INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING OB

This chapter focuses on organizational culture and the socialization and mentoring that allow new members to become part of the culture of the organization. The Integrative Framework shows how culture functions as both an environmental input and an organizational process.

winning at work

“Employment site Glassdoor provides information on salaries, organizational cultures, and interview questions by using anonymous posts from employees and people seeking employment. In 2012 the company obtained 285,000 questions used by hiring managers. Here are the four most frequently asked interview questions: What’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite website? What’s the last book you read for fun? What makes you uncomfortable?¹

“WHY ARE COMPANIES ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?

“Although these questions have nothing to do with performance, recruiters ask them because they are trying to assess whether or not an applicant will “fit in” with the company’s culture. A recent study of people hiring undergraduate and graduate students revealed that more than 50 percent of the evaluators considered “fit” to be the most important criterion during the interview process.²

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “FIT”?

Person–environment fit (PE) reflects “the compatibility between an individual and a work environment that occurs when their characteristics are well matched.”³ Although there are many types of fit, we are interested in what is called person–organization fit (PO), which reflects the extent to which your personality and values match the climate and culture in an organization. PO fit is important because it is associated with more positive work attitudes and task performance and lower intentions to quit and stress.⁴

“HOW CAN YOU ASSESS “FIT”?

“It will take some effort on your part. First conduct an evaluation of your strengths, weaknesses, and values. Next, do the same for the company or department at hand by doing research about the company on the Internet or talking with current employees. This information will now enable you to prepare a set of diagnostic questions to ask during the interview process. These questions need to focus on determining your level of fit. For example, if you value recognition for hard work, then ask a recruiter how the company rewards performance. If the answer does not support a strong link between performance and rewards, you probably will have a low PE fit and will not be happy working at this company.

We have created a Take-Away Application later in this chapter to help you practice the process of assessing person–organization fit.

•Shared concept. Organizational culture consists of beliefs and values that are shared among a group of people.

•Learned over time. It is passed on to new employees through the process of socialization and mentoring, topics discussed later in this chapter.

•Influences our behavior at work. This is why “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

•Impacts outcomes at multiple levels. Culture affects outcomes at the individual, group/team, and organizational levels.

•The founder’s values

•The industry and business environment

•The national culture

•The organization’s vision and strategies

•The behavior of leaders

•Acronyms

•Manner of dress

•Awards

•Myths and stories told about the organization

•Published lists of values

•Observable rituals and ceremonies

•Special parking spaces

•Decorations

•Espoused values represent the explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization. They are generally established by the founder of a new or small company and by the top management team in a larger organization. Most companies have a short of list of espoused values. For example, Procter and Gamble’s list of values includes integrity, leadership, ownership, passion for winning, and trust.¹² In contrast, Google and Zappos have 10 espoused values.

EXAMPLEEnergy company BP, for instance, has long claimed that it values safety, yet the company had a refinery fire in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people in 2005. In 2006, a pipeline leak in Alaska lost over 200,000 gallons of crude, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf lost more than 200 million gallons according to the US government.¹³

•Enacted values represent the values and norms that actually are exhibited or converted into employee behavior. They represent the values that employees ascribe to an organization based on their observations of what occurs on a daily basis. It is important for managers to reduce gaps between espoused and enacted values because they can significantly influence employee attitudes and organizational performance.

EXAMPLEJuniper Networks spent considerable effort to align its espoused values of trust, delivering excellence, pursuing bold aspirations, and making a meaningful difference with employee behavior. The company started by selecting 200 employees from around the world to come up with a list of behaviors that exemplified each of the values. These behaviors were then infused into the human resource practices of hiring, training, evaluating, and promoting people. The company completely revamped its process of performance appraisal.

EXAMPLEUnilever Strives to Promote a Sustainability Culture

Employees at Unilever “say that doing good is in the company’s DNA.” This is what we call a basic underlying assumption!¹⁹

YOUR THOUGHTS?

1.What do you think was the driving force behind Polman’s desire to create a culture of sustainability?

2.Do you agree with Polman about the tangible business benefits of Unilever’s cultural values?

3.Whether you agree with Polman or not, was he wise to tell investors not to put money in the Unilever if they did not also buy into the Sustainable Living plan?

1.Organizational identity

2.Collective commitment

3.Social system stability

4.Sense-making device

TAKE-AWAY APPLICATION—TAAP Assessing the Levels of Culture at My Current Employer

EXAMPLEGoogle is the number 1 company to work for in 2014.²⁶ Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and CEO, describes the culture as a “family” environment. He said, “my job in the company is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society. . . . It’s important that the company be a family, that people feel that they’re part of the company, and that the company is like a family to them. When you treat people that way, you get better productivity.”²⁷ Google also holds weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings so that employees can ask Larry, Sergey Brin—a Google co-founder—and other executives questions about anything involving the company. This practice enhances employee communication and morale, two aspects of a clan culture.

EXAMPLEEdward Jones, the privately held financial services firm, was ranked as the 4th best company to work for in 2014. Edward Jones has over 11,000 small offices and 7 million clients worldwide. The company maintains a close-knit culture by using a variety of celebratory events. Its 8% turnover rate is one of the lowest in the industry and more than 33% of its financial advisors are more than 50 years old.²⁸

EXAMPLEBiopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca “is experimenting with new ways to organize research to improve productivity. Scientists now are responsible for candidate drugs until they begin the final human trials, ending a culture of handing off early-stage products to other researchers as if on an assembly line.”³⁰

EXAMPLEThe Tata group, a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, India, has 100 operating companies in more than 80 countries. Tata takes innovation so seriously that it developed an “Innometer.” The conglomerate measures creative goals and accomplishments vs. domestic or global benchmarks while instilling a sense of urgency among employees.³¹

EXAMPLEGrupo Bimbo is the world’s largest bakery company. Bimbo managers operate in a low-margin business and thus focus heavily on execution. “Profits depend heavily on getting the right amount of highly perishable products to stores at the right moment and at a reasonable cost. . . . For instance, it uses tricycle delivery bikes in urban areas of China where streets are too narrow for trucks, a practice it first implemented in Latin America.”³² The company operates 171 plants and delivers over 10,000 products across 22 countries.

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EXAMPLECanada’s Bombardier is the largest train manufacturer in the world. Bombardier’s culture focuses on the importance of setting and achieving goals. CEO Pierre Beaudoin said, “Connecting goals to each person’s day-to-day work is important. . . . What I like most, though, is that we now have an organization that wants to get better. And that’s the key. We always talk about why we’re not there yet; we’re on a journey—how close are we to those world-class metrics. We used to make excuses for why our performance was good enough. Today we say, ‘what will it take to get to world class?’” Can you see the cultural focus on productivity, goal achievement, and competitiveness?³³

EXAMPLEConsider the positive example of Mumbai’s dabbawalas, individuals who deliver prepared meals to customers’ homes or offices and then return empty dabbas—metal lunch boxes—later in the day. To do their jobs effectively, dabbawalas rely on a hierarchical culture (see the Problem-Solving Application).

EXAMPLEConsider the negative impact at General Motors. Mary Barra, GM’s former product officer and current CEO, has been “attacking GM’s bureaucracy, slashing the number of required HR reports by 90 percent and shrinking the company’s employee policy manual by 80 percent. But loosening the dress code drew a flood of calls and e-mails from employees asking if they could, in fact, wear jeans.” The answer was yes. “Barra saw the dress code, along with other changes, as an opportunity to have a conversation about responsibility. ‘There was a culture in the past where the rule was the rule and when you weren’t empowered to make the decision you could all just complain about the rule. Well, now we were really empowering virtually every single person,’ Barra says.” One of her major goals is to reduce the complexity associated with producing cars.³⁵ This means that she wants more flexibility, which is a component of either a clan or adhocracy culture. Bara was promoted to the CEO position at GM in January 2014.

Does It Work? Yes. Not only does this work system result in the reliable distribution of lunches, but the dabbawalas tend to stay in the same work group their entire working lives. Employees genuinely care about each other.³⁶

YOUR CALL

Stop 1:What is the major problem dabbawalas want to avoid?

Stop 2:What OB concepts help explain why the dabbawalas are effective?

Stop 3:Would you recommend a similar system for a comparable firm in the United States? Explain.

EXAMPLE3M is a global innovation company that is structured around five business groups. 3M tried to merge competing cultural characteristics from an adhocracy with those from a hierarchy. Reflecting an adhocracy culture, 3M released 1,000 new products in 2009, and it awards annual Genesis Grants, “worth as much as $100,000, to company scientists for research. The money is allocated by their peers and is spent on projects for which ‘no sensible, conventional person in the company would give money,’” says Chris Holmes, a 3M division vice president. The company has a goal to generate 30 percent of its revenue from products developed in the last five years. In contrast, 3M pursued a hierarchical culture by implementing quality management techniques to reduce waste and defects and increase efficiency. Although 3M achieved better efficiency and earnings in the short run, new product revenue decreased and scientists complained that the quality initiatives were choking off innovation. One engineer quipped that “it’s really tough to schedule invention.” 3M’s CEO, George Buckley, was made aware of these cultural conflicts and decided to reduce the conflict within company labs by decreasing hierarchical policies/procedures while simultaneously increasing those related to adhocracy. The company continues to emphasize quality and reliability in its factories. To date, results indicate a successful transition as the company achieved both its efficiency and new product revenue goals in 2010.³⁷

SELF-ASSESSMENT 14.1 What Is the Organizational Culture at My Current Employer?

1.Leaders are the architects and developers of organizational culture. This suggests that culture is not determined by fate. It is formed and shaped by the ongoing behavior of everyone who works at a company. Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines, noted that culture change is not formulaic. “It’s not a job that you do for six months and then you just say, ‘Well that’s behind us.’ It’s something you do every day.”⁴⁰

2.Changing culture starts with targeting one of the three levels of organizational culture—observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions. The fastest way to start a culture change project is through the use of observable artifacts. For example, if you wanted to foster a market culture, you could post graphs of performance metrics around the office. These charts would reinforce the importance of high performance. That said, culture will not change in a significant way unless managers are able to change basic underlying assumptions.⁴¹ It takes time to change this deep-seated aspect of culture.

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3.Consider how closely the current culture aligns with the organization’s vision and strategic plan. Remember the quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast” whenever you pursue culture change. It is essential that an organization’s culture is consistent with its vision and strategic goals. A vision represents a long-term goal that describes “what” an organization wants to become. A strategic plan outlines an organization’s long-term goals and the actions necessary to achieve those goals.

4.Use a structured approach when implementing culture change. Chapter 16 can help you in this regard as it presents several models that provide specific steps to follow when implementing any type of organizational change. Our experience as consultants tells us that culture change is frequently met with resistance. This happens because people become accustomed to the culture and they prefer to leave things as they are. Chapter 16 outlines several techniques you can use to overcome such resistance.

1. Formal StatementsThis method for embedding culture relies on using formal statements of organizational philosophy, mission, vision, values, and materials used for recruiting, selection, and socialization: They represent observable artifacts.

2. The Design of Physical Space, Work Environments, and BuildingsPhysical spacing among people and buildings and the location of office furniture are different ways to send messages about culture. For example, an open office environment is more appropriate for an organization that wants to foster collaboration.

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TABLE 14.1TWELVE MECHANISMS FOR CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

3. Slogans, Language, Acronyms, and SayingsThese elements of corporate culture often have a profound effect on the organization over time because they are easy to remember and repeat.

4. Deliberate Role Modeling, Training Programs, Teaching, and Coaching by Others Many companies structure training to provide an in-depth introduction about their organizational values’ basic underlying assumptions.

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5. Explicit Rewards, Status Symbols, and Promotion CriteriaThis mechanism has a strong impact on employees due to its highly visible and meaningful nature. Reward systems are one of the strongest ways to embed organizational culture. It is important to remember what you learned about motivation in Chapter 5 when attempting to change culture via rewards. It is essential to consider the various forms of justice.

6. Stories, Legends, or Myths About Key People and EventsStorytelling is a powerful way to send messages to others about the values and behaviors that are desired by the organization.

EXAMPLEAt the Olive Garden, “leaders share with staff members letters from customers describing how they chose to celebrate meaningful events at the company’s restaurants.” The company believes that sharing these stories “is a powerful reminder of the value of continued quality improvements and innovation,” which promotes beliefs and behaviors associated with hierarchy and adhocracy cultures.⁵⁰

EXAMPLEAllianz Life Insurance encourages employees to share stories about their work experiences with coworkers. “Favorite” stories are then considered for a reward of up to $500.⁵¹ Such stories might be used to support any of the four cultural types.

EXAMPLEWhen Ron Sargent took over as chief executive of Staples, he wanted to increase the focus on customer service. He started by investigating what values the office supply retailer’s employees already held, and they told him they cared about helping others. Sargent used that value as the basis for developing their skill in serving customers. Staples began teaching employees more about the products they sell and now offers bonuses for team performance. Sargent also pays frequent visits to stores so he can talk directly to employees about what customers like and dislike.⁵² Sargent’s actions would clearly promote an adhocracy and market-based culture.

EXAMPLEBP’s new CEO after the Gulf oil spill—Bob Dudley—responded quickly to criticism that the company valued profit and efficiency more than safety—a focus on a market rather than hierarchy culture. In order to foster more of a hierarchical culture, he sent a memo to all employees indicating “that safety would be the sole criterion for rewarding employee performance in its operating business for the fourth quarter.”⁵⁴ These types of rewards will need to be offered long term if the company truly wants to change employees’ basic underlying assumptions regarding safety.

EXAMPLEEmployees at Boston advertising agency Arnold Worldwide like to meet at a beer vending machine in the office, nicknamed Arnie, after completing the day’s meetings with clients. “As they sip bottles of home-brewed beer, employees exchange ideas and chitchat, often sticking around the office instead of heading to a nearby bar.” While this ritual can surely facilitate clan, adhocracy, and market cultures, organizations need to be careful about encouraging drinking at work. Employment lawyers caution that drinking at work “can lead to driving intoxicated, assault, sexual harassment or rape. Plus, it may make some employees uncomfortable while excluding others, such as those who don’t drink for health or religious reasons.”⁵⁵

EXAMPLESalo LLC Uses Rites and Rituals to Embed a Clan and Market Culture

RITUALS ALSO USED TO AVOID JINXING A DEALSalo employees have developed rituals aimed at increasing sales. Managing director Gwen Martin said, “When we are about to lock a deal down, it’s bad luck to high-five each other, because you might jinx it.” But some acknowledgment seemed appropriate. “So you do a ‘pinkie-five’ instead.”⁵⁶

YOUR THOUGHTS?

1.How are clan and market cultures being reinforced by Salo?

2.How comfortable would you be working at a company like Salo that so overtly organizes culture around rites, rituals, and even the need to avoid jinxes?

3.Which industries are the best fit for Salo’s cultural approach, and why?

EXAMPLENovartis AG changed its organizational structure to foster the creativity and productivity associated with adhocracy and market cultures. “Leaders are seeing results from cross-functional product development teams. Job rotation and cross-training are also successful. Creating informal networking opportunities sounds trivial, but the evidence is strong that relationships heavily impact productivity and creativity.”⁵⁷

EXAMPLEPfizer consolidated its compliance systems by combining “separate departments around the world into one office, based in New York, which reports to the company’s chief executive.”

EXAMPLEXylem created a global anticorruption program. “It placed ‘oversight committees’ in each of the company’s three divisions to help implement the program. The groups report to a broader oversight committee at the company’s headquarters in White Plains, N.Y.”⁵⁹

EXAMPLEEmployees of Canada-based International Fitness Holdings, a health club group, use a Facebook-like application to “recognize peers by posting messages to a public ‘team wall’ as well as through private e-mails. . . . Each employee receives an annual bank of 300 Kudos points to award to coworkers. Once awarded, these points may be traded for prizes such as paid time off, gas cards or restaurant gift certificates.” Employees can allocate points in 5-to-50-point increments depending on the importance of the behavior.⁶¹ What type of culture would this system promote?

EXAMPLEIn San Francisco, Hearsay Social Inc., a social-media software company, uses online technology to collect peer performance feedback, which can promote any of the four culture types in the CVF. The feedback in turn is used to determine employees’ performance evaluation. Managers feel that the performance evaluations are more accurate because they are based on input from multiple people.⁶²

EXAMPLELifeSize Communications, a video conferencing company in Austin, Texas, uses an internal online network to promote collaboration (clan) and increased sales (market). A salesperson recently used the system to close a deal. The person wanted “advice about how to sell a product against a competitor.” To get ideas, the salesperson logged onto the network “to access content posted by a LifeSize partner in South Africa. It describes an approach he used to win business against that competitor.”⁶³

EXAMPLEZappos Works Hard to Recruit and Select People Who Fit Its Culture

“We can’t ask people to wow a customer if they haven’t been wowed by us,” says Ratner. Zappos is so eager to wow employees and make sure who they hire is committed that they offer people $3,000 after they’ve been trained to walk away if they feel they and Zappos aren’t a good fit. Almost no one takes the $3,000 walk-away money. But many trainees return for more Zappos training to become managers.⁶⁴

YOUR THOUGHTS?

1.Why would Zappos’s approach to recruiting result in greater person–organization fit?

2.As a potential employee, what would your concerns be attending a happy hour as part of your employer’s selection process?

3.Identify one of the unique things that Zappos does in its recruitment, and explain how that one thing adds to culture.

SELF-ASSESSMENT 14.2 What Type of Organizational Culture Do I Prefer?

TAKE-AWAY APPLICATION—TAAP What Is My Level of Person–Organization Fit?

1.Anticipatory socialization

2.Encounter

3.Change and acquisition

EXAMPLEThe Hilton Baltimore demonstrates to housekeeping job applicants how to make a bed. The company then asks the applicant to do it him/herself. Tishuana Hodge, regional director of HR, said, “We can see who is genuinely interested and physically up to the challenge” after the RJP.⁶⁸

EXAMPLE“Applicants of the Idaho State Police are introduced to the sights and sounds of a law enforcement environment, bringing them into immediate contact with future colleagues—and unsavory characters that create a need for police.”⁶⁹

EXAMPLEAT&T, which has used RJPs for over 20 years, uses face-to-face meetings and videos to provide applicants RJPs. “One of its newer live realistic job previews gives insight to potential technicians responsible for installing AT&T’s fiber optic technology and computer networking. Technicians also teach customers how to use the merchandise.” AT&T does this because it needs “someone who has the technical knowledge to install the product and who can also deliver premier customer service.”⁷⁰

EXAMPLECompanies Use Different Approaches to Onboard Employees

FACEBOOK USES A BOOTCAMPFacebook asks new hires to complete all necessary paperwork prior to starting work. This enables the company to send new employees right into its “Bootcamp” program. This six-week program is used for new engineering recruits. Bootcampers are first given a computer and desk and then are asked to open their laptops. They generally find six e-mails. “One welcomes them to the company; the other five describe tasks they’re supposed to perform, including fixing bugs on the Facebook site.” The program has multiple goals. One is to establish the belief that employees “have the power to push changes directly onto the Facebook site. . . . Another is to foster independence and creativity. At Facebook there isn’t one way to solve problems; there are many—and everyone is encouraged to come up with his own approach.” Bootcampers also are paired up with mentors who coach employees on how to best get through the first few weeks.⁷⁴

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ROVER.COM, RACKSPACE INC., AND BAZAARVOICE USE NOVEL METHODS

Dog-boarding site Rover.com asks new developers to create live updates on the company’s website on their first day at work. Web-hosting firm Rackspace uses a four-day orientation complete with “games, skits, costumes, thumping music, and a limbo bar” to onboard its new employees. Bazaarvoice, a company that markets social commerce solutions to business problems, “sends incoming employees on a weeklong scavenger hunt designed to bring them up to speed on company culture and lingo.”⁷⁵

These individuals are playing a game at an onboarding session. How can playing games help someone adjust during the encounter phase?

APPLE FOCUSES ON SECRECY

Apple’s onboarding is a combination of a standard orientation, challenges, secrecy threats, and peer coaching. “Many employees are hired into so-called dummy positions, roles that aren’t explained in detail until after they join the company.” New employees are given very limited information outside of the half-day orientation that includes a welcome package containing all the paperwork to be completed. For example, employees are not taught how to connect their newly issued computers to the network. It is assumed that this complicated endeavor is no big deal for tech-savvy individuals. Employees also are given a “secrecy briefing,” which is referred to as Scared Silent. Employees are warned about the importance of secrecy and security and are told that swift termination comes to anyone who talks about Apple’s secrets outside of work. Apple does help hew employees in one important way. They are assigned an “iBuddy,” a peer outside the primary work team “who can serve as a sounding board, someone for the bewildered new employee to ask questions.”⁷⁶

AMERICAN INFRASTRUCTURE LIKES THE BUDDY SYSTEM

This civil construction, mining, and manufacturing company assigns new employees an onboarding “buddy.” The buddy is supposed to help the recruit learn about the corporate culture “and to provide them with the opportunity to ask questions, gain clarification, and share best practices from their previous organizations.” All new employees also are required “to wear a ‘green’ hard hat on all of their job locations for the first 90 days in order to signal to their fellow employees that they are new to the organization.” This enables new employees to be treated with special care and concern at active jobsites.⁷⁷

YOUR THOUGHTS?

1.Which of these onboarding methods is most appealing to you? Why?

2.Which of these onboarding methods is least appealing to you? Why?

3.What are the drawbacks of Apple’s approach of hiring employees into dummy positions (for reasons of secrecy)? What are the trade-offs?

EXAMPLESocialization at Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH) is driven by the need to reduce turnover among new employees. The goal is to reduce new employee turnover by 50 percent. Support is provided in two ways. First, all new employees are assigned an MCH “buddy” who is trained in communication, coaching, and mentoring skills. New recruits shadow their buddy for the first 40 hours at work and then meet weekly to discuss any issues that come up. New employees also are supported by their direct supervision through this phase. This is facilitated by mandatory lunch meetings at 30- and 60-day milestones to discuss the onboarding experience. For feedback on the newcomer’s transition, the hospital uses an online survey that employees complete at 30, 60, and 90 days. Results are reviewed monthly by management and further actions are taken whenever the socialization process appears to be failing. These results also are used to motivate the buddies, who are rewarded when the new hire rates the onboarding experience as effective. Finally, “new employees reunite at 90 days for a two-day culture-shaping retreat where they get to engage with their peers and experience the ‘MCH Way.’ This includes a graduation celebration that is attended by senior leaders and managers.”⁷⁹

SELF-ASSESSMENT 14.3 Have You Been Adequately Socialized?

1.Effective onboarding programs result in increased retention, productivity, and rates of task completion for new hires.⁸⁰ This reinforces the conclusion that managers should avoid a haphazard, sink-or-swim approach to organizational socialization because formalized and proactive socialization tactics positively affect new hires.⁸¹

2.More and more organizations use socialization tactics to reinforce a culture that promotes ethical behavior. Managers are encouraged to consider how they might best set expectations regarding ethical behavior during all three phases of the socialization process.⁸²

3.Managers need to help new hires integrate within the organizational culture and overcome the stress associated with working in a new environment. The type of orientation program used to socialize employees affects their expectations and behavior. A study of 72 new Asian international graduate students revealed that they had more accurate expectations, felt less stress, reported better adjustment, and had higher retention rates when the orientation program focused on coping with new-entry stress.⁸³ Consider the approach used by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems: “He meets with groups of new hires to welcome them soon after they start, and at monthly breakfast meetings workers are encouraged to ask him tough questions.”⁸⁴

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TABLE 14.2SOCIALIZATION TACTICS

4.Support for stage models is mixed. Although there are different stages of socialization, they are not identical in order, length, or content for all people or jobs.⁸⁵ Managers are advised to use a contingency approach toward organizational socialization. In other words, different techniques are appropriate for different people at different times.

5.Managers should pay attention to the socialization of diverse employees. Research has demonstrated that diverse employees, particularly those with disabilities, experienced different socialization activities than other newcomers. In turn, these different experiences affected their long-term success and job satisfaction.⁸⁶

1.You should foster a broad developmental network because the number and quality of your contacts will influence your career success. In doing this, keep in mind the comments of two networking experts: “Relationships are living, breathing things. Feed, nurture, and care about them; they grow. Neglect them; they die.⁹³ It’s very important to invest time in your developmental relationships.

2.Look to the consistency or congruence between your career goals and the type of developmental network at your disposal. This alignment has a big influence on job and career satisfaction. For example, if you are interested in a job in finance, then try to develop relationships with people with a finance background. If you want to start your own business one day, try to network with a diverse group of people. This should help broaden your understanding of what it takes to start a business.

3.A developer’s willingness to provide career and psychosocial assistance depends on the protégé/protégée’s ability and potential and the quality of the interpersonal relationship.⁹⁴ Research also shows that the quality of the mentoring relationship is likely to be higher when the parties have common values and personality characteristics.⁹⁵This implies that you must take ownership for enhancing your skills, abilities, and developmental networks as well as your interpersonal relationships if you desire to experience career advancement throughout your life. You will find that you get what you give. Don’t just contact mentors when you want something. Build and maintain relationships by continuing to have regular contact with people in your developmental network.

4.Become proficient at using social networking tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Data from Jobvite and LinkedIn reveal that the majority of US companies use social networking sites to help recruit employees.⁹⁶ It’s also important to stay active on these sites. For example, when you learn from a LinkedIn note that someone is celebrating a birthday or work anniversary, send them a note. People like to feel appreciated for who they are rather than for what they can do for you.

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5.Develop a mentoring plan. Experts suggest that this plan should include the following components:⁹⁷

•Identify and prioritize your mentoring goals. These goals should be based on a determination of what you want to learn.

•Identify people who are skilled or experienced in areas you want to improve. Don’t overlook your peers as they are a good source of functional, technical, and organizational knowledge.

•Determine how best to build a relationship with these “targeted” individuals.

•Determine how you can provide value to your mentor. Because mentoring is a two-way street, others are more likely to help you if they see some value in assisting you in the pursuit of your career goals.

•Determine when it is time to move on. Mentors are not forever. If you believe that your mentor is ineffective, or worse yet, causing more harm than benefit, find a new mentor. It’s easy to become stuck with one mentor. Expanding your horizons will not only benefit you, but it can help the mentor to develop his or her mentoring skills as well.

6.Incorporate mentoring into the organization’s leadership development programs. Disney, Walsh Construction, and LMA Consulting all obtained long-lasting positive benefits by formally including mentoring into employees’ personal development plans.⁹⁸

SELF-ASSESSMENT 14.4 Assessing My Level of Mentoring

what did i learn?

Key Points for Understanding Chapter 14

You learned the following key points.

•Culture is a shared concept that is learned over time. It also influences our behavior at work and outcomes at multiple levels.

•The three levels of organizational culture are observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions.

•Espoused values represent the explicitly stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization. Enacted values, in contrast, reflect the values and norms that actually are exhibited or converted into employee behavior.

•Four functions of organizational culture are organizational identity, collective commitment, social system stability, and a device for sense-making.

•The competing values framework identifies four different types of organizational culture. A clan culture has an employee focus. Adhocracy and market cultures have external foci that emphasize innovation/growth and market share/profitability, respectively. Hierarchical cultures are internally focused on efficiency and smooth functioning.

•There are five conclusions about outcomes associated with organizational culture: (1) culture is related to measures of organizational effectiveness; (2) employees are more satisfied and committed to companies with clan cultures; (3) innovation and quality can be increased by building characteristics associated with clan, adhocracy, and market cultures; (4) an organization’s financial performance is not strongly related to culture; and (5) companies with market cultures tend to have more positive organizational outcomes.

•There are four caveats about culture change. First, leaders are the architects and developers of organizational culture. Second, the process of culture change begins with targeting the three layers of culture. Third, culture needs to be aligned with a company’s vision and strategic plan. Finally, it is important to use a structured approach when implementing culture change.

•There are 12 key ways that managers can change organizational culture.

•Person–organization fit is important because it is associated with positive work attitudes and performance.

•Organization socialization is a key mechanism used by organizations to embed their organizational cultures. It turns outsiders into fully functioning insiders.

•Daniel Feldman proposed a three-phase model of socialization. The three phases are anticipatory socialization, encounter, and change and acquisition.

•There are six socialization tactics. They are collective versus individual, formal versus informal, sequential versus random, fixed versus variable, serial versus disjunctive, and investiture versus divestiture.

•Research supports a number of practical applications of socialization tactics.

•Mentoring serves to embed organizational culture for two reasons. First, mentoring contributes to creating a sense of oneness by promoting the acceptance of the organization’s values. Second, the socialization aspect of mentoring promotes a sense of membership.

•Mentoring has two general functions: career and psychosocial.

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•Current models of mentoring view it as a developmental network of relationships that help people to learn and develop.

•There are four key developmental networks underlying effective mentoring. A receptive network is composed of a few weak ties from one social system. Having a few strong ties with developers from one social system is referred to as a traditional network. An entrepreneurial network is made up of strong ties among several developers. An opportunistic network is associated with having weak ties from different social systems.

•There are six important personal and organizational implications of effective mentoring.

The Integrative Framework for Chapter 14

As shown in Figure 14.7, you learned that the input of national and corporate culture as an environmental characteristic drives organizational-level processes of culture, socialization, and mentoring. These processes affect five outcomes across the individual, group/team, and organizational levels.

Challenge: Major Questions for Chapter 14

At the start of the chapter, we told you that after reading the chapter you should be able to answer the following questions. Unless you can, have you really processed and internalized the lessons in the chapter? Refer to the Key Points, Figure 14.7, the chapter itself, and your notes to revisit and answer the following major questions:

1.What is culture and why is it important to understand its layers and functions?

2.To what extent are the different types of organizational culture related to important outcomes?

3.What are the mechanisms I can use to implement culture change?

4.How can the practical lessons of socialization research be integrated within the three phases of socialization?

5.What are the four developmental networks and how can I use them to advance my career?

FIGURE 14.7INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING OB

PROBLEM-SOLVING APPLICATION CASE (PSAC)

Response on the street has continued to be positive. As of this writing, Yahoo! has seen its stock price rise by over 100 percent. Investors applaud Mayer and her plans—and they drove the stock even higher after revenue reports for the third quarter of 2013 exceeded expectation.⁹⁹

Industry Watchers: Hopeful

When Yahoo! announced Mayer’s appointment, many industry watchers immediately had high hopes that she would help Yahoo! gain some Google mojo to drive netizen traffic. Rafe Needleman at CNET is representative of such opinion, when he set out what he saw as the top five issues at Yahoo!. Google and culture make his list several times in comparison to Yahoo!:

•Engineering Culture. “The best Google services are fast, functional, and continually tested and improved as time goes on.”

•Organizational Culture. Needleman quotes Salim Ismael, one critic of Yahoo!’s organizational structure: “On the Internet you need speed and you need to take risks. Yahoo! accidentally adopted a matrix organization structure that’s antithetical to both.” (Authors’ note: We discuss matrix organizational design in Chapter 15.)

•Killing Projects. Google “maintains an optimism about its direction even as it chops down its underperformers.”

•Long-Term Visions. Needleman suggests that Google can weather setbacks (as with Google’s attempts in social media) because it commits to a long-term vision.

•Culture of Experimentation. Google tries many things, from self-driving cars to eyeglasses that augment reality. Such pure research can pay off in unexpected ways. However, he notes Yahoo! doesn’t have Google’s fat wallet to fund such R&D.¹⁰⁰

Yahoo!’s Long Problems with Focus

From one point of view, all of Yahoo!’s challenges can be linked to a well-discussed lack of focus. In 2006 The New York Times published an article critical of Yahoo!,¹⁰¹ and in response Brad Garlinghouse, then a Yahoo! senior vice president, wrote an internal memo published by The Wall Street Journal.

Garlinghouse also notes the organizational result of this cultural dilemma:

A succession of Yahoo! CEOs have tried to fix Yahoo! in this regard. How has Mayer fared?

Mayer’s First-Year Report Card

After her first year at Yahoo!, Forbes graded Mayer’s performance across its own set of categories:

•Advertising [Revenue]: D. Yahoo! was still struggling with reversing declines in ad revenue while its competitors were increasing revenue.

•Earnings: C. Revenues were flat in 2012 and declined in the first part of 2013. (This was prior to a bump in the third quarter of 2013.)

•Products: B−. Forbes liked the increase in decisions to kill old products (like Altavista) and bring new products to market.

•Acquisitions: B. Forbes called out the acquisition of Tumblr, among others.

•Morale: B+. Forbes noted that former employees were returning and job applications were way up.

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An OB View of Mayer’s Performance

From an OB perspective, looking at Mayer’s first 16 months, we can note the following achievements. Mayer has:

•Opened up communications and transparency including frequent internal and public announcements, bolstered internally with a Friday FYI “ask anything” session with employees.¹⁰³

•Used PR to leverage her (perhaps enhanced) legend of achievement at Google to inspire investors and the troops at Yahoo!.

•Removed some business-only executives and replaced them with tech- and product-savvy employees.

•Restored Yahoo! as an employer of choice.¹⁰⁴

•Energized Yahoo! engineers into optimism about the future.¹⁰⁵

•Made the tough change in telecommuting policy to help make Yahoo! more productive. (See discussion below.)

•Addressed Yahoo!’s lack of a social community (and outflanked Google) by purchasing Tumblr.¹⁰⁶

About That Telecommuting Decision, Other Bumps in the Road

You have already read about Mayer’s decision to ban telecommuting for most employees in Chapter 2’s Problem-Solving Application on Yahoo! (see page 77). We can now reconsider this controversial decision in the context of the need to change Yahoo!’s comfortable and staid culture. Here’s Forbes magazine on the topic:

Mayer’s decisions will continue to generate controversy, from a fashion shoot in Vogue magazine to the teleconferencing decision to reengineering the e-mail structure.¹⁰⁸ Early in 2014 Mayer fired her hand-picked COO based on lackluster sales.¹⁰⁹ While bumps in the road are to be expected, the true test will be how well Yahoo! stays on course and makes corrections. As an example, following the decision on telecommuting, Mayer reclaimed some lost support among employees when she significantly expanded parental leave benefits.¹¹⁰ The decision was announced in May 2013, the month before the telecommuting policy took effect.

Apply the 3-Stop Problem-Solving Approach to OB

Stop 1: What is the problem?

•Use the Integrative Framework of OB (see Figure 14.7) to help identify the outcomes that are important in this case.

•Which of these outcomes are not being achieved in the case?

•Based on considering the above two questions, what is the most important problem in this case?

Stop 2: Use the Integrative Model of OB shown at the start of this chapter to help identify the OB concepts or theories that help you to understand the problem in this case.

Stop 3: What are your recommendations for solving the problem?

LEGAL/ETHICAL CHALLENGE

The scandal revolved around whether or not the school’s Department of African and Afro-American Studies offered courses that never met and sponsored hundreds of independent study classes of limited value to student athletes. The university did an internal review and, as reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, determined the department “offered more than 200 lecture courses that never met. The department also sponsored hundreds of independent study classes of dubious value. Internal reviews have identified forged faculty signatures and more than 500 grades changed without authorization. The students affected were disproportionately football and basketball players.”¹¹¹

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College athletics is a $16 billion industry, and schools enjoy the related revenues in light of their nonprofit, tax- exempt status as organizations dedicated to education and research. This means that it is important for the “stars” to keep playing and win games.

Management at UNC took action and eight employees either resigned or were fired, including the chancellor. The new chancellor, Carol Foyt, initially resisted calls for further investigation, but changed her mind in January 2014. An investigation is currently taking place.

The scandal was exposed by Mary Willingham, a campus reading specialist. Mary told reporters that she and other academic advisers “knowingly steered some of their charges into the fake classes to keep the sports stars eligible.” She said that “18 out of about 180 athletes whose records she assessed could be considered to read at a grammar school level.”¹¹² Willingham’s comments resulted in her being demoted and stripped of her supervisory title and public condemnation by some school officials. For example, James Dean Jr., the executive vice chancellor and provost, said that “Mary Willingham has done our students a great disservice.” He initially declared that Willingham was a liar, but later apologized stating that he had misspoken. Head basketball coach Roy Williams said that “Willingham had impugned the moral character of his players.” He claimed that “every one of the kids that we’ve recruited in 10 years you’d take home and let guard your grandchildren.” Sadly, Willingham has in turn received e-mails containing death threats, and recent reports in Businessweek reveal that Dean continues to attack Willingham in internal meetings.¹¹³

Solving the Dilemma

Assume that you are the chancellor; what would you do at this point in the case?

1.Acknowledge wrongdoing, reinstate Mary Willingham to her former position, and continue the internal investigation.

2.Acknowledge wrongdoing, but Mary stays where she is. She should not have blown the whistle to local reporters without first going to upper management at the university.

3.Reprimand both James Dean and the basketball coach for their comments, and continue the internal investigation.

4.Invent other options.

GROUP EXERCISE

Your instructor will divide the class into groups of four to six people. Each group member should then complete the Cultural Assessment Worksheet by him- or herself. It asks you to identify the artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions that are present at your current school. You may find it useful to reread the material on layers of organizational culture discussed earlier. When everyone is done, meet as a group and share the information contained on your individual worksheets. Create a summary worksheet based on a consensus of the cultural characteristics present at each level of culture. Next, compare the information contained on the summary worksheet with the cultural descriptions shown in Figure 14.3 and discuss what type of culture your school possesses. Again, strive to obtain a consensus opinion. Finally, the group should answer the discussion questions that follow the Cultural Assessment Worksheet.

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Cultural Assessment Worksheet

Questions for Discussion

1.What are the group’s consensus artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions? Are you surprised by anything on this list? Explain.

2.What type of culture does your school possess? Do you like this organizational culture? Discuss why or why not.

3.Do you think the organizational culture identified in question 2 is best suited for maximizing your learning? Explain your rationale.

4.Is your school in need of any cultural change? If yes, discuss why and recommend how the school’s