GitLab

It is the decisions that fall into the gray area that are problematic, and where we must come to our own decisions.Nanji would be a college junior in the fall, but she was excited to be a summer intern at a major company in her hometown.During the first few days she was kept busy learning about the workplace.After that things got hazy.She was supposed to be an administrative assistant but she wasn’t really sure what that job entailed.Her immediate supervisor went on vacation and when he returned he had a business trip.Occasionally people would give her things to do but often she had no idea how she was to do them or even whom to ask.As the summer passed, Nanji grew disillusioned.No one ever had time for her.She was never sure what she was hired to do.Nanji never figured out her role.How do you know what to do or if you are doing it properly?People in such situations might think, Am I supposed to be doing something I don’t know about?What does my boss really expect me to be doing? A written job description might be given, but in the absence of communicated expectations and feedback, role ambiguity can make life difficult.In one study, George Graen reported that 80% of administrative assistants in a service organization did not know what the supervisor wanted even though they had been in their jobs for more than nine months.9Sometimes we can take on so many roles that we experience role overload, we just can’t do everything we need to do.Over time, most of us learn to say no. As a professor, there always is another committee, another ad hoc task force, another position in faculty governance or a professional organization asking for my service.When you have a choice, sometimes no is the best answer.To decode the workplace, you must understand the pervasiveness of roles, both organizational and societal, and their impact.You inhabit multiple roles.Everyone with whom you work inhabits multiple roles.Listen and you will hear people communicating expectations about roles.Listen and you will hear people dealing with the stress that grows out of role conflicts.NewEmployees Act Differently ThanCurrent EmployeesCalida was excited about her new position because it came with significant responsibility and opportunity for advancement.After her newcomer’s orientation to the organization and meetings with senior officials, Calida was highly motivated and ready to go.Then she met with her immediate supervisor and was shown her office.An empty bag of potato chips lay on the floor, along with a few paper clips, folders, and crumpled papers.A film of dust covered the furniture suggesting that the room had been vacant for some time.The old, gray desk was piled high with papers and miscellaneous trash.The drawers were cluttered with material left behind by the previous occupant.Calida would spend the better part of a day just making her office livable.The people were nice enough, but the organization itself had no concept of the value people make to the bottom line.Think for a moment about jobs you have had.How were you welcomed to that job?Think about that first day.How easy was it for you to learn the norms and roles, to learn the ropes?How easy was it for you to learn what it took to get the job done, get ahead, and stay out of trouble?How much help did you get from the organization for which you worked?What about from your supervisor?Did your coworkers help?Could your transition to the new job have been made easier?For many of us, our transitions to new jobs could have been much better.If we are fortunate, we might get an orientation to the company and an overview of the job and workplace from our supervisor.Usually we learn the important norms and roles of the workplace through trial and error.These trials and errors can be costly, however, both to the individual and the organization.Companies vary in how effective they are at welcoming the new employee but most could use an overhaul.Managers fail to recognize that the behavior of the new employee is different from the behavior of employees who have been with the organization a while.The new employee is looking for information, trying to fit in.For the organization, this is an opportunity that too often is lost.When we are new to an organization we try to learn the norms, roles, and values associated with our new position.This process is called organizational socialization. It actually starts in earlier years as we pick up bits and pieces of information about different jobs, occupations, and professions.I watched also as they returned, traversing the sky eastward.I wondered what it was like up there.We enjoyed looking at the world below.I watched the pilot fly the Cessna.I wanted to learn to fly, to be an Air Force pilot.Eventually I was very fortunate and awarded a congressional appointment to the United States Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado.There the socialization was intense.We viewed film after film showing combat flying.Flying upside down at 40,000 feet, I looked up at the earth.I traveled faster than the speed of sound.After the Academy I went to Georgia for Undergraduate Pilot Training.This only became clear to me during Undergraduate Pilot Training.The Air Force was teaching me to be a military aviator but it just was not me.For me, the thrill of flying high and fast was not enough to sustain a commitment to pursue a career as an Air Force aviator.I chose to serve our nation and the Air Force in other ways.I left the Air Force pilot training program and earned a private pilot’s license on my own.In spite of my high motivation, reading, studying, conversations, and flying experiences, my knowledge of what it took to be an Air Force aviator was limited.You never can be fully prepared for what an occupation, career, or organization really is like.Jennifer knew that she was ready for a career in a Big Four accounting firm.She completed her degree at the top of her class.Great things were expected from her and she knew it.Recruiters wanted her and the bidding for her was fierce.When the dust settled, she took a position with her first choice of the Big Four accounting firms.Within days Jennifer was crunching numbers and analyzing data the way the company wanted it done.Unfortunately that work pattern did not change.No chance to use her mind.This was not what Jennifer had anticipated.Sure, the pay was great but who had time to enjoy it?And where was the challenging work she had been led to expect.Jennifer discussed this with her mentor only to be told this is the way it will be for the first five years, until she had enough seniority and experience to lead her own team.Her dream job was not at all what she had expected.What Jennifer thought her job would be like and the reality of her job did not match.Some things might be accurate but other things are not.Organizational socialization occurs in training, education, apprenticeships, and even selection methods.We are socialized into organizations in different ways.Some methods are planned but most are informal and unplanned.During training we are being socialized.As a young officer learning to fly military aircraft, I was learning much more than how to fly planes.I was learning the culture and subcultures of Air Force pilots.Education plays a formidable role in our socialization, starting when we are young.Colleges and universities are very much institutions of socialization.A college graduate tends to have more in common with another college graduate than with a high school graduate.At the highest academic levels the socialization process can be intense.Your doctoral committee and other professors are sizing you up to determine whether you should be allowed to join their ranks.When I was a graduate student, I perceived clear role expectations as to how to be a good graduate student.On the first day of the term, a professor held a meeting of the new students and said, If you are wondering how to act, how to survive, how to get through this, then just act like Kay.She’s been here two years and is the model graduate student. We were given a specific example, a person to observe, a person whom to ask questions.Understanding our roles as graduate students was important.To be admitted to doctoral candidacy, each student had to meet with a committee of professors.The professors can ask any questions they think appropriate to test the student’s knowledge.Any subject matter in the discipline is fair game.Students at my university had to pass these examinations to change their status from doctoral students to doctoral candidates.Once they were doctoral candidates, the students could begin researching and writing their dissertations.Going into my exam I was terrified and subservient, which coincidently happened to be the proper graduate student role in this case.Fortunately I passed.Another graduate student figured that if Ballard could pass, how hard could it really be?From my perspective this was a reasonable assumption.Unfortunately, this student did not fully grasp the importance of the graduate student role, especially in this situation.She arrived at her exam very confident with a plate full of freshly baked cookies for the committee to enjoy.Her questions were much tougher than mine had been, very challenging, nearly impossible, or so it seemed.She had not played the role.She did not pass until her second try at the exam a few months later.A friend of mine is a carpenter.Joking with me, he once said that if I ever found myself out of work, he could take me on as an apprentice.He obviously had never seen me drive a nail.I am sure, however, that if I were his apprentice I would learn far more than carpentry.I would learn what carpenters think of electricians, plumbers, suppliers, contractors, and others in the industry.There are many stories about how Admiral Hyman Rickover chose officers to join his team.Admiral Rickover is the father of the nuclear navy and mentored Jimmy Carter when Carter was a young naval officer.Ensign Thomas wanted the challenge and opportunity that always came with working for this great man.Ensign Thomas went to meet the admiral.He was told to go on into the admiral’s spacious office where he found Admiral Rickover at his desk reviewing some papers.Saluting sharply, he stated, Sir, I am Ensign Thomas.I understand you are looking for a few good officers.He could take orders.The admiral said to make him mad.Such stories become larger than life, changing and becoming more embellished over time.These stories, however, illustrate how a selection method can be pivotal in organizational socialization.Why do some organizations take months to hire a person and use multiple selection methods?Organizations, supervisors, and coworkers vary significantly in how much they help new employees learn the ropes.We most frequently associate organizational socialization with the new employee, but organizational socialization also occurs whenever a person moves to a new position within the same company.Ed Schein has suggested that people are most susceptible to the normative influence of others right before changing to a new position and just after the change.3 Even before assuming a new job, often the person moving to a new position tries to learn as much as possible about that job.One way is to talk to other people who might be able to share insights and information about the job.People changing positions often try to reduce the number of surprises that they might encounter that first day or first week in the new job.To look the part, Jeff bought several expensive sports coats, slacks, and sharp ties.As dressed, Jeff did not fit in.As discussed, we live in a perceptual world.