Organizations as Culture-Bearing Milieux

Working Paper Serie

Socialization and Recruitment in Organizations: A Clash Between Homeostatic and Adaptive Systems

Working Paper Serie

Organizational entry : toward a more complete understanding of newcomers' experiences / BEBR No.562

"An earlier version of the paper was presented at the November 1978 Los Angeles Meetings of the Operations Research Society of America/The Institute of Management Sciences."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-25)."Growing disillusionment among new members of organizations has been traced to inadequacies in approaches to organizational entry. To provide a foundation for more adequate organizational entry practices, gaps in existing approaches are identified and a more comprehensive conceptual framework is developed. The framework: identifies key features of transition experiences; describes the sense-making processes by which individuals cope with transition features, in particular 'surprises'; highlights how newcomers and insiders differ in sense-making needs and resources. Implications are drawn for organizational entry practices.

RESTORING A SENSE OF CONTROL DURING IMPLEMENTATION: HOW USER INVOLVEMENT LEADS TO SYSTEM ACCEPTANCE

In an effort to implement information systems successfully, developers have experimented with a variety of approaches. User involvement has emerged as one of the most popular. It is now widely believed that involving users in various aspects of implementation will lead them more readily to accept and use a new system. However, empirical tests of the user involvement-system acceptance relationship have generated only mixed results (Ives and Olson 1984; Baroudi et al. 1986). Although this body of research has been criticized on a number of methodological grounds, Ives and Olson note that a more fundamental flaw has been the lack of a theoretical explanation for the relationship. In this paper, the authors present a theoretically grounded perspective to account for effects of involving users during implementation. The experience of the typical non-technical user just before, during, and after system implementation is examined. Borrowing from social psychology and organizational science, a perspective on the user\u27s situation, experience, and needs is assembled. It proposes that (1) computer implementation represents a threat to users\u27 perceptions of control over their work; (2) computer implementation represents a period of transition during which users must cope with differences between old and new work systems, including changes, contrasts, and surprises. In an implementation approach derived from the first tenet of this perspective, the key is to provide users with opportunities to engage in activities which restore the sense of personal control over work that has been threatened by and during system implementation. Perceived control is seen to be the critical phenomenon underlying effects of user involvement during implementation. A field experiment was conducted to provide an initial test of the portion of the perspective concerned with perceived control. The implementation of a computer-based payroll and personnel management information system in state government agencies was studied. Payroll and personnel clerks served as subjects. Experimental group subjects experienced a modified implementation process designed to increase the workers\u27 sense of personal control. Three sets of questionnaires were administered: as workers first learned of the planned conversion ten weeks before cutover; two weeks after cutover; two months after cutover. As hypothesized, treatment group subjects were significantly more satisfied with the new system than were control group subjects. Additionally, experiences reported in the treatment group were more positive in terms of users\u27 perceptions of interactions with system implementors and of attitudes expressed by their managers. The theoretical perspective suggests that user involvement is effective because it restores or enhances perceived control. It also suggests that means other than direct user involvement can enhance the perception of control and may produce similar effects -- perhaps with lower organizational costs. Further work is needed to go beyond this initial test of the perceived control-user involvement perspective. The paper identifies possible next steps as well as practical implications of the perspective. In addition, empirical work is needed to develop the second portion of the perspective in which implementation is considered to create a transition experience for users. The authors note that the extent to which strategies for facilitating other types of transitions can be applied to the situation of system implementation bears systematic examination

Toward an understanding of career transitions / BEBR No. 563

Bibliography: p. 26-28

Career Transitions: Varieties and Commonalities

The effects of increasingly prevalent job and profession changing and re-evaluation of work vs. family priorities have led to a growing interest in careers issues. However, aids to understanding and managing career transition phenomena have not yet been developed. Toward that end, varieties of career transitions are identified here, and commonalities across transitions are explored.Support for the research that resulted in this paper was provided, in part, by a grant from the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and, in part, by a grant from the Office of Naval Research Foundation Research Program at the Naval Postgraduate School

A framework for redesigning organizational entry practices / BEBR No. 536

"Presented at the November 1978 Los Angeles Meetings of the Operations Research Society of America/The Institute of Management Sciences"Includes bibliographical references (p. [23]-24)."Turnover and disillusionment of individuals during early years on the job have increased steadily in recent years. This trend has been traced to inadequacies in current theories and practices of socializing new members into work organizations. To provide a foundation for redesigning more adequate organizational entry practices, gaps in existing research are identified and a more comprehensive conceptual framework is developed. The framework identifies key features of new members' transition experiences. It proposes a classification of the varieties of 'surprise', including traditional views of unmet expectations, which individuals may face in new organizational settings. The framework further describes the sense-making processes by which individuals cope with such surprises. Ways in which newcomers and insiders in organizations differ in their sense-making needs and resources are highlighted. Implications for organizational entry practices that facilitate newcomers' sense-making processes are drawn.

Alternative Perspectives in the Organizational Sciences: "Inquiry from the Inside" And "Inquiry from the Outside"

An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, August 1979."Inquiry from the inside" is characterized by the experiential involvement of the researcher, the absence of a priori analytical categories, and an intent to understand a particular situation. "Inquiry from the outside" calls for detachment on the part of the researcher, who typically gathers data according to a priori analytical categories and aims to uncover knowledge that can be generalized to many situations. Greater appreciation of the epistemological differences between these two approaches can help organization scientists select the mode of inquiry appropriate to the phenomenon under study and to their own abilities and purposes.Support during the writing of this article was provided by grants from the Office of Naval Research Foundation Research Program at the Naval Postgraduate School

Resume of Meryl Reis Louis, 1979

Naval Postgraduate School Faculty Resum