A case study of the socialization of engineers: How new engineers learn the social norms of organizations.

详细信息   

• 作者：Korte ; Russell F.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2007
• 导师：Yang, Baiyin
• 毕业院校：University of Minnesota
• 专业：Business Administration, Management.;Education, Adult and Continuing.;Education, Business.
• ISBN：9780549209898
• CBH：3279685
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：12500266
• Pages：242

文摘

The socialization process is a critical experience for newcomers as they begin employment with an organization. This qualitative study investigated how newly hired engineers (newcomers) learned the way things are done in the organization---specifically focused on the social norms of the organization. Social norms are the informal, unwritten rules that govern the behavior of members of the organization.;To understand better how newcomers learned the social norms of their organization, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 engineers recently hired by a large manufacturing organization. Through these interviews, newcomers' described their experiences of learning what to do, how to do it, and why it is done this way. From content and thematic analyses of the transcripts two major findings emerged: (a) relationship building with coworkers was the primary driver of the socialization process and (b) the various work groups were the primary context of the socialization process---not the organization. Relationship building is the mutual interaction between the newcomer and a coworker or manager leading to higher- or lower-quality relationships based on levels of trust, respect, interpersonal support, and mutual obligation.;The analysis of the data indicated that newcomers who developed high-quality relationships in their work groups learned more quickly and more deeply about their work roles, integrated more quickly into the work group, and implied higher levels of job satisfaction. Conversely, newcomers developing low-quality relationships experienced difficulty learning what to do and expressed higher levels of isolation and frustration in their jobs.;The findings of this study led to the development of a relational model of socialization that extends current socialization models by including relationship building as an important driver of the socialization process. A relational view of socialization has important implications for individuals, organizations, and the field of Human Resource Development. First, newcomers need to develop high-quality relationships with coworkers as soon as possible. Second, the organization must recognize that variance in socialization outcomes is related to variance in work group practices. Finally, the development of human resources in organizations ought to place greater emphasis on fostering high-quality relationships between newcomers and coworkers.