Johns 10e Irm Ch08

CHAPTER 8
SOCIAL INFLUENCE, SOCIALIZATION, AND

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading Chapter 8, students should be able to:

LO8.1 Understand the difference between information dependence and effect
dependence, and differentiate compliance, identification, and internalization as
motives for social conformity.
LO8.2 Describe the socialization process and the stages of organizational socialization.
LO8.3 Describe the implications of unrealistic expectations and the psychological
contract for socialization.
LO8.4 Describe the main methods of socialization and how newcomers can be proactive
in their socialization.
LO8.5 Define organizational culture and discuss the assets and liabilities of strong
cultures.
LO8.6 Discuss the contributors to an organization’s culture.
LO8.7 Describe how to diagnose an organizational culture.
CHAPTER OUTLINES AND TEACHING NOTES
Social Influence in Organizations

Groups exert influence on the attitudes and behaviours of their individual members to a
large extent because people are highly dependent on others in social settings. This
dependence sets the stage for influence to occur.
Information Dependence and Effect Dependence

We are frequently dependent on others for information about the adequacy and
appropriateness of our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings. Information dependence is an
individual’s reliance on others for information about how to think, feel, and act. This
dependence allows others to influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions via the signals
they send to us. The process through which this occurs is explained by social information
processing theory. According to social information processing theory, information from
others is used to interpret events and develop expectations about appropriate and
acceptable attitudes and behaviours. Individuals are often motivated to compare their own
thoughts, feelings, and actions with those of others as a means of acquiring information
about their adequacy. The effects of social comparison can be very strong, often exerting
as much or more influence over others as objective reality. Thus, individual behaviour is
influenced and shaped by others.
An individual is also dependent on the effects of his or her behaviour as determined by

the rewards and punishments provided by others. Effect dependence refers to the reliance
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8-2 Johns/Saks, Organizational Behaviour, Tenth Edition
on others due to their capacity to provide rewards and punishment. Two factors promote
such effect dependence. First, the group frequently has a vested interest in how individual
members think and act because this can affect the goal attainment of the group. Second,
the member frequently desires the approval of the group. In combination, these
circumstances promote effect dependence. Both managers and co-workers have a variety
of effects to keep individual members “under the influence.”
The Social Influence Process and Conformity

Much of the information and many of the effects on which group members depend are
oriented toward enforcing social norms that have been established by the group. Much of
the information and many of the effects on which group members are dependent are
oriented toward enforcing group norms. There are three different motives for social
conformity.
Compliance is the simplest, most direct motive for conformity. It involves conformity to
a social norm prompted by the desire to acquire rewards or avoid punishment. Individuals
adjust their behaviour to a norm without really subscribing to the beliefs, values, and
attitudes that underlie the norm. As such, it primarily involves effect dependence and
reveals sensitivity to rewards and punishment.
Identification involves conformity to a social norm prompted by perceptions that those

who promote the norm are attractive or similar to oneself. Such identification is often
revealed by an imitation process in which established members serve as models for the
behaviour of others. Although there are elements of effect dependence here, information
dependence is especially important.
Internalization is conformity to a social norm prompted by true acceptance of the beliefs,

values, and attitudes that underlie the norm. Conformity occurs because it is seen as right
not because of rewards and punishments. It is due to internal rather than external forces.
The motives for social conformity show that simple compliance can set the stage for
more complete identification and involvement with organizational norms and roles. The
process through which this occurs in organizations is known as organizational
socialization.
Organizational Socialization
Socialization is the process by which people learn the attitudes, knowledge, and
behaviours that are necessary to function in a group or organization. Socialization is a
learning process and one of the primary means by which organizations communicate the
organization’s culture and values to new members.
The socialization process is shown in Exhibit 8.1 of the text. It shows how different
socialization methods (realistic job previews, employee orientation programs,
socialization tactics, mentoring, proactive behaviours) influence immediate or proximal
socialization outcomes (learning, task mastery, social integration, role conflict, role

Chapter 8 Social Influence, Socialization, and Culture 8-3
ambiguity, and person–job fit, person–organization fit, and person-group fit). The
proximal outcomes then lead to distal or longer-term outcomes (job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, organizational identification, organizational citizenship
behaviour, job performance, stress, and turnover).
Learning during socialization has often been described in terms of content areas or
domains of learning such as the task, role, group, and organization domain. One of the
goals of socialization is to provide new hires with information and knowledge about their
role to avoid problems of role conflict and role ambiguity.
An important objective of organizational socialization is for newcomers to achieve a

good fit. There are three kinds of fit. Person–job fit (PJ fit) refers to the match between
an employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and the requirements of a job. Person–
organization fit (PO fit) refers to the match between an employee’s personal values and
the values of an organization. Person–group fit (PG fit) refers to the match between an
employee’s values and the values of his/her work group. Research has found that PJ, PO,
and PG fit are influenced by the socialization process and related to job attitudes and
behaviours.
One of the primary goals of organizational socialization is to ensure that new employees
learn and understand the key beliefs, values, and assumptions of an organization’s culture
and for individuals to define themselves in terms of the organization and what it is
perceived to represent. This is known as organizational identification and it reflects an
individual’s learning and acceptance of an organization’s culture.
Socialization is an ongoing process and is most potent during certain periods of

membership transition, such as when one is promoted or assigned to a new work group or
department, and especially when one joins a new organization.
Stages of Socialization
Organizational socialization is an ongoing process that can be divided into three stages.
The first two stages represent hurdles for achieving passage into the third stage.
Anticipatory Socialization. This socialization occurs before a person becomes a member

of a particular organization. It can be a formal process of skill and attitude acquisition
such as that which might occur through school experience or it can be informal through
summer jobs, or even via the popular media. Not all anticipatory socialization is accurate
and useful for the new member.
Encounter. In the encounter stage, the new recruit encounters the day-to-day reality of
organizational life. There are formal aspects to this process such as orientation programs
as well as informal aspects like getting to know one’s boss and co-workers. The
organization is looking for an acceptable degree of conformity to organizational norms
and appropriate role behaviour while recruits are interested in having their personal needs
and expectations fulfilled.

Role Management. The new member is now fine tuning and actively managing his or her
role in the organization and might be in a position to modify the role to better serve the
organization. He/she must also confront balancing the organizational role with non-work
roles and family demands.
Unrealistic Expectations and the Psychological Contract
People join organizations with expectations about what membership will be like and what
they expect to receive in return for their efforts. Unfortunately, these expectations are
often unrealistic and agreements between new members and organizations are often
breached.
Unrealistic Expectations
Although people have expectations about their jobs in organizations, many such
expectations held by entering members are inaccurate and often unrealistically high. As a
result, once they enter an organization they experience a “reality shock” and their
expectations are not met. Occupational stereotypes are partly responsible as is the media
which often communicates such stereotypes. At other times corporate recruiters paint
rosy pictures in order to attract job candidates to the organization. Newcomers who have
higher met expectations have higher job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job
performance, and job survival and lower intentions to leave.
Psychological Contract
When people join organizations, they have ideas about what they expect to receive from
the organization in return for what they will give the organization. Such beliefs form
what is known as the psychological contract and refers to beliefs held by employees
concerning their reciprocal obligations between them and their organization.
Unfortunately, psychological contract breach appears to be a common occurrence in
organizations. Perceptions of psychological contract breach occur when an employee
perceives that his or her organization has failed to fulfill one or more of its promises or
obligations of the psychological contract. This often results in feelings of anger and
betrayal and can have a negative effect on employees’ work attitudes and behaviour
because it results in negative emotions that stem from feelings of violation and mistrust
toward management. Psychological contract breach is partly due to recruiters who
promise more than the organization can provide as well organizational changes. Besides
ensuring that truthful and accurate information about promises and obligations is
communicated to new members, there is also some evidence that what organizations give
employees is itself very important.
Methods of Organizational Socialization
Organizations differ in the extent to which they socialize their members. Some
organizations make use of other organizations to help socialize their members.
Organizations that handle their own socialization are especially interested in maintaining
the continuity and stability of job behaviours over a period of time. Those that rely on
external agencies to perform anticipatory socialization are oriented toward maintaining

the potential for creative, innovative behaviour on the part of members. Such
organizations will usually supplement it with formal training and orientation or informal,
on-the-job training. The point is that organizations differ in terms of who does the
socializing, how it is done, and how much is done. Most organizations make use of a
number of methods of socialization including realistic job previews, employee orientation
programs, socialization tactics, and mentoring.
Realistic Job Previews

Some organizations use realistic job previews to adjust unrealistically high expectations
that recruits bring to a job. Realistic job previews provide a balanced, realistic picture of
the positive and negative aspects of a job to applicants. They may employ booklets or
video presentations.
Research Evidence: Realistic job previews have been shown to reduce inflated
expectations and turnover and to improve job performance. Reasons for the reduction for
turnover include lower expectations and increased job satisfaction. As well, applicants
who decide to remain in the hiring process are likely to have higher perceptions of PJ and
PO fit while those who withdraw have lower fit perceptions, a process known as self-
selection. There is also some evidence that organizations that provide realistic job
previews are perceived by job applicants as more honest and trustworthy.
Employee Orientation Programs

Employee orientation programs are designed to introduce new employees to their job, the
people they will be working with, and the organization. The main content of most
orientation programs consists of health and safety issues, terms and conditions of
employment, and information about the organization, such as its history and traditions.
Another purpose of new employee orientation programs is to begin conveying and
forming the psychological contract and to teach newcomers how to cope with stressful
work situations. Orientation programs that are designed to help newcomers cope with
stress are called Realistic Orientation Program for Entry Stress (ROPES). They teach
newcomers how to use cognitive and behavioural coping techniques to manage
workplace stressors. Most orientation programs take place during the first week of entry
and last one day to one week.
Research Evidence. Orientation programs are an important method of socialization

because they can have an immediate effect on learning and a lasting effect on the job
attitudes and behaviours of new hires. They have also been found to lower turnover.
Research on ROPES has found that it lowers participants’ expectations and stress and
improves newcomers’ adjustment and retention
Socialization Tactics
Socialization tactics refer to the manner in which organizations structure the early work
experiences of newcomers and individuals who are in transition from one role to another.
There are six socialization tactics that vary on a bipolar continuum and can be grouped
into two separate patterns of socialization called institutionalized and individualized
socialization.

Institutionalized socialization consists of collective, formal, sequential, fixed, serial, and

investiture tactics. Individualized socialization consists of individual, informal, random,
variable, disjunctive, and divestiture tactics. Institutionalized socialization reflects a more
formalized and structured program of socialization that reduces uncertainty and
encourages new hires to accept organizational norms and maintain the status quo.
Individualized socialization reflects a relative absence of structure that creates ambiguity
and encourages new hires to question the status quo and develop their own approach to
their role. The tactics can also been distinguished in terms of the context in which
information is presented to new hires, the content provided to new hires, and the social
aspects of socialization.
The six socialization tactics dimensions are as follows:
Collective versus Individual Tactics. When using the collective tactic, a number of new
members are socialized as a group, going through the same experiences and facing the
same challenges. The individual tactic consists of socialization experiences that are tailor-
made for each new member. Simple on-the-job training and apprenticeship to develop
skilled craftspeople constitute individual socialization.
Formal versus Informal Tactics. Formal tactics involve segregating newcomers from
regular organizational members and providing them with formal learning experiences
during the period of socialization. Informal tactics, however, do not distinguish a
newcomer from more experienced members and rely more on informal and on-the-job
learning.
Sequential versus Random Tactics. The sequential tactic involves a fixed sequence of
steps leading to the assumption of the role, compared with the random tactic in which
there is an ambiguous or changing sequence.
Fixed versus Variable Tactics. Fixed socialization consists of a time table for the
assumption of the role. The variable tactic does not provide a time frame to indicate when
the socialization process ends and the newcomer assumes his/her new role.
Serial versus Disjunctive Tactics. The serial tactic refers to a process where newcomers
are socialized by experienced members of the organization. The disjunctive tactic refers
to a socialization process where role models and experienced organization members do
not groom new members or “show them the ropes.”
Investiture versus Divestiture Tactics. Divestiture tactics refer to what is also known as
debasement and hazing. This is seen when organizations put new members through a
series of experiences that are designed to humble them and strip away some of their
initial self-confidence. Debasement is a way of testing the commitment of new members
and correcting for faulty anticipatory socialization. Investiture socialization affirms the
incoming identity and attributes of new hires rather than deny and strip them away.
Organizations that carefully select new members for certain attributes and characteristics
would be more likely to use this tactic.

Research Evidence. Institutionalized socialization tactics have been found to be related to

proximal outcomes, such as lower role ambiguity and conflict and more positive
perceptions of PJ and PO fit, as well as distal outcomes, such as more positive job
satisfaction and organizational commitment and lower stress and turnover. In addition,
the institutionalized socialization tactics result in a more custodial role orientation in
which new hires accept the status quo and the requirements of their tasks and roles. The
individualized socialization tactics result in a more innovative role orientation. The social
tactics (serial-disjunctive and investiture-divestiture) have been found to be the most
strongly related to socialization outcomes.
Mentoring
A mentor is an experienced or more senior person in the organization who gives a junior
person guidance and special attention, such as giving advice and creating opportunities to
assist him or her during the early stages of his or her career. Mentoring is a type of
developmental relationship that produces benefits for a protégé’s work and/or career. To
be effective, mentors must perform both career and psychosocial functions.
Career Functions of Mentoring. A mentor provides a number of career-enhancing

benefits to an apprentice. The career functions of mentoring include:
• Sponsorship. The mentor might nominate the apprentice for advantageous transfers
and promotions.
• Exposure and visibility. The mentor might provide opportunities to work with key
people and see other parts of the organization.
• Coaching and feedback. The mentor might suggest work strategies and identify
strengths and weaknesses in the apprentice’s performance.
• Developmental assignments. Challenging work assignments that will help develop
key skills and knowledge that are crucial to career progress.
Psychosocial Functions of Mentoring. Mentors can also provide certain psychosocial

functions that are helpful in developing the apprentice’s self-confidence, sense of
identity, and ability to cope with emotional traumas that can damage a person’s
effectiveness. These include:
• Role modeling. This provides a set of attitudes, values, and behaviours for the junior
person to imitate.
• Providing acceptance and confirmation. The mentor can also provide encouragement
and support and help the apprentice gain self-confidence.
• Counselling. This provides an opportunity to discuss personal concerns and anxieties
concerning career prospects, work-family conflicts, and so on.
Formal Mentoring Programs. Formal mentoring programs, in which seasoned employees

are recruited as mentors and matched with protégés as part of an organizationally
sponsored program, have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Developmental Networks. Newcomers can have more than one mentor that form part of a
developmental network. Developmental networks refer to groups of people who take an
active interest in and actions toward advancing a protégé’s career by providing
developmental assistance. In a developmental network a protégé can have multiple
developers from inside and outside (e.g., family and community) of the organization and
include people from different hierarchical levels of the organization (e.g., peers,
superiors, subordinates, and senior managers).
Women and Mentors. Women face particular difficulty in establishing an apprentice-

mentor relationship with a senior person in the organization which inhibits their career
development. The lack of mentors and role models is a major barrier for the career
advancement of many women. The problem stems from the fact that the senior people
who are in the best position to be mentors are frequently men, and men are also more
likely to serve as mentors than are women.
Because of these concerns, the prospective female apprentice faces more constraints than
her male counterpart. Apprentices in a cross-gender dyad are less likely to see their
mentor as a role model and, therefore, are less likely to realize the developmental benefits
of an effective model.
However, formal mentoring programs have helped to remove the barriers facing women
in finding a mentor. A review of gender differences in mentoring found that males and
females are equally likely to have been a protégé. Male and female protégés report
receiving equal amounts of career development mentoring and female protégés report
receiving more psychosocial support. The negative effects associated with cross-gender
dyads dissipates as the mentoring relationship develops over time.
The research evidence suggests that mentoring is even more critical to women’s career
success than it is to men’s and women who make it to executive positions invariably had
a mentor along the way. Almost all say that their mentor has had an impact on the
advancement of their career.
Race, Ethnicity, and Mentoring. Limited racial and ethnic diversity at the top of
organizations similarly constrains the mentoring opportunities available to younger
minority group employees. Mentors tend to select apprentices who are similar to them in
terms of race and nationality as well as gender. Minority apprentices in cross-ethnic
group mentoring relationships tend to report less assistance compared with those with
same-race mentors. Such relationships tend to focus more on the career functions of
mentoring and provide less psychosocial support functions than in same-race dyads.
Research Evidence. Mentored individuals have been found to have higher objective
career outcomes (compensation and the number of promotions), as well as higher
subjective outcomes (greater satisfaction with one’s job and career and greater career
commitment), and they were more likely to believe that they will advance in their career.

Mentoring tends to be more strongly related to subjective than the objective career
outcomes. The psychosocial function is more strongly related to satisfaction with the
mentoring relationship while the career function is more strongly related to compensation
and advancement. Both functions are just as important in generating positive attitudes
toward one’s job and career.
Research on formal mentoring programs has found that they are just as beneficial as
informal relationships and more beneficial than not having a mentor at all. Formal
mentoring programs have been found to be most effective when the mentor and protégé
have input into the matching process and when they receive training prior to the
mentoring relationship, especially training that is perceived to be of a high quality.
Proactive Socialization
Proactive socialization refers to the process in which newcomers play an active role in
their own socialization through the use of a number of proactive socialization behaviours.
Two of the most important proactive behaviours are to request feedback about one’s
work and job performance (feedback seeking) and to seek information about one’s work
tasks, roles, work group, and organization (information seeking). Newcomers can acquire
information by requesting it, asking questions, and by observing the behaviour of others.
They can acquire information from supervisors, co-workers, mentors, and written
documents. Research has found that newcomers rely primarily on observation, followed
by interpersonal sources. They tend to seek out task-related information the most,
especially during the early period of socialization.
Newcomers can also be proactive by participating in social events (general socializing),

developing friendships and relationships with co-workers (relationship building),
developing a friendship and relationship with one’s boss (boss-relationship building),
getting to know people outside of one’s department or work area (networking), and by
attempting to change or modify one’s tasks to improve PJ fit (job change negotiation).
Research Evidence. Newcomers who engage in proactive behaviours more frequently are
more likely to obtain the corresponding proactive outcomes which results in more
positive proximal and distal socialization outcomes.
Organizational Culture
To a large degree, the course of socialization both depends on and shapes the culture of
the organization.
What Is Organizational Culture?

Informally, culture is thought of as an organization’s style, atmosphere, or personality.
Culture provides uniqueness and social identity to organizations. More formally,
organizational culture consists of the shared beliefs, values, and assumptions that exist in
an organization. These shared beliefs, values, and assumptions determine the norms that
develop and the patterns of behaviour that emerge from these norms. Several
characteristics of culture are important:

• Culture represents a true “way of life” for organizational members, who often take its
influence for granted.
• Because culture involves basic assumptions, values, and beliefs, it tends to be fairly
stable over time.
• The content of a culture can involve matters that are internal to the organization or
external.
• Culture can have a strong impact on both organizational performance and member
satisfaction.
Organizations can have several subcultures that reflect departmental or

occupational differences. Subcultures are smaller cultures that develop within a larger
organizational culture that are based on differences in training, occupation, or
departmental goals. Effective organizations develop an overarching culture that manages
these differences.
The “Strong Culture” Concept

Strong cultures reflect an organizational culture with intense and pervasive beliefs,
values, and assumptions. Great consensus exists in strong cultures about the nature and
practices of the organization and “what the organization is about.” In weak cultures,
beliefs, values, and assumptions are less strongly ingrained or less widely shared across
the organization. Thus, they are fragmented and have less impact on organizational
members. Organizations that have strong cultures include Hilti (Canada) Corp., Google
Canada, and Express Scripts Canada.
Three points are worth emphasizing about strong cultures. First, an organization need not
be big to have a strong culture. Second, strong cultures do not necessarily result in blind
conformity. Finally, strong cultures are associated with greater success and effectiveness.
Assets of Strong Cultures

Organizations with strong cultures have several potential advantages.
Coordination. The overarching values and assumptions of strong cultures facilitate the
coordination of different parts of the organization and communication.
Conflict Resolution. Sharing core values is a powerful mechanism that helps to resolve
conflicts.
Financial Success. Strong cultures contribute to financial success and other indicators of
organizational effectiveness when the culture supports the mission, strategy and goals of
the organization. A good example of this that is described in the chapter is WestJet
Airlines.
Liabilities of Strong Cultures

Strong cultures can also be a liability under some circumstances.

Resistance to Change. The same strong consensus about common values and appropriate
behaviour that makes for a strong culture can prove to be very resistant to change. This
means that a strong culture can damage a firm’s ability to innovate.
Culture Clash. Strong cultures pushed together in a merger or acquisition can result in a
culture clash.
Pathology. Some strong cultures can threaten organizational effectiveness because they
are in some way pathological. Such cultures are based on beliefs, values, and assumptions
that support a pathology of infighting, secrecy, and paranoia that leave little time to do
business.
Contributors to the Culture

Two important factors explain how cultures are built and maintained: the founder’s role
and socialization.
The Founder’s Role. Many strong cultures reflect the values of an organization’s founder.
Stories about the founder provides continuing reinforcement of the organization’s key
values. In a similar way, top management strongly shapes the organization’s culture.
Socialization. The precise nature of the socialization process is a key to the culture that
emerges in an organization because socialization is one of the primary means by which
individuals can learn the culture’s beliefs, values, and assumptions. Organizations with
strong cultures go to great pains to expose employees to a careful, step-by-step
socialization process:
Step 1 - Selecting Employees. New employees are carefully selected to obtain those who
will be able to adapt to the existing culture. Realistic job previews are provided to allow
candidates to deselect themselves.
Step 2 - Debasement and Hazing. Debasement and hazing provoke humility in new hires
so that they are open to the norms of the organization.
Step 3 - Training “in the Trenches.” Training begins “in the trenches” so that employees
begin to master one of the core areas of the organization.
Step 4 - Reward and Promotion. The reward and promotion system is carefully used to
reinforce those employees who perform well in areas that support the values and goals of
the organization.
Step 5 - Exposure to Core Culture. Again and again, the culture’s core beliefs, values,
and assumptions are asserted to provide guidance for member behaviour.
Step 6 - Organizational Folklore. Members are exposed to folklore about the
organization, stories that reinforce the nature of the culture.
Step 7 - Role Models. Identifying people as “fast trackers” provides new members with
role models whose actions and views are consistent with the culture.
What is most important about this process is the consistency among these steps and their
mutually reinforcing properties that make for a strong culture.

Diagnosing a Culture
One way to learn about the culture of an organization is to examine the symbols, rituals,
and stories that characterize the organization’s way of life. For insiders, these symbols,
rituals, and stories are mechanisms that teach, communicate, and reinforce the company’s
culture.
Symbols. Symbols such as a corporate motto or mascot provide common meaning and
reinforce cultural values and what the company considers important.
Rituals. Rituals and ceremonies such as parties and gatherings are expressive events that
define and build the culture. They send a cultural message and convey the essence of an
organization’s culture.
Stories. The folklore of organizations – stories about past organizational events – is a

common aspect of culture. Stories told repeatedly across generations of employees
communicate “how things work”. Such stories reflect the uniqueness of organizational
cultures. Several common themes appear to underline many organizational stories (e.g., is
the big boss human?). Issues of equality, security, and control underlie the stories that
pursue these themes. Such stories often have a “good” and a “bad” version.
A TEACHING TIP: DEBASEMENT AND HAZING
One subject that always produces some spirited classroom discussion is the use of
debasement and hazing in organizations as part of the socialization process. You might
ask your students to generate some examples of such procedures from their own
experience. Try to get them to generate some formal, organizationally sanctioned
examples (e.g., the head shaving of marine recruits) as well as informal examples. In the
latter category, our students have told us about being sent to get a bucket of steam in an
industrial plant and a department store tailor asking them to go purchase some striped
thread.
It can be useful to start this off with an example from your own experience. One of the
authors cites how as a rookie steel worker he was led by an old hand across a very high
narrow beam to get to a crane that was parked right at a ladder. The walk had been totally
unnecessary! It can also be useful to show how some familiar organizations haze and
debase. In a New York Times (December 26, 1982) article, Terry Trucco describes how
new Mister Donut franchisees in Japan were required on their first day of management
training to go door-to-door offering to scrub family toilets! Instilling a sense of
community service was the stated goal. In a Wall Street Journal (July 27, 1995) article,
Thomas Ricks graphically describes how hazing of U.S. Marines is sometimes so
effective that they no longer feel part of the larger society.
In this discussion, it is important to get around to the functions of hazing, both positive
and negative.

SAMPLE ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Consider how you were socialized into the college or university where you are taking
your organizational behaviour course. Did you have some unrealistic expectations?
Where did your expectations come from? What outside experiences prepared you for
college or university? Did you experience institutionalized or individualized
socialization? What proactive socialization behaviours did you employ to facilitate your
socialization?
Some expectations about the academic demands of college and university are acquired in
high school. Expectations about college/university social life are often acquired by
television and movie portrayals. The former expectations are probably more realistic than
the latter, although high school may not prepare students adequately for studying
independently without close supervision. Having spent time working often provides
valuable practical experience that makes college subjects seem more relevant. However,
some students who attend college/university after a period in the working world report
that they underestimated the time and energy their studies would require (“I haven’t been
to school for ten years”). College/university classes provide institutionalized socialization
(e.g., collective and formal), although directed study and independent graduate research
involve individualized socialization (e.g., individual and informal) by one’s academic
supervisor. Most colleges/universities tolerate a fair degree of individuality and do not
socialize students to an extreme extent.
Students can facilitate their own socialization in college or university by using a number
of proactive socialization behaviours such as information seeking, feedback seeking,
networking, general socializing, building relationships with other students, and seeking
help when needed from any number of resource persons available at colleges and
universities.
2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of developing a strong organizational

culture and some socialization practices that you would recommend for building a
strong organizational culture.
A strong culture can lead to organizational effectiveness when the culture supports the
mission, goals, and strategy of the organization. The culture eases communication and
coordination, and provides a common ground of agreement under which conflict may be
resolved. Also, such cultures generally promote member loyalty and true identity with the
organization and its products or services. In addition, strong cultures socialize members’
transition into the organization and promote role clarity. There are also cons to strong
cultures. They can be difficult to change when missions, goals, and strategies change.
Also, strong cultures do not blend well when mergers or acquisitions occur. Finally, the
strong culture may be a negative culture based on backstabbing, paranoia, and other
pursuits that damage organizational effectiveness. Here, the culture is out of
synchronization with organizational goals and strategies.
Socialization practices for building a strong culture should include rigorous selection
practices, “training in the trenches,” exposure to the culture’s beliefs,

values, and assumptions, organizational folklore, consistent role models, and rewards that
reinforce behaviours that are consistent with the goals and culture of the organization.
Institutionalized socialization tactics should also be used.
3. Describe how you would design an employee orientation program. Be sure to

indicate the content of your program and what knowledge and information employees
will acquire from attending the program. What are some of the outcomes that you
would expect from your orientation program?
Employee orientation programs should be designed to introduce new employees to their
job, the people they will be working with, and the organization. The main content usually
consists of health and safety issues, terms and conditions of employment, and information
about the organization. The orientation program should make newcomers feel a part of
the organization, learn about the organization’s language, traditions, mission, history and
structure, and better understand the organization’s basic workplace practices. In addition,
the orientation program should clarify the psychological contract, ensure that newcomers
have realistic expectations, and instruct them on how to cope with stressful work
situations. Orientation programs can have a lasting effect on the job attitudes and
organizational commitment of new hires and lower turnover.
4. What does it mean to be proactive during the socialization process and what are the
different ways that newcomers can be proactive? To what extent have you used each
of the proactive behaviours described in the chapter (see Exhibit 8.6) in a current or
previous job, and what effect did it have on your socialization?
Proactive socialization refers to the process in which newcomers play an active role in
their own socialization through the use of a number of proactive socialization behaviours.
Two of the most important proactive behaviours are feedback seeking and information
seeking. Other proactive behaviours include general socializing, relationship building,
boss-relationship building, networking, and job change negotiation. Students should
indicate the extent to which they have used any of the proactive behaviours and which
ones they have used the most. Ask them to also indicate the results of their proactive
efforts and if it helped their socialization. Then ask students if they would use any of the
proactive behaviours in a future job and which ones they would use and why.
You might want to refer to an article on this topic in which students indicated their
intentions to be proactive when they begin a new job (how likely they would do each
proactive behaviour when they begin a new job). The mean scores on a 5-point scale for
each proactive behaviour was as follows: feedback seeking = 3.84; information seeking =
4.09; general socializing = 4.03; boss relationship building = 3.70; networking = 3.53;
and job change negotiation = 2.85. The study found that personality was related to
students’ intentions to be proactive. Proactive personality was positively related to
feedback seeking, boss relationship building, networking, and job change negotiation;
extraversion was positively related to general socializing and networking; agreeableness
was positively related to general socializing.
Source: Gruman, J. A., & Saks, A. M. (2011). Socialization preferences and intentions:
Does one size fit all? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 419-427.

5. What are the main functions performed by mentors, and what effect do they have on
protégés? Do you think organizations should implement formal mentoring programs
or should they remain informal? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
approach?
The main functions performed by mentors are career functions (sponsorship,
exposure and visibility, coaching and feedback, and developmental assignments) and
psychosocial functions (role modeling, providing acceptance and confirmation, and
counseling). Mentored individuals have been found to have higher objective career
outcomes (compensation and the number of promotions), as well as higher subjective
outcomes (greater satisfaction with one’s job and career and greater career
commitment), and they are more likely to believe that they will advance in their
career. Mentoring tends to be more strongly related to subjective than the objective
career outcomes. The psychosocial function is more strongly related to satisfaction
with the mentoring relationship while the career function is more strongly related to
compensation and advancement. Both functions are just as important in generating
positive attitudes toward one’s job and career. Formal mentoring programs are
organizationally sponsored mentoring programs that recruit seasoned employees as
mentors and match them with protégés. Research on formal mentoring programs has
found that they are just as beneficial as informal mentoring relationships and more
beneficial than not having a mentor at all. Thus, organizations should implement
formal mentoring programs. However, formal mentoring programs are most effective
when the mentor and protégé have input into the matching process and when they
receive training prior to the mentoring relationship, especially training that is
perceived to be of a high quality. Formal mentoring programs can also help to ensure
that all newcomers have the same opportunities to have a mentor. With informal
mentoring, some newcomers might not have the same opportunities. A possible
disadvantage with formal mentoring is if the match between the mentor and protégé
does not work for the mentor or the protégé. This is why formal mentoring programs
are most effective when the mentor and protégé have some input into the matching
process. Formal mentoring programs can ensure that women as well as minority
group newcomers have equal opportunities for mentoring which has not always been
the case with informal mentoring.
ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. Compare and contrast information dependence with effect dependence. Under which
conditions should people be especially information-dependent? Under which
conditions should people be especially effect-dependent?
Information dependence is our reliance on others for advice and guidance about how to
think or act. We gain this information by comparing our ideas and behaviours with those
of peers or experts who are deemed good sources. Effect dependence is our reliance on
the effects our behaviour provokes as mediated by others. These effects include praise,
material rewards, and various forms of social and material punishment. Both forms of
dependence show that our behaviour is susceptible to considerable influence by others.
People are especially information dependent in confusing, novel, and threatening
situations -- they have “a need to know.” People are especially effect dependent when

they are interacting with powerful others who have a strong stake in getting them to
behave in a particular way.
2. Describe an instance of social conformity that you have observed in an

organizational setting. Did compliance, identification, or internalization motivate this
incident? Were the results beneficial for the organization? Were they beneficial to the
individual involved?
Sara, Al, and Jane worked in the forecasting department of the head office of a large
bank. At certain times of the year (before board meetings and before budgets were
finalized) their workload was very heavy, and they frequently worked much overtime
without additional pay. Although none was convinced that this overtime was necessary,
each reported going along with it because of admiration for Mona, the forecasting
manager. If Mona felt overtime was necessary, that was good enough for them. Within
two years Sara, Al, and Jane were promoted to more responsible positions in the bank,
much to their surprise. The forecasting staff evidently conformed to the overtime
requirements because they identified strongly with their boss, Mona. She served as an
important source of information for them, and they conformed not simply out of fear
(compliance), promise of reward (compliance), or because they personally believed that
the overtime was necessary (internalization). In this instance, conformity was useful for
both the forecasting staff (they all received promotions) and the bank.
3. What are the pros and cons of providing realistic job previews for a job that is
objectively pretty bad? What about for a job that is pretty good?
Realistic job previews have been shown to reduce initial expectations to a sensible level
and thus result in less reality shock, better adjustment, and less early turnover. Also, the
honesty promoted in a preview may have good public relations value for those who don’t
accept the job as well as those who do. Cons include the possibility that few will want to
accept the job, although research has shown that this is not always the case but it could
increase recruiting costs. Also, it is possible that a realistic preview could “backfire” and
sensitize new employees to job aspects that they would not otherwise view so negatively.
For jobs that are pretty good, a realistic job preview can help to reduce the applicant pool
to the extent that applicants who do not perceive a good fit will drop out of the selection
process. Given that there will probably be many more applicants than positions for good
jobs this will be a good thing. Regardless of whether a job is good or bad, realistic job
previews will be most effective for more complex jobs that applicants are not as familiar
with as say more routine and visible jobs.
4. Imagine that you are starting a new business in the retail trade. You are strongly
oriented toward providing excellent customer service. What would you do to nurture
a strong organizational culture that would support such a mission?
The founder’s role is often critical in shaping a culture. Therefore, you would want to
make clear from day one by your words and behaviour that you support customer service.
If you support good service, your managers will support good service. It won’t hurt if
some good stories that are illustrative or symbolic of your concern with service emerge.
Symbolically, you might adopt a motto that stresses service. Ritualistically, you might
have public ceremonies to reward employees who have done things to provide

extraordinary service. Finally, the formal socialization process (beginning with

recruitment) should be tailored to promote and reward a strong service orientation.
5. What is the difference between a traditional orientation program and a Realistic

Orientation Program for Entry Stress (ROPES)? What is the difference between a
realistic job preview (RJP) and ROPES? Why and when would you use each of these
during the socialization process (traditional orientation program, ROPES, and
realistic job preview)?
Traditional employee orientation programs are designed to introduce new employees to
their job, the people they will be working with, and the organization. The main content of
most orientation programs consists of health and safety issues, terms and conditions of
employment, and information about the organization, such as its history and traditions.
Most orientation programs take place during the first week of entry and last one day to
one week. A Realistic Orientation Program for Entry Stress (ROPES) instructs
newcomers on how to use cognitive and behavioural coping techniques to manage
workplace stressors. Ideally, they would be used after a traditional orientation program to
prepare employees for the stressors of their particular job. Realistic job previews provide
a balanced, realistic picture of the positive and negative aspects of a job to applicants who
may have unrealistic and inflated expectations. They should be used during anticipatory
socialization so that applicants can determine if the job is a good fit and to lower
unrealistic expectations.
EXTRA DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the relevance of information and effect dependence for socialization and
culture.
2. Compare and contrast compliance, identification, and internalization.
3. What is likely to happen in the long term if conformity is initially due to simple
compliance?
4. Discuss the socialization process and explain the importance of proximal and distal
socialization outcomes.
5. Discuss the pros and cons of institutionalized versus individualized socialization.
6. Compare and contrast the career and psychosocial functions of mentoring. Which
function is most important for a new member’s socialization?
7. Describe the socialization tactics used by strong cultures.
8. Describe some proactive socialization behaviours that new hires can use to improve
their socialization. How can each proactive behaviour help to socialize newcomers?
9. Compare and contrast the different methods of organizational socialization. How do
they differ in terms of when they are used, their purposes, and their effects on
newcomers?
10. Discuss the difference between informal and formal mentoring programs and their
effectiveness.
11. Describe a Realistic Orientation Program for Entry Stress (ROPES) and explain how
and why it should be used as part of the socialization of new hires.

SAMPLE ANSWERS TO INTEGRATIVE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the implications of social cognitive theory for social influence and
socialization? Discuss the practical implications of each component of social
cognitive theory (i.e., observational learning, self-efficacy, and self-regulation) for
the socialization of new organization members. Describe how you would design an
orientation program for new employees based on social cognitive theory. Consider
the implications of social cognitive theory for mentoring. What does social cognitive
theory say about why mentoring is important and how to make it effective?
There are a number of important implications of social cognitive theory for socialization.
First, new hires learn a great deal by observing the behaviour of other members of the
organization. They are particularly likely to model behaviour that is associated with
positive consequences. Also, an important proactive socialization behaviour is
observational learning. Therefore, experienced organizational members should be sure to
model appropriate behaviour when they interact with newcomers. Self-efficacy has also
been shown to be important for socialization. Newcomers with stronger self-efficacy are
more likely to experience a successful socialization. Therefore, organizations should try
to strengthen the self-efficacy of newcomers. This can be done through orientation and
training programs. Finally, self-regulation is an example of a proactive socialization
behaviour that can also aid new hires in their socialization. Research has found that
newcomers who engage in self-regulation have lower anxiety and stress and more
positive socialization outcomes.
Social cognitive theory also has some important implications for the design of employee
orientation programs and mentoring. For example, they should be designed to strengthen
newcomers’ self-efficacy by providing encouragement, lowering anxiety, and providing
successful role models. Senior co-workers should participate in the orientation program
as they can serve as role models for new hires. Finally, the orientation program can be
used to instruct newcomers on self-regulation and how they can manage their own
behaviour by monitoring their own and others’ behaviour, setting goals, practicing new
behaviours, and reinforcing themselves for goal accomplishment.
Social cognitive theory also has implications for mentoring. Mentors are important role
models for their protégés who will observe their behaviour and imitate them. Mentors
also have an important role to play in strengthening the self-efficacy of their protégés by
providing them with work experiences in which they experience task mastery, by
lowering their anxiety and physiological arousal, and providing them with positive
feedback and encouragement. Finally, mentors can instruct protégés on how to manage
their own learning through the use of self-regulation. Thus, social cognitive theory
provides a solid foundation to understand the role and importance of mentoring and what
mentors can do to be most effective.
2. Refer to the work-related values that differ across cultures presented in Chapter 4
(i.e., work centrality, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity,
individualism/collectivism, and long-term/short-term orientation) and consider how
the culture of an organization in Canada might lead to conflicts in a country with

different work-related values. Give some examples of the kind of organizational

culture that might conflict with the various work-related values in other countries.
What are the implications of this for Canadian companies that wish to expand
abroad?
The culture of an organization can conflict with the culture of a country. Thus, it is worth
considering how the culture of a Canadian organization might conflict with the culture of
countries in which they might want to operate in. Below are some potential conflicts that
stem from the work-related values that differ across cultures. Another way to approach
this question is to ask students to think of how the culture of an organization they have
worked for might conflict with some of the work-related values that differ across
cultures.
Work Centrality. Value differences across cultures are reflected in differences in the
centrality of work in one’s life. People for whom work is a central life interest tend to
work more hours. A company with a culture that thrives on long hours and in which work
is a central life interest with have difficulties in cultures that are more laid back and focus
more on life than work. Of course, a company with a culture that is less focused on work
as a central life interest might find it difficult to operate in a country where work is more
central to people’s lives. However, it is probably more likely that a Canadian company
that is hard driving and very focused on work will find it difficult to operate in those
countries where the culture is less focused on work on work centrality.
Power distance. Power distance is the extent to which an unequal distribution of power is
accepted by society members. In small power distance cultures, inequality is minimized,
superiors are accessible, and power differences are downplayed. In large power distance
societies, inequality is accepted as natural, superiors are inaccessible, and power
differences are highlighted. In many Canadian companies, equality is emphasized and
superiors are very accessible. This kind of culture is likely to encounter problems in
cultures where large power distances are highlighted and inequality is accepted.
Employees in these cultures will have a difficult time because they don’t perceive
themselves as equal to superiors.
Uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people are

uncomfortable with uncertain and ambiguous situations. Strong uncertainty avoidance
cultures stress rules and regulations, hard work, conformity, and security. Cultures with
weak uncertainty avoidance are less concerned with rules, conformity, and security, and
hard work is not seen as a virtue. However, risk taking is valued. A Canadian company
that leans more towards a bureaucratic orientation might have difficulty in a culture in
which there is weak uncertainty avoidance and there is less concern with rules, formality,
and conformity. Similarly, a more organic culture that places less emphasis on rules and
regulations and formality might have problems in a country where uncertainty avoidance
is high and people prefer to have rules and regulations and are willing to conform.
Masculinity/femininity. More masculine cultures clearly differentiate gender roles,

support the dominance of men, and stress economic performance. More feminine cultures
accept fluid gender roles, stress sexual equality, and stress quality of life. A Canadian

company with a culture that emphasizes gender equality and in which many females are
in management and leadership roles will probably have difficulties in masculine cultures
where the dominance of men is the norm and women are not treated as equals.
Individualism/collectivism. More individualistic cultures stress independence, individual

initiative and privacy. More collective cultures favour interdependence and loyalty to
family or clan. Many Canadian companies focus on individual achievements and
performance. A company culture that emphasizes individual goals, performance, and
success is likely to have difficulties in collectivist cultures that focus more on loyalty to
the group.
Long-term/short-term orientation. Another cultural value that differs across cultures is

known as long-term/short-term orientation. Cultures with a long-term orientation tend to
stress persistence, perseverance, thrift, and close attention to status differences. Cultures
with a short-term orientation stress personal steadiness and stability, face-saving, and
social niceties. Canadian companies that focus on immediate goals and outcomes and
focus on equality rather than status differences are likely to conflict with cultures that
have a long-term orientation and prefer persistence, perseverance, and attention to status
differences.
Companies that intend to operate in foreign countries need to understand how their
culture might conflict with the culture of the country and the people they intend to
employ. Thus, they might need to make some changes to corporate culture upon learning
about potential areas of conflict with the country’s culture.
SAMPLE ANSWER TO ON-THE-JOB CHALLENGE QUESTION: CULTURE

OR BIOLOGY?
What do you think about the report’s findings and conclusions? What role does culture
play in the sexual misconduct and abuse in the Canadian Forces? What advice would you
give the armed forces about how culture affects people’s attitudes and behaviour, and
what they need to do to eliminate sexual misconduct and harassment?
The report concluded that women in the military endure a toxic work environment and
are often the target of vulgar name calling, sexual innuendoes and jokes, harassment, and
assault—behaviours that are condoned or ignored by senior military leaders. The report
concludes that there is an “underlying sexualized culture” that is “hostile” to women as
well as lesbian, gay, transgendered, bisexual, and queer members of the military. This is
an excellent example of what the chapter describes as a pathological culture which is one
of the liabilities of a strong culture. That is, some strong cultures can threaten
organizational effectiveness because they are in some way pathological. Some examples
of pathological cultures noted in the text have to do with beliefs, values, and assumptions
that support infighting, secrecy, and paranoia, pursuits that hardly leave time for doing
business. The RCMP has also been singled out as having a pathological culture. The
allegations and law suits of sexual harassment by former Mounties have been attributed

to a culture of silence in which employees are afraid to speak up and sexual harassment is
so pervasive that many victims feel that they have no choice but to tolerate it because
their complaints will go unanswered. Thus, culture as well as leadership which of course
has a lot to do with culture, plays a major role in the sexual misconduct and abuse in the
Canadian Forces. The armed forces should understand that culture, especially a strong
culture, has a major influence on people’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviour. The
culture of the Canadian Forces was such that sexual misconduct and abuse was condoned
and allowed to persist without impunity. As noted in the text, the key contributors to
culture are the founder or leadership and socialization. Thus, the leadership of the
Canadian Forces has to enforce values and beliefs of respect and appropriate behaviour
and condemn and punish sexual misconduct and abuse. As indicated in the text, military
leaders are blind to the poisonous culture and excuse inappropriate conduct on the bases
that the armed forces are simply a “reflection of society.” Thus, leadership must change
because they are responsible for the culture. In addition, new recruits need to be
socialized so that they understand that sexual misconduct and abuse will not be tolerated
and will be punished by removal from the forces. As indicated in the text, the problems
begin in basic training where inappropriate language by trainers goes unpunished. Thus,
new recruits are socialized into a culture that condones such behaviour as even the
language used during their socialization is abusive and belittles women. It is this “boys
club” culture that new recruits are socialized into and which tolerates the abuse and
harassment. The culture is not likely to change unless there is change in leadership and in
the socialization of new recruits. Thus, former Chief of Defence Staff General Tom
Lawson got it really wrong when he blamed sexual harassment and misconduct in the
military on biology; however, he got it right when he said that they need to develop a
strategy to change the culture.
TEACHING NOTES FOR THE SOCIALIZATION PREFERENCES AND

EXPERIENCE EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
This exercise is designed for students to learn more about the following six socialization
tactics: Collective versus individual, formal versus informal, investiture versus
divestiture, sequential versus random, serial versus disjunctive, and fixed versus variable.
The purpose of this exercise is for students to learn about how they have been and/or
would like to be socialized when they join an organization. In addition, by comparing
their socialization preferences to their most recent socialization experience, they can
better understand how socialization can influence their job attitudes and behaviour.
You have three options for how to use this scale and exercise. First, students can just
complete Part 1 on their socialization preferences and class discussion will focus on the
tactics that students most prefer when they are socialized. Second, you can have students
just complete Part 2 about their socialization experience on their current or most recent
job/organization. The focus of class discussion will be on the tactics they experienced and
the effect they had on their attitudes and behaviours. A third option is to have students
complete Parts 1 and 2 and then calculate a difference score by subtracting their
socialization experiences from their socialization preferences for each tactic. If you do

this then you can not only focus on their socialization experiences and preferences, but
you also can discuss how different their socialization experience was from what they
would have preferred and how this influenced their attitudes and behaviours.
To calculate scores on each tactic, students must first subtract their responses to questions
3, 9, 15, 17, 19, 20, 27, 29, 39 from 6. For example, if they gave a response of 5 to
question 3, their score will be 1 (6 minus 5). To calculate scores for each socialization
tactic, students should add their responses as follows:
Collective versus individual tactic: Add answers to questions 1, 7, 13, 19, and 25.
Formal versus informal tactic: Add answers to questions 2, 8, 14, 20, and 26.
Investiture versus divestiture tactic: Add answers to questions 3, 9, 15, 21, and 27.
Sequential versus random tactic: Add answers to questions 4, 10, 16, 22, and 28.
Serial versus disjunctive tactic: Add answers to questions 5, 11, 17, 23, and 29.
Fixed versus variable tactic: Add answers to questions 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30.
For each scale the total score should be somewhere between 5 and 25. Higher scores
reflect the institutionalized end of the scale (collective, formal, investiture, sequential,
serial, and fixed). Students can also calculate a total score for all of the tactics by adding
their responses to all 30 questions. Total scale scores should fall between 30 and 150.
Higher scores reflect a preference for institutionalized socialization. To calculate the
socialization experience score, follow the same procedures but this time use the answers
from Part 2.
To compare socialization preferences to one’s socialization experience, have students
calculate a socialization difference score by subtracting their socialization experience
score from their socialization preference score for each tactic. For example, if the
collective–individual socialization preference score was 25 and the socialization
experience score was 10, the difference would be 15. A small difference indicates greater
congruence between one’s socialization preference and experience. Large differences
indicate a discrepancy between how one prefers to be socialized and the way they were
socialized.
To facilitate class discussion and student understanding of socialization tactics, form
small groups and have them consider the following questions. Note that some of the
questions are for socialization preferences (#1) and others are for socialization
experiences (#2).
1. Each group member should present their preference score of each socialization
tactic. They should consider the group average for each tactic. For each of the six tactics,
do most group members prefer the institutionalized or individualized end of the
continuum? Each group member should explain their preference for each tactic. Try to
see if there is a trend as to what tactics students find especially important for their
socialization.
2. Each group member should present their experience score of each socialization
tactic. They should consider the group average for each tactic. For each of the six tactics,
have most group members experienced institutionalized or individualized socialization?
Each group member should explain how they were socialized and what effect it had on
them. Try to see if there is a trend as to what tactics students have experienced and the

effect that the tactics had on them. You might also ask students to try and explain why
they think their organization used certain tactics and not others.
3. Each group member should present their socialization preference–experience
difference score for each tactic. Group members should consider the largest and smallest
differences across the six dimensions. Do some members have larger differences than
others? Students should then compare and contrast the scores for group members who
have large and small difference scores and the effect of this on their learning, job
attitudes, and behaviour. In particular, they should consider if those group members who
had larger difference scores had a less successful socialization and how it made them feel
as well as the effect it had on their attitudes and behaviours. Did students with larger
difference scores feel less socialized and did they have negative attitudes?
4. Students should consider how an understanding of their socialization preferences
can assist them in their future jobs. They should think about how organizations can
improve the socialization process by understanding the socialization preferences of new
hires.
5. Finally, ask students about the implications for organizations that do not consider
the socialization preferences of new hires? What are the potential consequences for new
hires and the organization?
By the end of this exercise, students should have a better understanding of how they have
been socialized in a current or previous job as well as how they prefer to be socialized in
future jobs and organizations. Students should understand that organizations make
choices about how to socialize new hires and that the tactics they choose to use will affect
the attitudes and behaviours of new hires. Students should also understand that the best
way to socialize new hires depends on the organization and their new hires.
Some additional questions to consider for class discussion:
1. What are socialization tactics and why are they important for the socialization and
adjustment of new hires?
2. What are the different socialization tactics and what effect do they have on new
hires? What is the difference between institutionalized and individualized
socialization tactics? What is the difference between context, content, and social
tactics?
3. What socialization tactics are most important and why?
4. What tactics should organizations use to socialize new hires?
5. When should an organization use institutionalized socialization tactics? When
should an organization use individualized socialization tactics?
You might also want to mention to your class a study that asked students about their
preference for each of the socialization tactics. Students were asked to indicate the
extent to which they would like each of the tactics to happen when they start a new
job on a 7-point Likert scale. The results were as follows with higher scores
indicating a preference for the institutionalization end of the scale: context tactics =

5.01; content tactics = 5.43; and social tactics = 5.46. These mean scores indicate a
preference for institutionalized socialization tactics. The study also found a
relationship between personality and socialization tactics preferences. Agreeableness
was positively related to a preference for institutionalized tactics (context, content,
and social); openness to experience was positively related to the social tactic; and
proactive personality was negatively related to the social tactic.
Source: Gruman, J. A., & Saks, A. M. (2011). Socialization preferences and intentions:
Does one size fit all? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 419-427.
TEACHING NOTES FOR THE REALITY SHOCK CASE INCIDENT
1. Explain how Jason’s anticipatory socialization might be contributing to his

disappointment and job attitudes. How might this situation have been prevented?
Jason’s appears to have had a less than successful anticipatory socialization and as a
result, he is having difficulty in the encounter stage of socialization. The main problem is
that his expectations about the job are inflated and unrealistic. He expected things like
challenging work, great co-workers, and training and development opportunities. Not
only have these expectations not been met, but his early work experiences have been
spent alone reading about the organization. Not surprisingly, he is feeling dissatisfied and
thinking about quitting. This situation might have been prevented if he had developed
more realistic expectations about the job either by asking others about the job or if he had
received a realistic job preview. Of course, the situation might have also been prevented
if the organization had shown more interest in Jason’s socialization.
2. Explain how unrealistic expectations and the psychological contract can help us
understand Jason’s situation.
Jason’s situation is a classic case of unrealistic expectations and the experience of unmet
expectations and reality shock. He had expected things like great co-workers, training and
development programs, and challenging work. However, his expectations for these things
have not been realized. Thus, Jason’s expectations appear to have been inaccurate or just
unrealistically high. Of course, it is also possible that he was told that he would receive
all of these things as part of his psychological contract. That is, the organization might
have promised him these things in return for obligations and promises he made to the
organization. In this case, Jason is experiencing a breach of his psychological contract as
his organization has failed to fulfill some of their promised obligations. As a result, Jason
is feeling anger and betrayal that has resulted in negative attitudes and intentions to quit.
3. Comment on the use of socialization tactics in Jason’s socialization. What tactics do

you think were used and what effect did they have on Jason?
Jason’s socialization is primarily individualized in that it consists of individual, informal,
random, variable, and disjunctive tactics. The final tactic is probably more investiture
than divestiture. Clearly, this is not a formalized or structured socialization program.
Jason is pretty much left on his own to sink or swim. He is not part of a group of new
hires (collective tactic), he is not exposed to a formal learning experience (formal tactic),

there does not appear to be a clear sequence of steps or stages of his socialization
(sequential tactic), there is no time table for when he assumes his new role (fixed tactic),
and he is not exposed to experienced organization members who can show him the ropes
(serial tactic). It is not clear if his socialization is investiture or divestiture but there is no
indication that it is divestiture. This socialization experience leaves Jason in a state of
uncertainty and as indicated by the research on socialization tactics, he has formed
negative attitudes about his job and the organization and is thinking about quitting.
4. Given Jason’s current situation, is there anything the organization can do to prevent
him from quitting? What should Jason do? Is there anything the organization should
do so that other new hires don’t have the same experience as Jason?
There are a number of things that the organization should do to help Jason and improve
his socialization. Institutionalized socialization might be helpful here because Jason
probably needs some structure to help him learn and make sense of the organization. This
might involve some formal training programs with other new hires, working with more
senior organizational members, and a timetable of some sort that indicates what type of
working and training experiences he can expect in the short and long-term. Jason needs to
begin working and interacting with other members of the organization and other new
hires. He should be assigned some tasks that over time become more interesting and
challenging. It might also help if he is assigned a mentor who can assist with career and
psychosocial functions. In the future, the organization should ensure that job applicants
receive a realistic job preview and new hires attend an employee orientation program that
introduces them to the organization and its members. Jason also needs to engage himself
in some of the proactive socialization behaviours described in the chapter such as
feedback seeking, information seeking, networking, general socializing, and relationship
building.
TEACHING NOTES FOR THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HUMAN

RESOURCES AT DISNEY CASE STUDY
1. Describe the culture of the Walt Disney Company. What values, norms, and
behaviours are associated with the culture? How does the culture influence the
customer experience at its theme parks, and how has it contributed to its success?
Organizational culture consists of the shared beliefs, values, and assumptions that
exist in an organization and these shared beliefs, values, and assumptions
determine the norms that develop and the patterns of behaviour that emerge from
these norms. At Walt Disney Company, the culture is designed to create
happiness for those who visit the park. It is focused on the customers’ experience
and the experience is designed to be magical and for visitors, the “happiest place
on earth,” a live show taking place on one big stage. What visitors get is a live
show with pleasant, helpful, wholesome cast members in costumes who are
always onstage when in the park and in public areas who all have a part to play in
a live show. For all cast members no matter what their job is, the objective is the
same: to exceed guests’ expectations. Under the park at ground level the area is
called “offstage” where cast members change into their character, take breaks,

and prepare for their parts. Only when they are offstage are they allowed to be out
of character. The only down time allowed is when cast members are offstage
which is the only time they are allowed to be out of character and themselves.
Cast members appear onstage discretely through unmarked doors. Walt has a
sense of pride in his work and he wanted every person working for the company
to have that same sense of pride. There is no doubt that the strong Disney culture
has resulted in many advantages for the company including greater coordination
among all employees and greater ease in solving conflicts since it is clear to all
employees that the main objective is to ensure that guests have a magical
experience. The culture has also played a huge role in the company’s and theme
parks success. As stated in the case, Disney World’s repeat customer percentage
is more than 70 percent and hotel occupancy is usually more than 90 percent full.
Thus, many customers are satisfied repeat customers.
2. Discuss the “strong culture” concept with respect to the culture of the Walt
Disney Company. What are some examples that demonstrate it has a strong
culture? What are its assets and liabilities?
Strong cultures have beliefs, values, and assumptions that are both intense and
pervasive across the organization. They are strongly supported by the majority of
members, even cutting across any subcultures that might exist. As a result, a
strong culture provides consensus concerning “what the organization is about” or
what it stands for. In weak cultures, beliefs, values, and assumptions are less
strongly ingrained or less widely shared across the organization. Weak cultures
are fragmented and have less impact on organizational members. The culture of
Walt Disney company is a good example of a strong culture as the culture is very
intense with respect to what it is and what it involves (shared values, certain ways
of behaving and interacting with guests, appearance, language, etc.) and there is
no doubt that the culture is pervasive as all cast members learn the values and
beliefs of the Disney culture and how they should behave as a member of the
organization and in their particular role. All members know that their job is to
provide customers with a magical experience and they know what they must do to
ensure that this happens. Thus, Disney provides an excellent example of the
strong culture concept in all respects. The assets of a strong culture which are
evident at Disney include better coordination, ease of conflict resolution, and
financial success.
3. What factors have contributed to the foundation and continuation of the culture of
Walt Disney Company?
The first key factor that contributes to the foundation and continuation of the
culture of Walt Disney Company is the role of the founders. As indicated in the
case, Disney World and Disneyland were built on what became known as “Disney
magic.” Disney values and beliefs were designed by Walt and Roy Disney who
created the corporate culture which was apparent just by entering the park. Their
strategy was to exceed customer expectations through strict attention to detail and
policies and procedures that were designed to deliver quality. Further, as indicated

in the case, in 1977 Disney documented the beginnings of a philosophy that has
succeeded in maintaining a powerful connection between inspired leaders,
motivated employees, and satisfied customers who together have driven financial
results and brand loyalty. Thus, leadership continues to live up to Walt’s original
values and believes that the best ideas come from employees and championed
employees ensure happy guests.
The second key factor that contributes to the foundation and continuation of the
culture is a rigorous socialization process. To ensure that their values and beliefs
were passed on to employees and that every employee would aim to exceed
customer expectations, cast members were enamored with being part of Disney.
Cast members were socialized to embrace the company’s values and purpose to
bring entertainment to customers and make people happy. This was expected to
result in a collaborative culture and if this was accomplished then financial results
would follow. The socialization process involves treating potential and new
employees well because Walt and Roy believed that if the company treated cast
members as guests then they would treat guests and each other the same way.
Thus, as stated in the case, whether one was a guest or a cast member, creating a
supportive environment was part of the culture and a commitment to keeping the
magic going. And even though Walt and Roy are gone, the culture is able to
continue through many references to Walt and his values during the hiring and
socialization process.
4. Discuss the process used to socialize new hires at Walt Disney Company. Refer to
Exhibit 8.7 (Socialization steps in strong cultures) to answer this question and
provide specific examples of how they perform each step. To what extent does the
Walt Disney Company follow each of the steps? What is the effect of the
socialization process on new employees?
The socialization process at Walt Disney very much follows the steps in strong
cultures shown in Exhibit 8.7. As indicated in the text, organizations with strong
cultures go to great pains to expose employees to a careful, step-by-step
socialization process. To recap, the steps in Exhibit 8.7 and the use of them at
Disney are as follows:
Ï Step 1—Selecting Employees. New employees are carefully selected to obtain

those who will be able to adapt to the existing culture, and realistic job previews are
provided to allow candidates to deselect themselves (i.e., self-selection). Disney
applicants go through an interview process that asks them specific questions to assess
their fit for the job they have applied for and to the organization culture. They are also
provided with a realistic job preview that describes the employment conditions
including guidelines for appearance with respect to hair length, facial hair, and
quantity of jewelry.
Ï Step 2—Debasement and Hazing. Debasement and hazing (divestiture
socialization tactics) provoke humility in new hires so that they are open to the norms

of the organization. New cast members are enamored with being part of the Disney
culture. They are socialized to embrace the company’s values and its purpose to bring
entertainment to customers and make people happy. They must stay in their role when
on stage and can only be themselves when off stage. They must follow strict
guidelines with respect to their behaviour, their dress, and their appearance.
Ï Step 3—Training “in the Trenches.” Training begins “in the trenches” so that
employees begin to master one of the core areas of the organization. At Disney, cast
members first attend Traditions class where they learn about the Disney legacy as
well as the company’s heritage, traditions, language, symbols, and shared values.
They also must become familiar with the Disney language and learn to use
appropriate tone of voice and body language. They then receive local orientation and
training at their work site. Thus, the training is rigorous and extensive.
Ï Step 4—Reward and Promotion. The reward and promotion system is carefully
used to reinforce those employees who perform well in areas that support the values
and goals of the organization. At Disney, managers identify cast members who have
provided quality service and give them a Guest Service Fanatic card which is then
placed in a drop box and cast members have a chance to be rewarded with a prize.
Ï Step 5—Exposure to Core Culture. Again and again, the culture’s core beliefs,
values, and assumptions are asserted to provide guidance for member behaviour. This
is done to emphasize that the personal sacrifices required by the socialization process
have a true purpose. Cast members are continually reminded about the Disney culture
and importance of providing customers with a magical experience. They are exposed
to the culture from the time they first apply for a job and then throughout the hiring,
socialization, and training process.
Ï Step 6—Organizational Folklore. Members are exposed to folklore about the
organization, stories that reinforce the nature of the culture. Cast members learn about
the Disney culture on the first day and are exposed to stories about Walt and the
importance of their role to the overall objective of providing guests with a magical
experience.
Ï Step 7—Role Models. Identifying people as “fast-trackers” provides new members
with role models whose actions and views are consistent with the culture. These role
models serve as tangible examples for new members to imitate. Cast members are
exposed to instructors during the Traditions class who are role models as being
selected to be a Traditions assistant is considered an honour and each year hundreds
of cast members apply to become one. In addition, cast members are assigned a
mentor when they learn to perform their role who also functions as a role model.
Following are specific examples of the case of the extensive socialization process:
The socialization process is designed to ensure that employees learn the Disney
values and beliefs and have a strong person-job and person-organization fit. This is
achieved through an elaborate hiring, training and socialization process. As described
in the case, all hiring takes lace at the Walt Disney World Casting Centre. Each cast

member is trained to perform for the roles they will be playing while onstage. This
rigorous hiring and socialization process involves the following steps:
a. Applicants are invited to audition for a role which involves an interview
process
b. The interview takes place at the casting centre which gives applicants the first
hint that Disney is about magic and make-believe.
c. Applicants the go to the recruitment office where they apply for their roles
and watch a film about Disney’s heritage, regulations, and terms of
employment. If applicants are still interested, they are interviewed for their
chosen role.
d. The interviews are structured and the questions are carefully chosen to
determine if an applicant is a good fit for the role.
e. Applicants are informed of employment conditions including appearance (hair
length, amount of facial hair, and quantity of jewelry). Thus, they are given
realistic job previews.
f. Following a successful audition all new cast members go to Disney University
where they learn about Disney characters and films and about the company’s
heritage, traditions, language, symbols, and shared values.
g. Cast members attend Traditions I class where they learn about the Disney
vision and mission. They also learn to act and speak courteously and they
learn the Disney language or Disney speak (see Table 1 of case). They also
learn to use an appropriate tone of voice, to focus on the positive and use
humour instead of rules and regulations, and they rehearse appropriate body
language. They also learn about safety and how to answer guest questions. All
cast members learn how to react and offer help if they see a guest in need.
Cast members must not complain about problems when around guests and it is
the job of all cast members to ensure that guests have a magical experience.
h. Cast members are taught to “find your applause” which means discovering
what their value is to the organization, something they did as a cast member
that was meaningful to them, and focusing on it when they feel down or tired.
At the end of the Traditions course, all cast members understand that at
Disney all employees are important to the company.
i. After learning about the Disney culture, cast members go to the park where
they receive training at the local level about their particular job followed by
local orientation where they learn about the performance culture of their
theme area.
j. Cast members shadow seasoned cast members to learn their job and are
assigned a mentor to ensure that they do things correctly.
k. Managers identify cast members doing a great job and give them Guest
Service Fanatic cards which they place in a drop box from which five or six
names are drawn each month and the chosen cast members are rewarded with
a prize.

As described in the chapter, it is the consistency among these steps and their
mutually reinforcing properties that make for a strong culture and it is the use
of many of these steps by the Disney company that should be noted. Selection
is rigorous, and grooming standards serve as mild debasement. Everyone
begins at the bottom of the hierarchy. Pay is low, but promotion is tied to
performance. Folklore stresses core values (“Walt’s in the park”). And better
performers serve as role models at Disney University or in paired training.
5. Consider the role of fit at Walt Disney Company. What are the different types of
fit and what types are especially important for Walt Disney Company? What does
the company do to ensure that applicants are a good fit?
Bot person-job and person-organization fit are a key part of the hiring and
socialization process. Interview questions are designed to determine if an
applicant is a good fit for the role they have applied for. For example, an applicant
who has applied for a position to accompany a character might be asked, “What
would you do if you were paired with Donald Duck and someone kicked him?” If
the interviewee laughed or suggested they would “kick that person back,” then
being a character partner was not a good fit. If instead they said, “Tell the kicker it
was time for Donald Duck’s lunch, so we must get moving,” then being a
character partner made sense. If the applicant is not a good fit for a particular role
they are assigned a more suitable role in the organization. As indicated in the
case, the idea is that roles should play to cast members’ strengths and there is a
place for every kind. The interview process is also designed to choose applicants
who will be a good fit Disney values and beliefs (PO fit). Applicants are provided
with information about the working conditions including appearance so those who
do not feel it is a good fit can withdrawal from the selection process. Following
the rigorous selection process, orientation and training programs are provided that
ensures the applicants will develop a good fit for their job and role and to the
organization’s culture. Thus, both PJ and PO fit are important and both are given
considerable attention in the selection process as well as during the orientation
and training programs. By the end of the Traditions course and training new cast
members will have a strong PJ and PO fit.
6. What are some of the ways that you can diagnose the culture of Walt Disney
Company? Provide some specific examples and explain their purpose.
You can diagnose the culture of Walt Disney in a number of ways. For example,
note that the parks are spotless and meticulously groomed as are the cast members
which tells you something about the importance of providing a magical
experience to guests and quality service. The use of language also tells you about
the culture with respect to the idea that cast members are playing a role in a show
that is meant to provide guests with a magical experience. Note the Disney Speak
in Table 1 which uses language that corresponds to show business with terms like
cast members, casting, being onstage and offstage, attractions, etc. Park visitors
are called “guests” and employees are called “cast members,” The whole park is

meant to be a stage and in Walt’s words, “picture-perfect.” Everything in the park

is a prop designed to make the make-believe show run flawlessly.
Notice also how the culture is communicated to applicants as soon as they begin
the application process through various symbols. When applicants arrive at
casting for an interview Walt’s presence can be felt through diamond shapes in
colours on the front of the casting building which match a photo of him wearing
his famed argyle socks with matching diamond shapes and colours. Awnings
covering the entrance to the casting centre building have a castle-like look and
once inside, the doorknobs are identical to the talking ones in the Disney film,
Alice in Wonderland. The building’s hallway walls, ceilings, and floors feature
Disney characters and film scenes. Thus, key aspects of the culture can be
diagnosed in many ways just by observation of the premises and through the use
of language. In addition, the drawing of names of cast members who have
received a Guest Service Fanatic card is an example of a ritual. As described in
the case, the drawing is a big deal with either a senior executive or popular Disney
character picking the names out of the box. This celebration of success and of cast
members who provide great service is another example of how to diagnose the
culture. And of course, stories about Walt and what was important to him and the
things he did over the years also provides a means to diagnose the culture. One of
the jobs of the Traditions class assistants was to pass on Walt’s legacy and help
new cast members learn about him and all things Disney. Organizations often
communicate their culture through the use of stories told repeatedly to successive
generations of new employees which serve to communicate “how things work.”
Anyone who has spent much time in a particular organization is familiar with
such stories, and they often appear to reflect the uniqueness of an organization’s
culture. Stories about Walt not only indicate how things are to be done at Walt
Disney Company but they also reflect the uniqueness of the Disney culture.
7. What can other organizations learn about socialization and culture from the Walt
Disney Company?
Organizations can learn a great deal about socialization and culture from the Walt
Disney Company. For starters, they can learn about the importance of a strong
organizational culture and how it can provide an organization with many
advantages including financial success and customer loyalty and retention. Other
organizations can also learn about the important role that the socialization process
plays in building and maintaining a strong organizational culture. In particular, it
is the use and consistency among various steps and their mutually reinforcing
properties that make for a strong culture and lead to employees who have high
perceptions of PJ and PO fit which contributes to more positive job attitudes,
higher performance, and lower turnover.

ADDITIONAL CASE STUDY: CHANGING THE CULTURE AT HOME DEPOT
Part 1
Home Depot is one of the business success stories of the past quarter century.
Founded in 1978 in Atlanta by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, the company grew to
more than 1100 big-box stores by the end of 2000; it reached the $40 million revenue
mark faster than any retailer in history. The company’s success stemmed from several
distinctive characteristics, including the warehouse feel of its orange stores, complete
with low lighting, cluttered aisles, and sparse signage; a “stack it high, watch it fly”
philosophy that reflected a primary focus on sales growth; and extraordinary store
manager autonomy, aimed at spurring innovation and allowing managers to act quickly
when they sensed a change in local market conditions. Today, Home Depot is the second-
largest retailer in the United States after Wal-Mart.
Home Depot’s culture, set primarily by the charismatic Bernard Marcus (known
among employees as Bernie), was itself a major factor in the company’s success. It was
marked by an entrepreneurial high-spiritedness and a willingness to take risks; a
passionate commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and the community;
excellent customer service and respect for all people; and an aversion to anything that felt
bureaucratic or hierarchical. The company’s philosophy of customer service – “whatever
it takes” – emphasizes the importance of cultivating a relationship with customers. The
company structure was viewed as an inverted pyramid with stores and customers at the
top and senior management on the bottom.
Long-time Home Depot executives recall the disdain how store managers used to
view directives from headquarters. Because everyone believed that managers should
spend their time on the sales floor with customers, company paperwork often ended up
buried under piles on someone’s desk, tossed in a wastebasket, or even marked with a
company-supplied “B.S.” stamp and sent back to the head office. Such behaviour was
seen as a sign of the company’s unflinching focus on the customer. “The idea was to
challenge senior managers to think about whether what they were sending out to the
stores was worth store managers’ time,” says Tom Taylor, who started at Home Depot in
1983 as a parking lot attendant and today is executive vice-president for merchandising
and marketing.
There was a downside to this state of affairs, though. Along with arguably low-
value corporate paperwork, an important store safety directive might disappear among the
unread memos. And while their sense of entitled autonomy might have freed store
managers to respond to local market conditions, it paradoxically made the company as a
whole less flexible. A regional buyer might agree to give a supplier of, say, garden
furniture, prime display space in dozens of stores in exchange for a price discount of 10
percent—only to have individual store managers ignore the agreement because they
thought it was a bad idea. And as the chain mushroomed in size, the lack of strong career
development programs was leading Home Depot to run short of the talented store
managers on whom its business model depended.

All in all, the cultural characteristics that had served the retailer well when it had
200 stores started to undermine it when Lowe’s began to move into Home Depot’s big
metropolitan markets from its small-town base in the mid-1990s. Individual autonomy
and a focus on sales at any cost eroded profitability, particularly as stores weren’t able to
benefit from economies of scale that an organization the size of Home Depot should have
enjoyed.
When Robert Nardelli arrived at Home Depot in December 2000, the deck
seemed stacked against the new CEO. He had no retailing experience and, in fact, had
spent an entire career in industrial, not consumer, businesses. His previous job was
running General Electric’s power systems division, whose multimillion-dollar generating
plants for industry and governments were a far cry from $10 light switches for do-it-
yourselfers. Nardelli was also taking over what seemed to be a wildly successful
company with a 20-year record of growth that had outpaced even Wal-Mart—but with
latent financial and operational problems that threatened its continued growth, and even
its future, if they weren’t quickly addressed.
Nardelli’s arrival at Home Depot came as a shock. No one had expected that
Marcus (then chairman) and Arthur Blank (then CEO) would be leaving anytime soon.
Most employees simply couldn’t picture the company without these father figures. And if
there was going to be change at the top of this close-knit organization, in which
promotions had nearly always come from within, no one wanted, as Nardelli himself
acknowledges, an outsider who would “GE-ize their company and culture.”
To top it off, Nardelli’s exacting and tough-minded approach, which he learned at
General Electric, set him on a collision course with the freewheeling yet famously close-
knit culture fostered by his predecessors, Home Depot’s legendary co-founders, Marcus
and Blank. It was this culture that Nardelli had to reshape if he hoped to bring some big-
company muscle to the entrepreneurial organization (which, with revenue of $46 billion
in 2000, was sometimes referred to as a “$40 billion start-up”) and put the retailer’s
growth on a secure foundation.
Nardelli laid out a three-part strategy: enhance the core by improving the
profitability of current and future stores in existing markets; extend the business by
offering related services such as tool rental and home installation of Home Depot
products; and expand the market, both geographically and by serving new kinds of
customers, such as big construction contractors.
To meet his strategy goals, Nardelli had to build an organization that understood
the opportunity in, and the importance of, taking advantage of its growing scale. Some
functions, such as purchasing (or merchandising), needed to be centralized to leverage the
buying power that a giant company could wield. Previously autonomous functional,
regional, and store operations needed to collaborate—merchandising needed to work
more closely with store operations, for instance, to avoid conflicts like the one over the
placement of garden furniture. This would be aided by making detailed performance data
transparent to all the relevant parties simultaneously so that people could base decisions
on shared information. The merits of the current store environment needed to be re-
evaluated; its lack of signage and haphazard layout made increasingly less sense for time-
pressed shoppers. And a new emphasis needed to be placed on employee training, not

only to bolster the managerial ranks but also to transform orange-aproned sales associates
from cheerful greeters into knowledgeable advisers who could help customers solve their
home improvement problems. As Nardelli likes to say, “What so effectively got Home
Depot from zero to $50 billion in sales wasn’t going to get it to the next $50 billion.” The
new strategy would require a careful renovation of Home Depot’s strong culture.
Shortly after arriving, Nardelli hired an old colleague from GE, Dennis Donovan,
as his head of human resources. By placing a trusted associate in a position known for its
conspicuous lack of influence in most executive suites—and by making him one of Home
Depot’s highest-paid executives—Nardelli signalled that changing the culture would be
central to getting the company where it needed to go.
Before reading Part 2 of the case, answer the following questions:
1. Does Home Depot need to change its culture? What are the consequences it faces
if it does or does not change the culture?
2. Describe Home Depot’s culture and the role it has played in the company’s
success. How should the culture change? What norms and patterns of behaviour need to
be developed? How should the new culture differ from the old culture?
3. Do you agree with the board’s decision to hire an outsider as the new CEO,
especially someone who has worked in a company in a different industry and with a very
different culture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
4. What are some of the risks and obstacles that Nardelli faces in trying to change
the culture of Home Depot? What should he do to manage them?
5. How should Nardelli change the culture of Home Depot? What does he have to
do, and how should he proceed?
Part 2
On January 3, 2007 Home Depot announced that the company and Nardelli had
“mutually agreed” that Nardelli would resign. Dennis Donovan tendered his resignation
on February 1, 2007.
Although Nardelli’s departure was related to his compensation and the board’s
desire to reduce his 2006 pay package, there is much more to this story and his departure.
Much of it has to do with what he tried to do to the Home Depot culture. According to
one writer, “his failure was rooted in his decision to take a hammer to the people-oriented
culture that was the essence of the Home Depot experience.” The old Home Depot was
staffed with experts who were always ready and willing to help customers. It was this
personal touch that Nardelli changed.
He got rid of many employees and replaced full timers with part time staff to cut
costs. As a result, Home Depot’s great customer service became a place where it was
hard to find help. His centralization of purchasing made the company more efficient but it
eroded the entrepreneurial culture. Store managers were measured on an array of metrics

such as the average hourly labour rate, none of which were related to customer service.
Stores became dirty and employees surly and scarce. Some claim that what Nardelli did
was ruin the Home Depot culture.
People now question whether Nardelli was the right person for the job given his
background at GE where front line staff are not as important. By all accounts, Nardelli
seems to have GE-ized the Home Depot service culture. It has been reported that upon
hearing the news of Nardelli’s departure, store workers were celebrating. This is not
likely to have caused Nardelli much concern as he negotiated a $210 million retirement
package upon his departure. Never mind that company earnings fell 3.1 percent in the
third quarter of 2006 to $1.5 billion.
Following Nardelli’s resignation in January 2007, Frank Blake became chairman

and CEO of Home Depot. Blake joined Home Depot in 2002 as executive vice president,
Business Development and Corporate Operations. Tim Crow replaced Dennis Donovan
as vice president of human resources following Donovan’s resignation. Crow has been
with Home Depot since 2002 first as vice president of Organization, Talent, and
Performance Systems and then senior vice president. One of his most critical tasks will
be to revive the Home Depot culture of strong customer service. This will not be easy.
Over the last several years the company that was once famous for its helpful employees,
has become the subject of blog rants about bad experiences with disengaged and hard to
find employees. Home Depot fell eight points in seven years on the University of
Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction index, the largest drop for any retailer in the
index.
Crowe says he is focused on three priorities: creating a sense of ownership among

Home Depot’s 330,000 associates; making sure they have the product knowledge that
customers want; and aligning rewards and recognition programs to boost morale. He has
introduced a new “Success Sharing” program that gives everyone in a store a cash bonus
if they achieve their sales plans. The “Homer Badges” are given to associates who are
recognized for “living Home Depot values.” Associates who earn three badges get a cash
bonus. The “Aprons on the Floor” program invites employees to develop ways to spend
more time working with customers. The company held a luncheon for the first winners of
the program and each team member received a badge and a $100 gift card.
6. What do you think about the changes that Nardelli made to Home Depot? Why
wasn’t he more successful? What else should he have done? What should he have not
done?
7. What do you think of Tim Crowe’s three priorities and some of the new programs
he has introduced? What effect will they have on employees and the culture?
8. Compare and contrast Nardelli’s initiatives to the new priorities and programs
being implemented by Tim Crowe. How are they different and what are the implications
of them for employees and the culture?

9. What should the new president and CEO Frank Blake and the new human
resources vice president Tim Crow do? Should they focus on culture? How should they
proceed?
10. What does this case say about the role of founders and leadership for
organizational culture? What does it say about the effect of culture on employees and
organizations? What does it say about building, maintaining, and changing an
organization’s culture?
Sources: Based on Charan, R. (2006). Home Depot’s blueprint for culture change.
Harvard Business Review, 84(4), 60–70; Hollon, J. (2007, January 15). Nardelli’s tear-
down job. Workforce Management, 86(1), 34; Ruiz, G. (2007, February 12). Home
Depot’s new HR leader faces tall order.Workforce Management, 86(3), 4; Reingold, J.
(2008, September 29). Home Depot’s total rehab. Fortune, 159; Marquez, J. (2008, July
14). Home remodel. Workforce Management, 87(12), 1, 24, 26, & 28;
www.homedepot.com.
TEACHING NOTES FOR CHANGING THE CULTURE AT HOME DEPOT

CASE STUDY
This case provides an excellent example of why organizations sometimes need to change
their culture, the difficulty of culture change, and how to proceed in implementing a
cultural change program. In relating the case to the material in the chapter, you might
want to point out how Home Depot is a good example of the strong culture concept in
that there were very intense and pervasive beliefs, values, and assumptions that are
supported by the majority of members throughout the organization. It also demonstrates
the assets of strong cultures with respect to the old Home Depot culture – coordination,
conflict resolution, and of course financial success. And it also demonstrates an important
liability of a strong culture – resistance to change. A key point here is how the strategy of
an organization can change in response to external pressures and a strong culture that was
appropriate for past success might not support the new strategy. This is clearly the case
with respect to Home Depot. It is also the case that the strong culture was very resistant
to change. Along these lines, you might want to refer to some of the material in Chapter
16 on organizational change. In particular, the material on the change process
(unfreezing, change, and refreezing) is especially relevant as is the section on issues in
the change process. You might want to discuss the causes of resistance and dealing with
resistance and how they played out at Home Depot. This case also demonstrates the role
of founders and leaders in building, maintaining, and changing organizational culture as
well as what happens when a change in culture has some negative effects on employees
and the organization.
The first part of this case and teaching note are based on an article by Ram Charan (2006,
April; Home Depot’s Blueprint for Culture Change, Harvard Business Review, 84(4), 60-
70). For more detail, refer to the article.

Part 1 Questions
1. Does Home Depot need to change its culture? What are the consequences it faces if it
does or does not change the culture?
For starters, Home Depot’s growth has slowed and it is experiencing financial and
operational problems that threaten continued growth and its future if they are not
addressed. Add to this a culture that worked when the company was small and growing
but is no longer functional. As the company has matured and grown in size along with
changes in the environment that have resulted in new competitors, the company’s culture
is no longer appropriate. As indicated in the case, the cultural characteristics that have
served the company well when it had 200 stores has started to undermine it. Core aspects
of the culture such as individual autonomy and a focus on sales at any cost have eroded
profitability. Changing the culture is key to moving the company ahead and preventing it
from losing its competitiveness. The culture needs to change in order for the company’s
growth to continue and for its very survival. As Nardelli is quoted in the case, “What so
effectively got Home Depot from zero to $50 billion in sales wasn’t going to get it to the
next $50 billion.” Home Depot needs a new strategy and a new strategy requires a new
and strong culture.
According to Ram Charan, author of the article, the last five years has seen the
company’s performance put on a stable footing as it continued to enjoy robust and
profitable growth and a platform has been built to generate future growth. Most
importantly, he notes that “these changes in the business would not have happened
without a real and observable change in the culture.”
However, as indicated in the chapter, strong cultures can be resistant to change and
changing the culture at Home Depot is likely to encounter considerable resistance to
change.
2. Describe Home Depot’s culture and the role it has played in the company’s success.
How should the culture change? What norms and patterns of behaviour need to be
developed? How should the new culture differ from the old culture?
Home Depot’s culture was set primarily by one of its founders, Bernard Marcus and has
been a major factor in the company’s success. The culture is marked by an
entrepreneurial high-spiritedness and a willingness to take risks; a passionate
commitment to customers, colleagues, the company, and the community; and an aversion
to anything that felt bureaucratic or hierarchical. In such a culture, store managers view
directives from headquarters with disdain. It was believed that managers should spend
their time on the sales floor with customers. Company paperwork was ignored in the face
of an unflinching focus on the customer. Managers assumed a sense of entitled autonomy
in which they were free to respond to local market conditions. The old culture was
effective for a new company. However, as the company has grown and matured, some of
these aspects of the culture have become problematic and need to change. Ignoring
paperwork and company directives is a problem. Individual autonomy can create
problems and create inconsistency throughout the organization, and prevent the company

from reaping the benefits from economies of scale that a large company like Home Depot
should be acquiring.
So what changes are required? First, there was a desire to build on the best aspects of the
existing culture such as the passionate commitment to the customer and to the company.
However, there was also a need for people to rely on data rather than intuition and to
assess business and marketplace conditions. There was also a need for people to
coordinate their efforts and to be accountable for meeting companywide financial and
other targets. People also had to deliver not just on sales growth but also other
components of business performance that drive profitability. The new culture needs focus
on metrics, data, accountability, collaboration, and centralization – all of the things that
were not part of the old culture.
3. Do you agree with the board’s decision to hire an outsider as the new CEO, especially
someone who has worked in a company in a different industry and with a very
different culture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
For those in the company, it came as a shock that an outsider was the new CEO given
that promotions were usually from within the company. Bringing in an outsider from a
very different company was a big surprise. The main advantage of this is that it brings a
new perspective and approach to the company. It offers the opportunity for new ideas and
insights and real change that only an outsider can bring. It would be much more difficult
for an insider who is part of the existing culture to actually change it. The downside of
course is the resistance to the new CEO and resistance to change. Employees are more
likely to resist a change that is initiated by an outsider than somebody inside the firm who
has a history and experience with Home Depot. In fact, it was the Home Depot board that
decided that a seasoned manager with the expertise to drive continued growth needed to
be brought in to run what had become a large business.
4. What are some of the risks and obstacles that Nardelli faces in trying to change the
culture of Home Depot? What should he do to manage them?
The most likely risk and obstacle is resistance to change and that is exactly what Nardelli
confronted. Resistance to change was fierce, especially from managers. In fact, most of
the top executive team left during Nardelli’s first year. But even a year and a half after
Nardelli took over there was still significant opposition to the changes he was making.
Part of the problem was that people never had a chance to grieve for the old Home Depot
and they were not prepared for the change and did not fully understand why it was
necessary. To deal with the resistance, Nardelli made efforts to get people to see for
themselves whey the new strategy and culture made sense. He also used a number of
tools that were designed to ingrain the new culture into the organization including a five-
day learning forum for district and store managers. Participants were asked to put
themselves in Nardelli’s shoes and think about what they would do. Training programs
have also been implemented in an effort to get and sustain employee commitment to the
new culture. Over time, people’s attitudes slowly began to change.

5. How should Nardelli change the culture of Home Depot? What does he have to do,
and how should he proceed?
Nardelli used a variety of approaches and tools to change the culture. Through his own
personal leadership he mixed encouragement with ultimatum in order to foster cultural
norms like accountability through his own behaviour. And as indicated in the case, he
also brought with him an old colleague from GE, Dennis Donovan, to head human
resources. This sent a strong signal throughout the organization that changing the culture
was key to getting the company to where it needed to go. He also used a number of
specific tools to change the culture.
According to Ram Charan, “Home Depot’s experience shows – in perhaps the best
example I have seen in my 30-year career – that a cultural transition can be achieved
systematically, even under less than favourable conditions, not simply through the
charisma of the person leading the change but through the use of mechanisms that alter
the social interactions of people in the organization.” It was these mechanisms or tools
that changed people’s behaviour, beliefs, social interactions, and the nature of their
decision making.
The mechanisms fall into the following categories:
1. Metrics which describe what the culture values and make clear what people will
be held accountable for and the new cultural priorities. Common metrics were
introduced to produce company wide data in areas that had not previously been
measured. The metrics showed employees that things were not going as well as
people believed. They also made clear and reinforced the collaborative behaviour
and attitudes that were part of the new culture. Subjective performance reviews
were replaced with a standard, company wide performance management process
that used quantitative criteria. Metrics were also used so people would have a
better understanding of the business and be able to see the relationship among
revenue, margins, inventory turns, cash flow and other measures from store to
store and region to region. The company-wide metrics also encouraged
collaboration and discussions about how to improve performance.
2. Processes which change how work is done and integrate the new culture into the
organization. One of the first things Nardelli did was to institute a two-hour
Monday morning conference call with the top 15 or so executives. The executives
provide reports on the previous week’s activities. Nardelli asks questions each
week and holds people accountable for what they said they planned to do the
previous week. This helped to instill a culture of cooperation and accountability.
On Monday afternoons a video cast goes to Home Depot stores. It focuses on the
week ahead and creates a link between each store’s activities and the bigger
picture. This is a shift from the old culture where memos from the head office
were ignored.
3. Programs which generate support for and provide the first demonstration of the
new culture’s effectiveness. Learning forums and leadership training programs
were set up to help people understand the need for change and the new culture.
Employees affected by a new process or system were included in the development

team and provided input into the new process (e.g., bar code system to keep track
of incoming goods at stores).
4. Structures which provide a framework for the new culture to grow by changing
the where and how decisions are made. The decentralized approach to purchasing
that involved nine divisional purchasing offices which was part of the old Home
Depot’s cohesive culture had to be centralized. To make the change, 60 top
executives from the nine regional divisions met at headquarters on a Saturday to
discuss the details of the new purchasing function which was to be unveiled to
employees, suppliers, and the media the following Monday. This signaled a major
cultural change to a more centralized organization.
Part 2 Questions
6. What do you think about the changes that Nardelli made to Home Depot? Why wasn’t
he more successful? What else should he have done? What should he have not done?
Some of the changes that Nardelli made were clearly called for given the company’s size
and new competition from Lowe’s. For example, the individual autonomy at the store
level and a focus on sales at any cost meant that the company could not benefit from
economies of scale. Thus, the centralization of purchasing was necessary to leverage
buying power and it made the company more efficient. In addition, the once autonomous
functional, regional, and store operations needed to collaborate to avoid conflicts. A
greater emphasis on employee training to ensure that employees had the knowledge to
help customers solve home improvement problems was also a positive change. However,
as indicated in the case, taking a “hammer” to the people-oriented culture was not in the
best interests of the company. Clearly, key to the success of Home Depot was its close-
knit culture and excellent customer service. Some have said that what Nardelli did was
GE-ize the company culture. It seems that Nardelli went too far in trying to change Home
Depot and in the process he changed the very culture that was key to its uniqueness and
success. Replacing the loyal and committed full-time employees with part-time staff also
hurt the company and its ability to provide the great customer service that it had become
known for. As indicated in the case, some have said that Nardelli ruined the Home Depot
culture. A drop in customer satisfaction suggests that the changes that Nardelli made did
hurt customer service. Thus, his changes might have improved efficiency and lowered
costs, but it hurt employee morale and customer service, two key things that he neglected.
7. What do you think of Tim Crow’s three priorities and some of the new programs he has
introduced? What effect will they have on employees and the culture?
One of Tim Crow’s most critical tasks is to restore the Home Depot culture of excellent
customer service. He plans to do this by focusing on three priorities: creating a sense of
ownership among Home Depot employees, making sure they have the product knowledge
that customers want, and aligning rewards and recognition programs to boost morale.
These are important changes because they focus on employees and in particular aligning
employee values and goals with those of the organization. Employees are being told that
they are important and they are being rewarded and recognized for “living Home Depot
values.” The Aprons on the Floor program encourages employees to spend more time with
customers, something that is important for bringing back the old culture of service

excellence. Thus, these new programs will help to shift the culture back toward a focus on
the important role of employees in providing excellent customer service.
8. Compare and contrast Nardelli’s initiatives to the new priorities and programs being
implemented by Tim Crow. How are they different and what are the implications of
them for employees and the culture?
Nardelli’s initiatives did not focus on employees or customers. He focused more on
efficiency, centralization, and metrics and did not give enough attention to front-line
employees who were key to the success of the company and for providing the service that
customers came to depend on. By contrast, Crow is implementing programs that focus on
employee morale, attitudes, and behavour by providing recognition and rewards to
employees who support the company’s values. The emphasis on employees through
training and recognition and improving relationships with customers is likely to improve
employee attitudes and customer satisfaction. It will also help to shift the culture more
towards the old Home Depot that was more people-oriented.
9. What should the new president CEO Frank Blake and the new human resources vice-
president Tim Crow do? Should they focus on culture? How should they proceed?
It is pretty clear in the case that what Frank Blake and Tim Crow want to do is get
employees more engaged and involved in the Home Depot experience by putting customers
first. They are trying to bring back some of the key aspects of the original Home Depot
culture that focused on cultivating a relationship with customers and providing excellent
customer service. By giving employees a sense of ownership they can begin to feel that
they are valued by the organization and that what is good for the organization will also be
good for them. In addition to providing recognition and rewards for living the Home Depot
values and for providing great service, Blake and Crow might also consider how
socialization can be used to communicate the company values and culture to new hires.
This is especially important give a recruitment target of 15,000 employees that Crow was
facing soon after the change in leadership. The use of symbols, rites, and rituals can also be
used for communicating and reinforcing the culture. Stories about the founders of Home
Depot and past events in the company’s history would also be useful to communicate how
things should be done in the organization and what is important.
10. What does this case say about the role of founders and leadership for organizational
culture? What does it say about the effect of culture on employees and organizations?
What does it say about building, maintaining, and changing an organization’s culture?
This case provides a great example of the role of founders and leadership for organizational
culture. The culture of Home Depot was largely a result of its two founders, Bernard
Marcus and Arthur Blank. As indicated in Part 1 of the case, Home Depot’s culture which
was a major factor in the company’s success was set primarily by Bernard Marcus. With
Nardelli as CEO, the entrepreneurial and service excellence culture became a thing of the
past and as a result, many employees left the company as Nardelli shifted the culture away
from people and more towards efficiency, centralization, and metrics. With Frank Blake as
CEO, there is the expectation that the old people-focused culture of service excellence will
return. And the fact that Blake and Crow are both Home Depot insiders is a strong signal to
employees that there will be a return to the old Home Depot culture. Thus, the culture of

the company has been largely shaped by those at the top. There is little question that the
original Home Depot culture was a result of its founders; that the change in culture was
largely due to changes made by Nardelli; and a return to the old Home Depot culture will
be credited to Blake. The founders and leaders have a strong effect on culture, employees,
and the organization. Nardelli changed the culture in a manner that had a direct effect on
employees and the way the company operated.
Additional Information about the Home Depot Culture: When discussing some of the
questions in Part 2, it might be helpful to refer to Home Depot values and culture which are
described on the company’s website where it reads: “The Home Depot’s values guide the
beliefs and actions of all associates on a daily basis. Our values are the fabric of the
Company’s unique culture and are central to our success. In fact, they are our competitive
advantage in the marketplace.”
The website also indicates that Home Depot is still guided by the values established by its
founders: Taking care of our people, giving back to our communities, doing the right thing,
excellent customer service, creating shareholder value, building strong relationships,
entrepreneurial spirit, and respect for all people.

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CHAPTER 8

SOCIAL INFLUENCE, SOCIALIZATION, AND

CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading Chapter 8, students should be able to:

CHAPTER OUTLINES AND TEACHING NOTES

Social Influence in Organizations

Information Dependence and Effect Dependence

An individual is also dependent on the effects of his or her behaviour as determined by

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The Social Influence Process and Conformity

Identification involves conformity to a social norm prompted by perceptions that those

Internalization is conformity to a social norm prompted by true acceptance of the beliefs,

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An important objective of organizational socialization is for newcomers to achieve a

Socialization is an ongoing process and is most potent during certain periods of

Anticipatory Socialization. This socialization occurs before a person becomes a member

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Unrealistic Expectations and the Psychological Contract

Methods of Organizational Socialization

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Realistic Job Previews

Employee Orientation Programs

Research Evidence. Orientation programs are an important method of socialization

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Institutionalized socialization consists of collective, formal, sequential, fixed, serial, and

The six socialization tactics dimensions are as follows:

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Research Evidence. Institutionalized socialization tactics have been found to be related to

Career Functions of Mentoring. A mentor provides a number of career-enhancing

Psychosocial Functions of Mentoring. Mentors can also provide certain psychosocial

Formal Mentoring Programs. Formal mentoring programs, in which seasoned employees

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Women and Mentors. Women face particular difficulty in establishing an apprentice-

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Newcomers can also be proactive by participating in social events (general socializing),

What Is Organizational Culture?

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Organizations can have several subcultures that reflect departmental or

The “Strong Culture” Concept

Assets of Strong Cultures

Liabilities of Strong Cultures

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Contributors to the Culture

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Stories. The folklore of organizations – stories about past organizational events – is a

A TEACHING TIP: DEBASEMENT AND HAZING

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SAMPLE ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of developing a strong organizational

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3. Describe how you would design an employee orientation program. Be sure to

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ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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2. Describe an instance of social conformity that you have observed in an

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extraordinary service. Finally, the formal socialization process (beginning with

5. What is the difference between a traditional orientation program and a Realistic

EXTRA DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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SAMPLE ANSWERS TO INTEGRATIVE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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different work-related values. Give some examples of the kind of organizational

Uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which people are