socialization, newcomers begin to master the demands of the job. They get proficient at managing their tasks, clarifying and negotiating their roles and engaging in relationships at work.
     
    In terms of timelines, the time when the socialization process completes varies widely depending on the individual, the job, the organization etc. The process completes when new comers begin considering themselves and others as organizational insiders.
     
    New comers who are successfully socialized should exhibit better performance, high job satisfaction, and the intention to stay with the organization. The stress displayed is relatively of a lower level.
     
    It is often found that a successful socialization leads to high levels of organizational commitment.
     
    A successful socialization is often signaled by mutual influence, that is the newcomers have made adjustments in the job and organization to accommodate their knowledge and personalities. The newcomers are expected to leave their mark on the organization and not be completely conforming!
     
    (Could we really find many such situations? )

  • Encounter Stages in Organizational Socialization

    In the last byte, we looked at the anticipatory socialization stage, in today’s byte we discuss the encounter stage of organizational socialization. 

    Encounter is the stage where the newcomer learns the tasks associated with the job, clarifies roles, and establishes new relationships at work.
     
    In terms of timelines, this stage begins with the first day at work and could go to the first six to nine months on the new job. The demands on the new comer during this stage could be classified into:
    1. task demands
    2. role demands
    3. interpersonal demands
    Tasks demands involve the actual work performed. Learning to perform tasks is related to the organization’s culture – here are some scenarios: In some organizations, new comers are given considerable latitude to experiment with – to do the job, and creativity is values; there are others where newcomers are expected to learn the established procedures for their task.
     
    Note: Early experiences in trying to master task demands can affect employee’s entire career.
     
    Role Demands involve the expectations placed on newcomers. These newcomers may not know exactly what to expect of them (role ambiguity) or may receive conflicting expectations from other individuals (role conflicts).  The way newcomers approach these demands is dependent to a good extent on the culture of the organization.
     
    Interpersonal demands arise from relationships at work. Politics, Leadership style, and group pressure are interpersonal demands. All these reflect the values and assumptions that operate within the organization.
     
    At this stage, the expectations formed in anticipatory socialization stage might clash with the realities of the job.

  • Anticipatory socialization

    In the last byte, we looked at the various stages in organizational socialization process. In today’ byte, we look at the stage of anticipatory socialization.
     
    Anticipatory Socialization encompasses all the learning that takes pace prior to the newcomer’s first day on job.
    There are two key concerns at this stage:
    1. Realism
    2. Congruence
    The degree to which a newcomer holds realistic expectations about the job and about the organization.

    For a very clear understanding of the organizational culture – it is suggested that the new comer receive information regarding this on the first day. This information could help the newcomer to begin constructing a scheme to interpret their experience in the organization. This also helps deepen the understanding of this culture over time about their experiences in the organization.
     
    Congruence could be of two types:
    1. between individual’s abilities and the demands of the job
    2. between the organization’s values and individual’s values.
    Value congruence is very important for organizational culture, and is important for the new comer adjustment. If the adjustment is fine, then the new comer would stay longer with the organization.

  • Stages of Organizational Socialization

    In the last byte, we looked at how hiring and firing decisions by leaders indicate their belief in culture. Beginning this byte, we start our discussion on Organizational Socialization.
     
    Organizational Socialization refers to the process by which newcomers are transformed from outsiders to participating, effective members of the organization.
     
    The beginning of cultural socialization is a careful selection of the newcomers – and the reinforcement of the organizational culture through it. Once selected, the newcomers pass through the socialization process.
     
    The organizational socialization process could be thought to have three stages:
    1. Anticipatory Socialization
    2. Encounter
    3. Change and acquisition
    The following diagram shows these stages pictorially:

  • Culture and Leadership 5

    In the last byte, we looked how rewarding could help get the organizational values aligned. In today’s byte, we look at how hiring and firing decisions by leaders could reinforce the organizational culture.

    Hiring and Firing decisions are very strong indicators of the way leaders reinforce the organizational culture. 

    Often leaders unconsciously look out for new members who are similar to the current organizational members in terms of values and assumptions. As a practise in some companies that recommendations by a current employee, and this too helps find new employees who have similar values. The policy of promoting from within also servs to reinforce organizational culture. 

    The way an organization deals with firing an employee and the rationale behind the act are important means to communicate about the organization’s culture. Some companies poor performers are transfered to another department where they could perform better and make useful contributions. In others these employees would be qickly be sent away from the organization. 

    In some case where the reason may not be communicated to the employee, the speculation plays a major role. Imagine: An employee caught displaying unethical behavior and if simply reprimanded even though the behavior is against the organization’s values – other employees in such a context would think that this is a failure to reinforce the values within an organization.

  • Culture and Leadership 4

    In the last byte, we looked at how an organizational culture would be reflected in how the  leaders behave. In today’s byte, we look at how one could understand organizational culture from how leaders allocate resources.

    Rewards are widely used by organizations to get the expected behavior. Leaders could use these rewards to encourage and ensure that the values of the organization are consistently followed by all employees. 

    Lets take a couple of examples:
    1. Imaging a company where it is generally heard that there is a pay-for-performance system implemented. If the company at  point of offering increments decides to increase the compensation based on the years of service with the company rather than performance, think of the feeling an employee who has performed exceptionally well but relatively new into the organization!
    2. Imagine a second company where the company claims its value to be teamwork. They form cross-functional terms and empower these teams to make important decisions, however when there is the point of performance appraisal the criteria for rating employees focuses on individual performances!

    The confusing signals to the employees about the company’s culture could demotivate the employees.

  • Culture and Leadership 3

    In the last byte, we looked at how one could understand the leaders focus by observing what the leader pays attention to and how he would react in crisis. In today’s byte, we look further to understand how leaders could reinforce culture by how he/she behaves.
     
    How Leaders Behave?

    By role modeling, teaching, and coaching, leaders reinforce the values that support the organizational culture. One could often find employees emulating the leader’s behavior and look for cues when they would like to understand what the appropriate behavior would be.
     
    In the dynamic business environment we stay today, we often hear organizations say that they are encouraging employees to behave more entrepreneurially – taking up more initiative, and be more innovative in their jobs. Even in this case, it is required that the leaders themselves behave  entrepreneurially.
     
    One could extend the above example of entrepreneurial culture to any value in an organizational culture. Employees often find themselves observing the leader to find out what the organizations’ values are.