Workplace culture and socialization Flashcards
Workplace culture
beliefs, values, attitudes, norms and accepted procedures
two key sources of workplace culture that shape how we perform our work
- the kind of work being done (occupational)
– specifically professionals how they adopt professional culture - The organization in which it is done (employing organization)
- Family friendly?
Workplace Culture
May be formalized and deliberately created
-Training people to adopt to workplace culture
may be informal
- Not necessarily explicit
- Perform your tasks but ‘we don’t do that here’
may conflict with one another
- Between different departments
- Conflict – depending on the goals they are trying to pursue
Conflict – that professionals experience when they work in large bureaucratic organizations
-Bureaucracy and professionals often have internalized work related cultures
Ex: health profession (nurses or doctors) – goals and values = provide the best patient care possible
Employer in charge or a large organization: the hospital – interested in efficiency and profit
Professional socialization and training:
Theoretical, abstract knowledge
Applied skills and techniques
-Formal aspects
Professional subculture
Constantly being socialized
People before they enter a professional training school they have anticipatory socialization in regards to that occupation
Ex: why do students go into engineering?
Students – know someone who is an engineer
Know what they are going to get into
Some people just fall into professions, others may have a pre-socialization of what they are getting into
Important in forming our adult identity
Our occupation becomes a key identity to who we are
Internalizing an occupational identity – how it affects our work
Lower status occupations – intense subcultures and identities associated with them
Ex: police, Cooks, Circus performers, Zoo keepers
Socialization and training: Acquiring professional knowledge
adult socialization
formal and informal
Adult socialization
Adult socialization and training:
Already acquired many traits, norms and values associated with being a student
Acquire those norms what will be associated with your future career
Ex: Medical students – involves a lot of exams, hard science, but little to do with being a doctor = abstract knowledge
Second and third years – applied and practical skills (clinicals)
Formal and informal
Learn from interactions with their peers
Take place in school or outside of school
Knowledge based occupations
Individuals need to acquire a lot of knowledge, and abstract theoretical knowledge
Applied skills and techniques
Applied or clinical part of program
Learn by doing
Focus on technical aspects
Learn how to identify what needs to be done
Diagnose situations and figure out what you need to do
Identify the problem – find a solution
During – they are learning how to apply their skills
Ex: Lawyers articling – applying those skills
Social workers – practicum
Teachers – student teaching
Doctors – clinicals
Professional subculture
formal and informal aspects
Have long intensive, standardized processes where we can break apart and see where the students are learning what
How we acquire this new identity in our adult lives
values, norms, and symbols -Picking up habits – as we socialize to adopt a particular identity – is associated with being a member of that organization Professional schools Distinctive value, norm and symbols Ex: Santas – distinctive dress Ex: white coat, stethoscope - doctor
Changes in students s
rites of passage
changes in student orientation
Not that interested in the formal training of the abstract knowledge and social skills
Rites of passage – transition from a student to a practioner
Not interested in assessing their knowledge
Rites of passage
separation
transition
incorporation
Separation
From others
People going to the professional schools are separated from other students
Ex: law school – different building
When your classes are scheduled
And the work you are doing
Transition
Ambiguous and stressful
Sense of in betweenness – not sure how to act
Lost their general identity
Doing more clinical and applied aspects
Incorporation
Marked by a ceremony
See this in the formal ways we refer to these incorporating stages
When lawyers finish their law school training they are called to the bar
Now licenced to be a lawyer
Big step towards formally identifying with that occupation
changes in student orientation
attitudes towards clients or patients
depersonalization and detached concern
attitudes towards clients or patients
How their attitudes change
Researchers have documented stated that students enter the work field with noble idealistic view
Strong humanity concerns and commitments
By their 3rd or 4th year they seem to be less concerned about helping others and instead emphasize certain skills
More practical tasks – being more successful
Important part of understanding the shift in identity
These students are now internalizing the professional identity in which they are training for
Depersonalization
Their clients or their patients
Impersonal bureaucracies are
Treating us like a number – treatment will be equally and equitably
Another impersonal – efficiency and rational
Not going to connect emotionally or personally, want them to be treated in a rational and efficient manner
Concern for them but a detachment
Use of cadavers – medical schools start to train students to depersonalize students
What they are treating is a physical object
Depersonalization in the operating room
A corpse – is considered ”the body”
Language shifted, to do their job to fix a body not whether if that person was a mother or a person with characteristics etc.
They refer to the disease not the individual
Medical schools focus on the training and technique and applied skills rather than the way they speak Whether empathy (concern and feelings) is something inherent or something they can train?
