Summary
Samenvatting Organizing & Organizations
- Course
- Institution
Summary of 29 pages for the course Kernthema's Organisatiewetenschappen at VU
[Show more]
Seller
Followmchmeijvis
Content preview
Organizing & OrganizationsFineman, Gabriel & Sims
Chapter 2: Entering and Leaving
The realities of joining a new organization, becoming socialized and part of the culture.
New organization, we confirm and reproduce its culture and, maybe, change it. In social science
terminology, we are seeking clues to the culture, norms and values of the community we are
entering none of this appears in the organization’s recruitment literature.
Nowadays there is a flow of short and medium-term appointments, a coming and going. ( no long
term career anymore). Entering and leaving can often be an anonymous affair, neither celebrated
nor mourned.
Employees can not only be victims of retrenchment (cost-cutting) but also of a management fashion
to create a ‘leaner’ and ‘fitter’ organization. Redundancy (firing) is a typically harsh way of separating
a person from an organization and can leave psychological scars.
Getting in, first impressions
Organizations will expose symbols of the organization’s culture. It’s the business of self-presentation.
The organization will never present their flaws, but the new employee also wants to believe that the
organization is as glamorous, responsible and international as they say because that holds some ideal
image they hold of themselves. In this state candidate and organizations are exchanging the
impressions they want to present to on another.
Convincing performances:
Impression management managing how we come over to others, wanting to look right in their
eyes. Life is a stream of public performances, a dramaturgy, accompanied by private, in-the-head,
commentaries.
Selection:
Recruitment process psychological tests, interviews and exercises. Assessors will record their
observations and candidates will be judged against a set of previously agreed criteria of competence.
This is questionable because there are many studies which reveal that devices such as selection
interviews and personality tests have variable reliability and predictability.
Sometimes the ritual of a selection can border on the absurd or reckless when some of the common
methods are omitted (absent).
How selection is done provides a clue to how the organization appears to care for its staff and how
professional it is in some of its judgements and procedures.
Politics and Cultures:
Politics focuses attention on the personal interests and idiosyncrasies (characteristics) of the
selectors and their power to make their own judgements prevail.
Homosocial reproduction hiring people who are similar to influential people already in place.
People feel less anxious about working with others who are like them, so they will consciously or
unconsciously turn toward people who seem, on first impressions, like them in social values and
attitudes (old school tie phenomenon).
,A strong organizational culture where everyone shares a common vision and purpose, can be recipe
for corporate success.
Japanese organizations foster values of cooperation, loyalty, innovation, flexibility and sheer hard
work, which account for their success. Above all Japanese companies have strong cultures which
bond their members into highly cohesive and effective teams (although under fairly paternalistic
management). In sharp contrast to many Western companies, they are part of a bigger ‘us’.
The Japanese success stories faded in recent years, as have many of the Western corporations that
have followed their lead. This because strong cultures have been found to work well in stable social
and economic times, but when they need to respond to rapid economic or social changes, to
transform themselves to survive, they are often slow and ponderous (heavy).
Setting in and socialization:
The first hint about organizational sub-cultures begin to emerge. Sub-culture is an important
concept in that it describes the special understandings, bondings, shared backgrounds and belief of
particular groups within an organization. They are sub-cultures because they exist beneath the wider
organizational culture. For example, women, men, smokers, background similarities. Different
departments may develop their own sub-cultures and end up seeing other departments as ‘them’.
Counter cultures opposition to the dominant value system. Newcomers are exposed to such
cultural nuances, sometimes in surprising ways.
Rites of passage ways by which established organizational members initiate and socialize new
people into the actual working customs of the organization. ( Initial status initiation marginal
status return new status ) . Rites of passage are unwritten socialization procedures. Surviving
them connects the individual to the work group, an emotional bonding that is crucial for group
cohesion and is at the core of an organization’s sub culture. Most clearly in strong-culture
companies. Socialization is complete, people are less themselves and speak of ‘we’ and ‘our’ not I
anymore.
Leaving:
The farewell party for a longer-term employee is the most common organizational ritual, an exit rite
of passage. Speeches, alcohol, gifts etc. A brief period of mourning may follow with people talking
about how it used to be when the leaver was still around.
Changing demographic patterns have challenged traditional notions of retirements. More people
want to work beyond 60 or 65. Some on fulltime basis some on parttime basis. Mostly because of
money. For employers this challenges covert (hidden) ageism.
There is also another image of leaving, this is the world of redundancy, restructuring and downsizing.
People have to leave because their jobs are no more. Unemployment, the loss of income, status and
routine activity can feel like a collapse of meaning at the centre of their lives.
Theoretical Signposts:
Career theory a step on the career ladder ( max weber and his ideal type of bureaucracy) .
workers can gradually ascend the hierarchical ladder as they acquire more qualifications and
experience; and their personal identity is much determined by their work role, their position and
their organization. Career theorist are now more concerned with post bureaucratic organizations,
where structures are more fluid and people are in and out of different types of work, refining their
employability through training and education. Arthur and Rousseau and Hall have described the
, boundaryless career where people criss-cross different employment sectors. Others talk of portfolio
careers (Handy) where several mini-careers or contrasting jobs are pursued with no exclusive
commitment to any one or to any single employer. Flexibility is the key. Post-modern theorists such
as Fournier and Grey have argued that such shifts are marked by more fragmented personal
identities, assisted by disciplinary technologies such as frequently re-crafted CVs and advice on new
ways of presenting who you are.
Dramaturgy and Impression Management Goffman, he speaks of the presentation of self in
everyday life, how we don particular masks and use role scripts to give the right social impressions to
others. Goffman was inspired by role theory, a cornerstone of social psychology. Dramaturgy takes
the theatre as analogy for social life and the importance of pulling off a good performance, as befits
(suits, applies) formal interviews for jobs and other social encounters were we are being evaluated or
judged. For dramaturgists, appearances are everything and rehearsals are vital: we are managing the
impressions we give off to others and adjusting them to particular contexts.
Socializations and Rites of Passage how we become part of a social unit, adopting some it its
ways: norms, values and beliefs. Schein argues that socialization in the organization’s process varies
in its consistency. Some individuals may accept socialization and conform, others will rebel or even
adapt the organizational norms to their own needs. There are two different kinds of knowledge; tacit
knowledge: gossip and stories and formal knowledge : rule books, reference manuals and job
descriptions. Rites of passage are often intrinsic. Arnold van Gennep said that all rites of passage are
marked by a phase when the individual is separate from their social group; a phase when they are in
liminality between the old and the new groups; and the final phase when they have passed
successfully into their new group. Formal rites of passage can be found in the swearing-in ceremony
that marks a foreigner’s passage to full citizenship of a nation, and an employee’s need to complete
the rites of their company training programme in order to move from probation to full-employee
status. Informally, organizational folklore abounds with stories of ritual fun or humiliation that the
novice must bear in order to become fully accepted.
Chapter 3: Lifelong Learning
Some types of knowledge:
Some of the things we learn are information, some are skills, and academic disciplines, some are
stories. Learning is something that takes place in the head but also in the rest of the body. (like skiing
and playing the drums)
Common sense:
So obvious that we do not even think of it as knowing. We are bound to take some things for granted
because we cannot check everything the whole time.
Tacit knowing is both inevitable and useful, yet there are times when it stands in the way of learning.
Acquaintance and description:
Knowing by acquaintance (experiential knowledge) how a shopkeeper and shop-manager knows
the shop. Hard to test or even talk about.
Knowing by description (propositional knowledge) how a management theorist knows his or her
subject matter. That is through scientific theories and observations made by other people. Is open to
testing and proof.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller mchmeijvis. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $3.69. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
51036 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 15 years now