In which phase of the Organisational socialisation process does the employee discover what the Organisation is truly like?

ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION AND ITS RELATION WITH ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Organizational socialization is the process by which an individual acquires the social knowledge and skills necessary to assume an organizational role (Maanen & Schein, 1979). It may be said that The Feldman model is the most used one to explain the socialization process in an organization. According to Feldman (1981),  individual socialization in an organization  pursues three distinct stages of socialization, and the different sets of activities that employees engage in each stage. The first of it is “anticipatory socialization” stage. The main activities that  the individual engages in at this stage are forming expectations about jobs and making decisions about employment. The second stage of socialization process is “accommodation”. At this stage the individual sees what the organization  actually  looks like and attempts to become a participating member of it. Learning new tasks, establishing new interpersonal relationships with co-workers, clarifying their roles in the organization and evaluating their progress in the organization are main activities at this stage. The third stage of socialization process is” role management”.  At this stage there is a need to mediate the conflicts between the individual’s work in their own group and other groups that may place demands on them. Possible outcomes of socialization are general satisfaction, mutual influence, internal work motivation and job involvement. Katz and Kahn (1978) state that one of the organizational socialization’s most important goals is to communicate work role expectations and role sending. Role sending messages tell things such as appropriate work related behaviors and performance requirements. As organizational socialization literature is examined in detail,  organization- individual interactions approaches are seen. From the perspective of organization studies, mostly, socialization content, process and socialization strategies and tactics are examined (Porter, Lawler & Hackman, 1975; Feldman, 1976, 1981; Schein, 1978; Van Maanen & Schein, 1979; Louis, 1980; Allen & Meyer, 1990; Chao, O’Leary Kelly, Wolf, Klein & Gardner, 1994, Taormina, 1994; Saks & Gruman, 2011). Perspective of individualistic approaches generally involve individualistic properties that the newcomer had gained in pre- socialization level (Ashford & Cummings, 1985; Asford, 1986, Bauer & Green, 1994; Grant & Ashford, 2008). Organization- individual interaction approach is generally focused on the interaction between newcomers’ proactive socialization process and organizational strategies and tactics (Jones, 1983; Reichers, 1987; Hartley, 1992; Song & Chathoth, 2010).    

The performance appraisal represents an assessment of an employee’s work. An employee’s future is closely tied to his/her promotions, pay raises and continuation of employment are among the most obvious outcomes (Robbins, 2005). The prevalence of the socialization process not only preserves but also enhances sharing and development of key components of organizational culture, and thus creates strong organizational culture. Strong organizational culture is related to higher organizational performance (Vinsova, Komarkova, Kral, Tripes & Pirozek, 2013). The first thing to increase employee performance is to help employee complete his/her organizational socialization process.  Only the socialized employee can easily fit in and become part of the organization. Then the employee will be dedicated his/her skill and knowledge for organization’s future development (Yanfei, Xi & Fantiani, 2011). Based on the discussions above,  this research aimed to determine the organizational socialization levels and organizational performance levels of the teachers working in public and private anatolian high schools (lycees)  located in the area of Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara, and to inquiry the relationship between organizational socialization and organizational performance variables with respect to the views of the teachers.

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Method

This survey type study was designed as a quantitative research. The target population of it consists of 5744 teachers working at 87 state run public anatolian high schools and 1130 teachers working at 40 state run private anatolian high schools located in the area of nine central districts of Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara. The sampling technique used in this research was the “stratified sampling”, and 362 teachers from public anatolian high schools and 288 teachers from private anatolian high schools were selected based on the sampling technique. The phase of collecting data from the teachers is continuing. The data collection instruments of the research is “Organizational Socialization Scale” developed by G. T. Chao, A. M. O’Leary Kelly, S. Wolf, H. J. Klein and P. D. Gardner (1994), and “Faculty Self Evaluation Form” developed by Wharton County Junior College Human Resources Department. These scales were adapted to Turkish based on their permissions. The data are going to be analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). In analysis of the data, descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, aritmetic mean and standard deviation will be calculated. On the other hand, in order to find out whether or not the opinions of teachers differ in terms of their sex, school type the teacher work, total term of office in teaching profession, term of office the teacher work his/her school and obtaining graduate diploma, the t test or F test will be used based on the data. In testing the relationship between the organization socialization and organizational performance variables, the Pearson Moment Correlation coefficient will be used.

Expected Outcomes

The views of the teachers related to the organizational socialization and organizational performance levels might be higher than the real stuation. Because they evaluate their levels pertaining to the two variables. In another words, this evaluation is a based on self decleration. So their evaluations may be higher than the real levels in the two variables. On the other hand, we expect a high level relationship between the two variables.

References

Allen, N. J. & Meyer, J. P. (1990). Organizational Socialization Tactics: A Longitudinal Analysis of Links to Newcomers’ Commitment and Role Orientation. The Academy of Management Journal, 33 (4), p. 847- 858. Ashford, S. J. & Cummings, L. L. (1985). Proactive Feedback Seeking: The Instrumental Use of the Environment. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 58, p. 67 - 79. Ashford, S. J. (1986). Feedback - Seeking in Individual Adaptation: A Resource Perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 29, p. 465 - 487. Bauer, T. N. & Green, S. G. (1994). Effect of Newcomer Involvement in Work - Related Activities: A Longitudinal Study of Socialization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79 (2), p. 211 – 223. Buchanan, B. (1974). Building Organizational Commitment: The Socialisation of Managers in Work Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19, p. 533- 546. Chao, G. T., O’Leary Kelly, A. M., Wolf, S., Klein, H. J. & Gardner, P. D. (1994). Organizational Socialization: Its Content and Consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79 (5), p. 730- 743. Feldman, D. C. (1976). A Contingency Theory of Socialization. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, p. 433- 452. Feldman, D. C. (1981). The Multiple Socialization of Group Members. Academy of Management Review, 6 (2), p. 309- 318. Grant, A. M. & Ashford, S. J. (2008). The Dynamics of Proactivity at Work. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 28, p. 3 - 34. Hartley, K. (1992). Socialization by Way of Symbolic Interactionism and Culture Theory: A Communication Perspective. Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association. Chicago, IL. http//www.eric.ed.gov is reached on the 29 January of 2014. Jones, G. R. (1983). Psychological Orientation and the Process of Organizational Socialization: An Interactionist Perspective. The Academy of Management Review, 8 (3), p. 464 - 474. Katz, D. & Kahn, R. L. (1978). The Social Psychology of Organizations. (2nd Ed.). New York: John Wiley& Sons. Louis, M. R. (1980). Surprise and Sense Making: What Newcomers Experience in Entering Unfamiliar Organizational Settings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25 (2), p. 226- 251. Maanen, J. V. & Schein, E. H. (1979). In B. Staw (Ed.). Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1, Grennwich Conn.: JAI Press, p. 209- 269. Porter, L. W., Lawler, E. E. & Hackman, J. R. (1975). Behavior in Organizations. New York: McGraw Hill. Reichers, A. E. (1987). An Interactionist Perspective on Newcomer Socialization Rates. Academy of Management Review, 12, p. 278 – 287. Robbins, S. P. (2005). Organizational Behavior. (11th Ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

What are the phases of organizational socialization?

Which phase of socialization start before an employee joins the Organisation?

In what stage of the organizational socialization process do people learn about the organization and job and begin to form employment relationship expectations?

What is the socialization process of new employees known as?