Week 6.5 Socialization

In Chapter 4 authors talk about socialization in organizations and how new members socialize. They break down work-specific socialization into three stages. The anticipatory stage which happens before we join the organization, the encounter stage in which newcomers learn from their day-to-day tasks and experiences and finally the metamorphosis stage in which the newcomer seeks to become an accepted and participating member of the organization by learning and adapting to the organization's expectations.

In our company whenever someone new joins the managers normally send out an email to all the extended team members. (In my case people who work in engineering side of IT) This makes everyone aware that there is a new person and they normally look his photo etc on the internal site. This helps that person in communicating with others and become part of the group. Most people will introduce themselves when they run into him.

I think this is very important thing to follow. When I Joined my manager then did not send the e-mail and I had a very difficult time knowing people in the group. As most people do not know who i was and in my culture in India people do not introduce themselves to somebody, but is done normally by someone who knows both the persons.

When i changed the group, the person that was hired in my place who i used to work with a transitioning work was facing a similar situation as the manager again did not send that introduction e-mail. I took the initiative and introduced him to most people in person and i can clearly see that it helped him.

Managers should try to help the newcomers by introducing them to at least the people with whom they work routinely.