Organizational Socialization Mini Ethnography - Assignment Example

Organizational Socialization Mini Ethnography Organizational Socialization 01 November 2013 Organizational Socialization Mini Ethnography Introduction “Organizational Culture stands for the actions, ways of thinking, practices, stories, and artifacts that characterize a particular organization”(Textbook, Pg 104). Organizational culture incorporates an enterprise’s desires, encounters, theory, and qualities that hold it together, and is communicated in its self portrait, internal workings, communications with the surroundings, and prospective desires. It is dependent upon imparted disposition, convictions, traditions, and composed and unwritten decisions that have been produced over a long time period and are recognized as substantial. It is demonstrated in the ways how power and data move through its progressive system, and how bound workers are towards aggregate destinations. I am committed to working with people and helping them to solve their problems as l have a sympathetic and caring nature, as well as the ability to empathize and win the trust of people from all kinds of backgrounds. With a strong desire to be a basic ingredient in bring about a better and sustainable change, l always aspired to be a social worker. I chose “Peace Corps” for the position of “Administrative Officer”, because of its proven record of long standing service to humanity. The Peace Corps started its mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy urged university students to work and be a source of peace by living and functioning in developing countries. With more than 200,000 workers, it is an agency administered by the federal government and aims at achieving world peace and friendship (Peace Corps). For this paper the following concepts of the organizational culture will be considered; The Practical View considers organization closely linked with broader society and strives for conflict resolution by cooperation of labor and management. It is based on the notion of development of work to achieve competence, consistency and specialization with simplification. Interpretive view emphasizes on entity building as well as smooth functioning of a group and human associations in gauging productivity. The core features of the Interpretive View approach are participatory management of a distinct individual working efficiently in a group. Critical and Post Modern views are based on the concept that the organization is an adaptive system which has to adjust to changes in its environment. Critical and Post Modern views focus on developing the socio-technical structure, and handling contingency situations efficiently. It is a dynamic methodology that happens when a unique individual accepts new or changed responsibility inside an organization. The fundamental parts of organizational socialization—its methods, essence, and conclusions are explored. Stress is given to organizational and unique strategies used to expedite socialization, and also to the particular substance of what is learned. Anticipatory Socialization Analysis Organizational Socialization For the purpose of Organizational Socialization, which in simple terms is doing research and use the findings to know about the organization which you intend to join, it’s working, culture, benefits and salaries and most importantly whether you would be able to fit in and conform to the norms of the organization or not. Methods I explored the Peace Corps website (Peace Corps) extensively in order to get a better feel of it would be like working there, also shared experiences of existing staff members and beneficiaries, in other words to know and get a clear understanding of the stories (Keyton, 2011), past and prevalent. Visiting Peace Corps headquarters in Washington D.C. was also very helpful as l got firsthand experience of observing the artifacts (Textbook, Pg 106) and how they work. I noticed that the office décor was simple yet highly efficient. The atmosphere was not very formal and the dress code tilted towards conservative. Familiarization with the core values of the organization i.e. helping the needy, forming good opinion and better understanding of American people in the eyes of people of other countries and enabling Americans to better understand other cultures and viewpoints. I also interviewed an employee of Peace Corps and it can be deduced that job satisfaction rates fairly high at Peace Corps. Though, more than usual it is a hard job with fairly challenging situations and expectations, one always has the feeling of being a part of a big family and help and support is always there. One travels around the world and constantly helping others elevates one’s self worth. The salaries and perks are above average (See Appendix). I learned that working at Peace Corps would be challenging but it is a feasible choice as l will be helping others, travelling, understanding other cultures and people, and making a positive change. Pay is above average and perks include medical/ health insurance and there is job security with a pension plan (Peace Corps). Vocational Socialization Many personal and social factors influence and shape understanding of occupation, work and where one might fit in an organization. Family is one of the core sources of vocational socialization. Parents have considerable influence in forming a viewpoint in this regard and children usually take into consideration their parent’s values, aspirations and expectations when taking a career related step (Teresa. McAlpine, 2008). Another factor is peer group, peers function as a feedback that accepts or rejects cachet of particular occupations and influence and effect career aspirations. Education plays a major role in vocational socialization because schools serve as transitional institutes. Control and authority systems become the first experience of formal organizations. To some extent media also influences career choices as youngsters gather a fair amount of occupational information from different media sources. Methods I analyzed my own vocational socialization inclinations to realize that l rightly chose Peace Corps as my future career aspirations because l grew up in an atmosphere where value of helping others was always stressed upon. My elder brother worked as a social worker and that direct example inspired me to strengthen my desire to become a social worker. I would fit in with Peace Corps culture because i am comfortable with new situations and different opinions, at Peace Corps one is sure to work with people of different cultures, opinions and lifestyles. Analysis of Organizational Socialization For this part of the paper, organizational socialization theories given in the textbook will be looked at; Practical View The practical view responds to manager’s desire for practical advice and specific communication strategies for enhancing competitiveness and employee satisfaction (Textbook, Pg 113). In other words, we can say that this view is based on reciprocated benefit of workers and management. The benefits of increased productivity should be shared with the workers and efforts should be made to keep stress levels at minimum. This close relation to the customer (Textbook, Pg 113) trait, in which basis of excellence is to remember, innovate and cater to the needs of the customer, can be related to Peace Corps. The beneficiaries (needy) are the customers of Peace Corps. It is constantly innovating, communicating and maintaining close relations with its customers in order to reliably serve them and cater to their needs in a continuous and efficient manner. Interpretive View Those who subscribe to interpretive view treat culture as a process that is socially constructed in everyday communicative behaviors among all members of the organization (Textbook, Pg 116). It may be said that this viewpoint stresses upon the importance of an individual and discourages that a worker be treated as mere machine. It encourages the workers to contribute in decision making processes to attain desired goals. When an emergency situation arises, Peace Corps encourages its field managers to make appropriate decisions to effectively combat the emergency situation at hand. Critical and Post Modern Views This viewpoint focuses on challenges to power relationships and status quo. These critics call for organizational ethnographers to examine issues of power and domination associated with the development, maintenance, or transformation of a particular culture (Textbook, Pg 121). It may be perceived that this viewpoint considers an organization to be dynamic and constantly changing. The critics say that certain elements like metaphors and stories put certain individuals at advantage over others and conflict of interest may arise. The integration perspective portrays culture in terms of consistency and clarity and cultural members agree about what they need to do and why they need to do it (Textbook, Pg 121). Peace Corps members are very clear that they need to serve the needy and do that service to elevate the image of American people. Critics presenting differentiation perspective highlight differences across organizational units or subcultures (Textbook, Pg 121). Looking at Peace Corps, sometimes the overseas field office and the headquarters are lacking communication and both are at times, unable to understand the viewpoints, decisions and ground realities faced by the other group. Discussion A few institutions will energize you. Theyll animate your triumph and development but others will be stressful. They might lead you to stop before youve finished much or studied what you would have liked to learn. With the force (or energy) of discovering another attractive opportunity, it is all excessively simple to seek after an opening for work or to acknowledge an offer with just a foggy perspective of how the foundation truly works. The way to an establishment you will like is to explore the culture youre considering joining before you acknowledge and decide to accept the position. After analyzing many aspects, l am better prepared for the job market and learned that aside from moral issues, theres no supreme standard of whats best in organizational culture. Distinctive purposes and diverse organizational characteristics could appeal differently to diverse individuals. When you follow how the potential organization works, youll have to think about how well that matches your objectives. Your target organizational culture is a vital part of your aspirations. References Textbook Peace Corps (n.d.). About Us | Peace Corps. Retrieved from http://www.peacecorps.gov/about/ Keyton, J. (2011). Communication & organizational culture: A key to understanding work experiences. Los Angeles: SAGE. Appendix Interview Questions 1. How would you describe the corporate culture of Peace Corps in three words, what would you say? 2. If you were going to take someone on a tour of this agency, what stops would you make? 3. If the local paper were going to run a four-page article about your organizations culture, what would be impossible not to include? 4. Whats the best part about working in this environment that I wont be able to see from just a walk around the office? 5. What are the most common complaints employees make about your organizational culture? 7. What do you like best about the culture here? Read More