Challenges of supportive communication

         In the competitive workplace, employees may feel overworked and have hard difficult times to balance work and personal life. It is the organization's interest to help employees' personal problems for improving productivity at work. Supportive communication allows employees to focus on work related issues and challenges, which creates a work atmosphere for employee empowerment. However, even with the best employer’s intentions, the defensive climate might be created during the process of communication, which has a negative effect on the workers. To have  supportive communication, managers need skills of active listening and with giving feedback. Without those skills managers may get confused with personal issues at work and Motor Parts Corporation case is such an example.  Supportive communication in an organization is astronomical to organizational effectiveness, reflecting how businesses manage opposition, preventing dysfunctional tendencies. Active listening and effective feedback are organizational attributes that replicates effective leadership abilities to value employees, and implement efficient communication. Organizations must address employees’ personal problems that affect job performance, keeping the business role in proper perspective, maintaining strict limitations that are concise, and unambiguous. For example, Doc Fan, the military is an organization that effectively implements entities assisting soldiers with personal problems.        

Challenges of supportive communication

         Defensive communication may occur during communication if people feel threatened.  Gibb's categories indicated several factors that can produce defensive communication and they include evaluation, control, strategy, neutrality, superiority, and certainty. The limitation of knowledge and lack of experience of the communicator, and the relationship between the two communicating parties could affect the outcome of the communication. An effective communication needs to provide necessary support, the support must be relevant and accurate, which requires that the communicator holds enough information about employees’ needs but that is not always easy. The expression during communication must be sincere otherwise the situation will be worse than not expressing concern at all, which is not easy task for managers either? neither. So to properly handle personal issues at work is a challenge for any organization. There are numerous challenges creating effective organizational supportive communication. Maintaining an atmosphere that prevents dysfunctional communication   is a monumental challenge for organization maintaining operative communication. Several dysfunctional organizational communications are selective perceptions, semantic problems, and information overload (Champoux, 2006).

The skills of active listening and giving feedback

         “Supportive communication will be positively related to job satisfaction” (Nobile, 2008). So managers should develop such skills to effectively manage employees. The skills of active listening and giving feedback are important skills used in supportive communication. “Numerous factors affect the outcomes of supportive interactions, including aspects of the supportive message, the helper, the interaction context, and the recipient” (Burleson, 2009). Active listening is a way of responding to the speaker, which encourages communication. An effective active listening skill may include three parts: preparation, actively listening, and follow up. For preparation, listeners should know how to focus on the subjects, to stop non-relevant activities before the communication starts, to organize relevant information in advance, to set aside personal prejudices and opinions. The skills of active listening should include attending skills such as verbal or non-verbal acknowledging with eye contact or other body language, and asking, reflecting, reinforcing and supporting, and points summarizing. The follow up are the skills of giving the speaker time and space, repressing appreciation for sharing, and applying what needs to be done for the situation. At the end of a supportive communication, a skilled listener should receive the following information: the facts, needs, wants, feelings and emotions, thoughts and beliefs, hopes, and expectations.   Active listening skills improve individual’s aptitude for conversation, which is extremely important in any organizational setting. Several attributes effectively enhance active listening skills are responding appropriately, focusing solely on the speaker’s intent, maintaining receptiveness, and allowing the speaker to complete their statements. Active listening provides the ability to understand the speaker’s message and intent, preventing misinterpretation: hearing the messenger’s facts, understanding the individuals feeling about the message is critical

           Feedback could be powerful and important means of communication, which can be positive or negative. A positive feedback enhances supportive communication. The skill for giving positive feedback comprises the technique to deliver information in non-threatening and encouraging manner, focus on defined issues, deliver the needs accurately, avoid insult or demean, focus on behavior and specific events instead of personality, give information on the right time, deliver the information in a thoughtful and helpful way. Feedback is a sub-component of communication, requiring all entities of an organization grasping a clear understanding about the priorities and results of tasks (Champoux, 2006). Feedback is a performance necessity, an established method necessary for organizational members receiving honest performance assessments

Organization’s role in helping employees’ personal problems

        When employees are assisted with their personal problems, the employees' personal problems are less likely to have negative impact on their work performance. Actually, employees who feel that their personal and family priorities are accepted and acknowledged by their managers and their organizations are more engaged and more productive at work. In the competitive workplace, employees may feel overworked and may have hard time to balance work and personal life. So, organization can play important role in helping employees address personal problems that may interfere with their work performance, aligning business needs and employees' individual needs, creating a workplace that recognizes and supports employees' needs. Employee assistance programs are some of the ways to handle employees' personal problems.

            Organization's Employee Assistance Programs (EPAs) are intended to help employees to deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance, health, and well-being. EAPs generally include assessment, short-term counseling and referral services for employees and their household members. On the other hand, work-schedule flexibility has become a critical issue for employees. To help employees effectively navigate work-life priorities and stay productive, employers can also provided flexible work-schedule. Sub-standard work performance theoretically is unacceptable, regardless of the circumstances surrounding this deficiency. An organization’s role addressing employees’ personal problems interfering with work performance is finite, but necessary fundamentally. Providing feedback and active listening are important in identifying and accessing potential problem and work distracters. The ideology of organizational communication supports sharing information, providing performance feedback, and expressing emotion: innovating the human side of an organization

                                 Discussion of Bob's communication problems

 

       Bob was hesitant to become too involved in Al's personal issues for many reasons for example: Bob may not want to overstep professional boundaries,  may afraid that superiority communication will meet defensive response,  and may not have such experience and did not know how to conduct a supportive communication with  Al.    

        To ask Mike to talk with Al, Bob may avoid personal confrontation, bad feeling, and negative impact of relationship. But Mike may not be able to convey the message to both Bob and Al accurately. Al may perceive that Bob was not sincere, did not trust him, and would not corporate with him for his personal issues. This distrust may distract Al from concentrating in real issues of both work and family. Consequently, a defensive situation could be created, and the situation may get worse.

The actions Bob should take

“Open communication has long been identified as a feature of effective, successful. It relates to honesty of interactions and high levels of trust” (Nobile, 2009). In order to open up a more meaningful conversation with Al, Bob can ask questions in a good way to gain necessary information, but it is important to ask non-aggressive questions. Bob should make Al feel those questions are to genuinely seeking information or an opinion.  Instead of asking, "Why did you” types of questions. Instead, Bob should ask "Can you tell me what difficulties you have and is there anything I can do to help you?" Bob should create a climate in which the communication is taking place with Al to share mutual respect and trust. Because ”The supportive function serves the emotional, interpersonal and morale needs of individuals” (Nobile, 2008).

            Communication is not just saying words; it is creating true understanding (Frey, 1998).  Active listening is an important skill in communication. When listening to Al talking, Bob should look at Al's eyes, properly use body language and silence, restate and paraphrase what Al said, reflect feelings and experiences, reinforce and support, offer tentative interpretation, summarize what Al said, and ask additional questions in a supportive way to clear up confusions.

 

         After a day or so, Bob can give feedback in an encourage manner, focus on solutions on personal issues and work efficiency, deliver the feedback with sensitivity to the Al's  needs such as arrange flexible hours, give helpful suggestions, and follow up to provide further support if it is necessary.  Yes, Doc Fan. Bob’s ability to provide effective feedback is unequivocally important as his acute listening skills, informing Al about quality job performance. Bob effective feedback reduces uncertainties, eliminating false perception concerning the vice president. Effective feedback confirms Bob’s perceptions of Al’s behavior, performance objectives, and most importantly informing Al of the organization’s concern for his family welfare. Bob’s actions may solidify Al’s organizational commitment, clarify any ill-feelings, and boost productivity, ensuring Al that MPC considers his personal matter as a top priority.     

Motor Parts Corporation and personal issues

            MPC does not have the obligation to assist its employees with personal and family problems. However, employees have the needs and priorities outside of work that affect their work and productivity; therefore, MPC may have interest in assisting Al. That interest might lead MPC to work with Al to design a work schedule that allows him to get his work done and take care of family problems at the same time. MPC can also refer Al to employee assistance program (EAP) for help to discuss issues such as emotional distress, major life events, health care concerns, family issues, and work relationship issues.

Conclusion

MPC does not have the obligation to assist its employees with personal and family problems but personal problems are less likely to have negative impact on employees’ work if they are supported by the organization so it is MPC’s interest to assist Al. The supportive communication is probably one of the most helpful means to assist Al in this situation. But delivering supportive communication is not an easy task. Experience and skills of active listening and giving feedback are required to handle this situation.

               “Open communication has long been identified as a feature of effective, successful. It relates to honesty of interactions and high levels of trust” (Nobile, 2009). Bob should consult Mike to learn how to perform a supportive communication with Al in a way to constructively resolve those problems. Then Bob can invite Al to his office to have an open and honest conversation. When listening to Al talking, Bob should look at Al, properly use body language and silence, restate and paraphrase what Al said, reflect feelings and experiences, reinforce and support, offer tentative interpretation, summarize what Al said, ask additional questions in a supportive way to clear up confusions. Bob can give feedback in an encourage manner, focus on solutions on personal issues and work efficiency, deliver the feedback with sensitivity to the Al's  needs, arrange flexible work hour, give helpful suggestions , and follow up to provide further support if it is necessary.

 

Organizational conflict

               Organizational conflict is a discord situation that where people's values, needs, and interests are contradicted. Conflict has many forms which can happen in individuals, between individuals, in groups, and between groups. Conflicts arise in groups because of the competition of freedom, resources, and position.  People who value independence would not like the need for interdependence as a group. Individuals who want power would compete with others with the similar intention. The rewards and recognition are often not perceived properly distributed and employees may compete with each other for prizes. In American culture, winning has a much higher value than losing, and consequently, competition is more prevalent than cooperation, which may lead to conflict. However, “The automatic development of a negative attitude toward conflict is inappropriate” (Richardson, 1991). Conflict could be destructive or constructive. For an organization performing routine production, conflict may be viewed mainly as dysfunctional. However, in research oriented organization, conflict may be considered mainly as functional. Thanks for the introduction, Doc Q…the flow seems “bulleted”…you have too many periods between the sentences…rather, you could have had it flowing into several sentences. Anyway, conflict has also been described as a ‘state of tension’ that arises between two or more individuals or groups because the desired outcomes are ‘mutually incompatible.

Functions and dysfunctions of conflict

Conflict has both positive and negative effects on an organization’s operation. Conflict is negative when it creates resistance to change, creates problems in organization or interpersonal relations, disturbs routine working operation, decreases productivities, delays decision making process, causes distrust and defensiveness, disturbs exploration of more alternatives, diverts resources from the main issues, builds a feeling of defeat, or widens the gap of misunderstanding. The overall result of such negative effects is to reduce employees' commitment to organizational goals and organizational efficiency (Kirchoff and Adams, 1982).

Conflict is positive when it encourages creativity, clarifies issues, and improves the organizational capacity of handling interpersonal differences. Some of the positive effects of conflict situations are summarized as the following (Filley, 1975):

            Diffusion of more serious conflicts.  In organizations where members participate in decision making, disputes are usually minor and not acute as the closeness of members moderates belligerent and assertive behavior into minor disagreements, which minimizes the likelihood of major fights.

            Stimulation of a search for new facts or resolutions. When two parties who respect each other face a conflict situation, the conflict resolution process may help in clarifying the facts and stimulating a search for mutually acceptable solutions.

            Increase in group cohesion and performance. When two or more parties are in conflict, the performance and cohesion of each party is likely to improve. In a conflict situation, an opponent's position is evaluated negatively, and group allegiance is strongly reinforced, leading to increased group effort and cohesion.

            Assessment of power or ability. In a conflict situation, the relative ability or power of the parties involved can be identified and measured.

Personal view of confliction

Understanding the nature of conflict can help organization manage conflict effectively. Depending on the nature of an organization, conflict may affect it in different ways. In production oriented organization, work needs to be done on time and smoothly. For this type of organization, conflict may be viewed mainly as dysfunctional. Since employees may have defensive reactions such as aggression against their supervisors and co-workers. The defensive attitude decreases individuals’ productivity. Conflict may result in inattentiveness, work anxiety, frustration, burnout, and job dissatisfaction, which can impair organization efficiency. Because of the conflict, employees may also organize unions or informal groups with agenda opposed to many of the organization's goals. The main dysfunctional consequences can be summarized as the following: Conflicts affect individual and organizational performance and it takes time and other resources to handle conflicts. Individuals may promote their self-interests instead of the interest of the organization. Long lasting conflict could affect individuals emotionally and physically, which may lead to health related disorders.  Finally, Conflicts may cause employee morale problems which are linked to productivities.

The cause of conflict in a research organization is similar to other organizations and the conflicts may be generated between individuals, intra-group or inter-group. However, conflict in research oriented organization has its own traits. Conflict can occur between research and administrative personnel objectives, issues among individual researchers, scientists and management priorities, and researchers' and client groups' opinions. The complicate administrative procedures and practices some times delay the resources and supplies required for research activities. Such conflicts get worse due to the distribution of authority, contradictory nature of personality, communication deficiency, and different opinions. The allocation of resources and staff could cause conflicts as well. It is common to see the conflict of competition in research organizations between interacting groups over use of limited resources available for scientific work. Allocation of limited resources often generates conflict since one group is likely to feel that it is not receiving a fair share of organizational resources in comparison with other groups. Conflicts also arise over staffing of research teams, especially when personnel from other areas are to be included. Sometimes conflicts can arise over competing for use of spaces and equipment for experiments. Cost estimates and the uncertainty of research regarding work load and the use of structures can also create conflict situations. The parties in conflict can be individuals or entire groups within the organization. Conflict is a basic organizational process that needs managing. Some conflict scholars argue that conflict is essential to continuous improvement in organizations and that conflict management is central to its use. Many managers, however, believe they should eliminate conflict form their organizations. What say you, Doc Q?

However, conflict may be viewed as constructive for innovative activities. “we define functional conflict as a constructive challenging of ideas, beliefs, and assumptions, respect for others’ viewpoints even when parties disagree, and consultative interactions involving useful give and take” (Massey, 2004) The nature of research is innovation, imagination, knowledge, learning, and idea exchange. Conflicts can be more functional for research organization because competition, different departmental objectives, different individual objectives, competition for use of resources, and different viewpoints could be integrated and exploited efficiently to achieve organizational objectives for innovation. In research oriented organization, conflicts may have the potential to motivate employees because conflicts give individuals pressure to tackle issues. In order to resolve issues, individuals may have to find different options, which make people think. Conflicts also provide opportunities for employees to learn. The positive function of conflict is to motivate individuals to work hard and better, force employees to fully utilize talents and knowledge.  “Where functional conflict is present, people feel free to express their opinions and to challenge others’ ideas, beliefs, and assumptions” (Baron, 1991). Conflict can also provide opportunity to stimulate new ideas, facilitate mutual understanding, improve coordination and strengthen relationship. Competition can be created from conflict that can stimulate employees to find new options. Conflict management involves maintaining conflict at a level that is functional for the group. If the conflict level is dysfunctionally high, managers should reduce the conflict. If the conflict is dysfunctionally low, managers should increase the conflict.

In addition, the technical ideas, performance preference and related issues lead to disagreements.  The more the complicity in any project, the greater is the need for more information. If information is controlled by one of the parties in an interacting group, conflict is generated. The party that withholds the information is under pressure to share that information. A research project usually takes long time to finish with uncertainty and the intermediate outputs of the progress are difficult to determine. It is common to have conflicts between the management and research group over anticipations on performance progress. Disagreements over the timing, sequence and scheduling of project-related tasks and overall management of research are common in research organizations. This type of conflict pushes researcher to work harder.  Personality differences among the interaction groups can cause conflict and when one group does not fulfill the expectation of the other group, a conflict situation can be generated; these types of conflicts could stimulate new ideas too.

Conclusion

         Conflict has both positive and negative effects on organization operation. Conflict is negative when it creates resistance to change, creates problems in organization or interpersonal relations, disturbs routine working operation, decreases productivities, delays decision making process, causes distrust and defensiveness, disturbs exploration of more alternatives, diverts resources from the main issues, builds a feeling of defeat, or widens the gap of misunderstanding.  Conflict is positive when it encourages creativity, clarifies issues, and improves the organizational capacity of handling interpersonal differences.

 

      In production oriented organization, work need to be done on time and smoothly. In this type of organization, conflict may be viewed mainly as dysfunctional. Dysfunctional consequences of conflict includes conflicts that affect individual and organizational performance, time and other resources wasted to handle conflicts, and self-interests instead of the interest of the organization is promoted. Long lasting conflict could affect individuals emotionally and physically, which may lead to health related disorders. 

     However, the nature of research needs innovation, imagination, knowledge, learning, and idea exchange. Conflicts can be more functional for research oriented organizations because competition, different departmental objectives, individual objectives, competition for use of resources, and differing viewpoints could be integrated and exploited efficiently to achieve organizational objectives for innovation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expectancy theory

People will act in a certain way based on the expectation that what they do will be linked to a certain outcome. The expectancy theory can be used as reference for employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages employees to fulfill their unique potential. Outcomes associated with employees' needs are linked to job performance because employees are motivated by things that are important to them. So organizations need to relate outcomes directly to performance and to make sure that the outcomes provided are those outcomes that wanted by intended employees. Financial outcomes are important motivators at work. Job design could be motivation factor as well since job design can affect job satisfaction and commitment to an organization. South Dakota State University Veterinary Department is an organization for animal disease diagnosis and vaccine production. This department has several laboratories including: histopathology, virology, vaccine, diagnostic, bacterial, and electronic microscopy. It is the trend toward lower expense and fewer employees as most organizations are doing. This Veterinary Department has motivated its employees to make more efficient contributions by doing more than one job for each person. Both outcomes and job design had been arranged for motivating employees. The connection between job performance and outcomes, and job design for motivation are going to be discussed.

Job performance and outcomes

“A performance is conventionally defined as ‘an accomplishment’ or ‘something done’, an outcome as ‘something that follows as a result or consequence of an activity“(Hamilton, 1988, P.40). Motivation, job performance, and outcomes are related issues. Employees are motivated when they believe that better job performance will lead to positive outcomes such as an increase in salary and benefits will they be disappointed if their expectations are not met?. With the motivated employees, an organization has more chance to achieve organization goals. Common outcomes that had been linked to performance can be categorized into two groups: financial and non-financial. Financial outcomes include time-rate pay, piece-rate pay, commission, performance related pay, and skill related pay, stock shares, pensions, bonus, and insurance. The non-financial outcomes may include vacation, flexible working hours, access to training and education, study leave, planned career breaks, and access to recreational facilities. South Dakota State University Veterinary Department had noticed that different factors motivate different people. It is important to find out the right motivators for each employee what motivates you, Doc Q?. Employee appraisal was a good way to identify these factors. Job performance is a commonly used, but poorly defined, concept in organizational psychology. Job performance is commonly used to refer to whether a person performs their job well. Despite the confusion over how it should be precisely defined, performance is an extremely important principal that relates to organizational outcomes and success. Job performance is defined as a behavior and is something done by the employee. This concept differentiates performance from outcomes. Outcomes are the result of an individual’s performance, but they are also the result of other influences. In other words, there are more factors that influence outcomes than just an employee’s behaviors and actions. There are many jobs each with different performance standards. Therefore, job performance is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of more than one kind of behavior.

To offer financial or non-financial incentive depends on what factors motivate each employee, and the organization’s financial condition. Poor pay had led to dissatisfaction. Financial reward is the most common way to increase motivation. For sample testing employees, piece rate system was effective. Employees are paid for each individual test they perform. Employees would be motivated to try to perform as many tests as they can in order to receive higher pay. In this case, the quality control system must be installed. But, for sales person, commission system is commonly used.

Offering average salary with fringe benefits was effective. The fringe benefit may include company cars and good health insurance plan. Often these fringe benefits were valued higher than wage increases but these benefits cost less for the organization. Another outcome for motivation was offering shares of the company profits. Profit sharing did encourage team work. This factor works better with small group of people since they could see directly that their performance will make a difference and they will be benefited from the increased profits. Bonus could be used to improve quality of work. For example, employees’ salary increase was based on the quality improvement of the work completed. Promotion and more responsibility had been used to increase motivation, which made employees feel that their contribution was more valuable to the business. The process of appraisal was a significant motivator too to employees because employees were recognized for the value that they created to the business. Yes, Doc Q. The effectiveness of an organization is highly dependent on the job performance of the individuals of whom it is composed.  People perform at their jobs in part as a function of the outcomes they receive as a result of performing their jobs…as well as contextual factors (work processes, technology and management behavior, etc)

Positive outcomes and negative outcomes

Out comes can be positive or negative. Positive outcomes are consistent with intrinsic motivation, which are considered promoting intrinsic motivation by creating feelings of challenge, encouraging task involvement, supporting self-determination and generating excitement. The purpose of negative outcomes is to correct mistakes in order to get the job done right. Negative outcomes are generally implanted when positive outcomes do not work. The commonly used negative outcomes include demotion, transfer, penalties, and fines. Negative outcomes create negative effects, which are portrayed as undermining intrinsic motivation by instilling feelings of threat, disrupting task involvement, and creating pressure. Negative outcomes may lead to anxiety and withdrawal of effort. Therefore, the use of negative outcomes should be applied carefully. Employees have complete control over intrinsic rewards that they experience. The employee grants the intrinsic outcome to themselves, therefore there is little time delay between performance and reward. Employees receive intrinsic rewards from completing challenging tasks that utilizes many of their skills and abilities. Expectancy theory seeks to explain the factors that motivate individuals to make decisions based upon anticipated outcomes. Individuals are motivated to perform tasks based upon the expected return for their efforts. As you mentioned (you only spoke of intrinsic), these expected returns are split into two categories; extrinsic outcomes and intrinsic outcomes. In the business world, rewards received through extrinsic outcomes are not controlled by the employee. These outcomes include promotions, pay increases, praise, better work schedules, public recognition, bonuses, and workspace location. Do you have a similar experience, Doc?

Work contexts and job design

Most jobs in South Dakota Veterinary Department are very technical. The situation was that this organization wanted to hire fewer people to cut costs, employees needed to learn and apply new skills constantly to catch up with the new trend of technology, and have the capability to perform and multitask. A proper job design was helpful to motivate employees and maximize organizations’ potential. The Veterinary Department had designed the job for improving employee job satisfaction, increasing worker flexibility and employee capacity for self-management, and increasing team effectiveness. Job specification, rotation, job enlargement, Job enrichmentjob enrichmentA job redesign technique allowing workers more control over how they perform their own tasks., and job empowerment were some of the approaches of job design applied.

Many tests were performed in the Veterinary science department daily. Job specializationjob specializationBreaking down tasks to their simplest components and assigning them to employees so that each person would perform few tasks in a repetitive manner. had broken down jobs into simple components, which had been assigned to employees so that each person would perform several related tasks in a repetitive manner. The advantages of job specialization was that it reduced the skill requirements of the jobs and decreased the effort and cost of staffing. Training time for simple repetitive jobs was  shorter as well. But repetition made a job boring and did not help much in the rapid changing environment where employees need to constantly update skills.

Job rotationjob rotationMoving employees from job to job at regular intervals. moved employees from job to job at regular base. Moving to different jobs periodically, employees could obtain new skills, which reduced the boredom of repetition, increased the flexibility, and reduced the stress levels. For the employees, rotation was a benefit, because employees acquired new skills that made them more marketable in the long run.

Job enlargement wasjob enlargementExpanding the tasks performed by employees to add more variety. used to expand employees task duties. It had positive effects to give employees more tasks that require them to be knowledgeable in different areas. Similar to job rotation, job enlargement provided opportunities for employees to learn multiple skills and made job more interesting. Giving employees several different tasks also reduced employees’ boredom. In the mean time, the human resources are more effectively used. When job becomes more interesting, employees’ satisfaction level was increased.

Job enrichmentjob enrichmentA job redesign technique allowing workers more control over how they perform their own tasks. was used to give employees more control over their work, which allowed employees to take on more responsibility and authority. “Employees can be more efficient, take shortcuts, and increase performance. In addition, Job enrichment motivated employees to reduced turnover, increase productivity, and reduce absences” (McEvoy, 1985, P 351). However, certain employees were frustrated if they did not have the desire to control their own job.

EmpowermentempowermentThe removal of conditions that make a person powerless. was implanted to remove limitations on employees to make employees feel that their job was meaningful. In this case, employees felt powerful because they thought that they were able to influence the company’s operations, and conduct their work the way they think most efficient, which is free from supervision and other limitations. Consequently, “Empowerment of employees tends to be beneficial for organizations, because it is related to outcomes such as employee innovativeness, managerial effectiveness, employee commitment to the organization, customer satisfaction, job performance, and behaviors that benefit the company and other employees” (Ahearne, 2005, P 945). But empowerment may not be beneficial for all employees. Individuals who wanted their job just to pay the bills and satisfy more basic needs had low-growth need. The empowerment may not be helpful for those employees with low achievement desire.  Individuals' perceptions of work contexts are influenced by factors at both the individual level and the contextual level. When employees react to their work environment they are influenced by features specific to the workplace and by individual differences. Organizational climate is a construct that directly incorporates both individual perceptions and organizational phenomena.

Conclusion

Motivation, job performance, and outcomes are related issues. Employees are motivated when they believe that better job performance will lead to positive outcomes. Financial reward is the most common way to increase motivation. Financial outcomes include time-rate pay, piece-rate pay, commission, performance related pay, skill related pay, stock shares, pensions, bonus, and insurance. The non-financial outcomes may include vacation, flexible working hours, access to training and education, study leave, planned career breaks, and access to recreational facilities.  To offer what kind of incentive depends on what factors motivate each employee, and the organization’s financial condition.

Positive outcomes are used more often than negative outcomes. Positive outcomes are consistent with intrinsic motivation, which are considered to promote intrinsic motivation by creating feelings of challenge, encouraging task involvement, supporting self-determination and generating excitement. But negative outcomes may lead to anxiety and withdrawal of effort. Therefore, negative outcomes should be applied carefully.

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Organizational socialization

          Organizational socialization is an important process for building effective organizations workforce and competitive edge. “Organizational socialization, the process by which an employee learns the appropriate norms and required behaviors to participate and become part of the organization, has arrived as an extremely important dimension to the study of organizational behavior” (Luthans, 1982). Employees who are well socialized into an organization are more likely to stay and develop their careers with that organization.   For an organization to develop an effective socialization plan, the three stages of organizational socialization, the relationships among the stages, and the socialization processes that happen within each stage must be clarified. Yes, Doc. Effective employee socialization has been linked to the successful performance of businesses. This is because organizations require employees to meld with the group norms and culture so that they can interpret their everyday work experiences to produce results consistent with the company’s mission.

 

Three stages of organizational socialization

            Organizational socialization is a vitally important influence on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, innovation, cooperation, and ultimately organizational performance (Fisher, 1986). A typical socialization process includes three stages.

The first stage is anticipatory socialization. It includes the learning about the organization. The correct anticipatory socialization will have a positive effect on the following phases. The second stage is called “encounter.” In this stage, the newcomer starts to learn about job tasks and receive training. Formal commitment is made to join the organization, initiate into the job, establish relationships, and clarify roles.  The third stage is Change and Acquisition. In this stage, new employees master tasks, accept group norms and values, and resolves any role conflicts.

Relationships among the stages

            "Socialization is a process in which an individual acquires the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge needed to successfully participate as an organizational member" (Van

Maanen, 1979). The process of socialization affects the new employee's work productivity, commitment to the organization's objectives and his decision to stay with the organization.

             “The period prior to joining an organization is called anticipatory socialization” (Kramer, 2010, P. 6). Anticipatory socialization is the process that occurs when an individual develops expectations and knowledge about possible jobs and positions. It is the first step that occurs in the search and acceptance of an individual into an organization (Porter, 1975).  At this stage, the individuals have not entered an organization with a completely view yet, and that they carry subjective assumptions.  Through anticipatory socialization, expectations are developed about the company, job, working conditions, and interpersonal relationships. Anticipatory socialization comes from a variety of sources including family, peers, school and the media. Each of these groups can add a different level of information to the socialization. Some provide broad information about organizations in general, and some provide specific task information for specific roles within an organization (Taylor, 2000). The quality of the information that the participants collected is very important to make sound judgment. Accurate information about the organization can help potential employees better fit the new position with suitable personality and skill sets. There are several facets that make up this phase of socialization. It includes the process of learning about work, a specific occupation and finally, an organization. As children we learn about work through our parents, the media and school. Expectations are developed regarding work schedule, hours, and the environment. In addition, in our youth, we develop perceptions regarding particular occupations. This awareness of various occupations at a young age, although often highly idealized, creates the framework for occupational socialization.

 

            Several other positive affects of anticipatory socialization have been identified as well. Anticipatory socialization helps in the formation of the overall set of expectations that an individual holds in relation to their contributions to an organization, and the response by the organization to the contribution (Rousseau, 1991). Other traits of the potential employees such as energy, skills, and loyalty in this stage can be adjusted in the late phase of the socialization. Excellent, Doc Q. The new hire orientation process serves to introduce the employee to job requirements, the history of the organization, the guidelines and rules, as well as the environment. Human resource departments dedicate a significant amount of time and resources towards acclimating new hires. The goal is to give the employee all of the necessary tools and information early on to eliminate or reduce anxiety related to this transition.

 

Encounter accommodation

          Encounter accommodation is the period in which the individual starts to work in the organization and sees what the organization is actually like and initiates actions for adjustment.  During this time, individuals anticipate taking a position. If the individual and the organization have inaccurate knowledge of each other, the psychological contract would contain mismatched expectations, which may lead to frustration, disillusionment, anxiety, and may impact the following stages.

            If the mismatches concern critical issues or if the contractual parties allow non-critical mismatches to persist, dissatisfaction may result in early termination or impaired performance very good. However, if the anticipatory stage has been well-managed, discrepancies will involve non-critical issues. The employee and management can renegotiate these issues through open discussion. Then the new staff member can devote full attention to the tasks of the encounter stage such as developing job competency, establishing relationships with other employees, and clarifying his or her role definition. Companies can provide training and feedback to further facilitate the development.  If the individual and the company matched well in this stage, the process of Change and Acquisition phase will be smoother. Socialization upon entry into an organization typically occurs through various formal and informal interactions between the existing employees and the new ones. Organizations are becoming more decentralized, global and virtual is decentralization (btw, is this out of necessity or is it a result of competition, Doc?). Traditional means of socialization through face to face meetings, extended contact, or interaction with colleagues has become less frequent or even non-existent in some organizations. This makes it even more difficult for newcomers to adapt to their new positions. What say you?

 

Change and acquisition

            At this stage, newcomers begin to acquire and internalize the culture of the organization. This results in some changes in their beliefs and values. Both anticipatory and encounter phases affect the change and acquisition stage directly.  The change and acquisition process is made easier when organizational newcomers are active in seeking information about their job, role, and the organization’s culture, and the new comer has no critical conflict with the company in the earlier stages. Yes, you are correct here. At this stage, employees are reasonably proficient in their roles and typically have mastered the job requirements. They have adapted to the culture, norms and values of the organization. The employee is able resolve conflicts with little assistance utilizing the resources available to them.

 

Socialization processes within each stage

            “Organizational socialization is a powerful phenomenon with numerous long lasting effects on employees” (Kwesiga, 2994). Anticipatory stage occurs before new hires join the organization. Through interacting with representatives of the company, family members, peers, school and the media, the potential hires develop expectations about the company and the job prior to organizational entry. The individual could develop images about the goals, climate, of the company, job duties, skills, abilities that are appropriate to take the job. The shared values and the personal needs would also be anticipated.

             In the encounter phase, new employees would manage life conflicts to balance personal life and work life including demands on employees’ family, amount of preoccupation with work and scheduling. The inter-group role conflicts would also be handled in this stage, which include the progress in dealing with conflicts between the roles.  The new employees’ role is clarified within the immediate work group. The duty, priorities, and time allocation for task are decided.  The new interpersonal relationships should be established, and group norms are learned. The development of new interpersonal relationships is initiated.

             In the change and acquisition stage, the agreement had been arrived with the work group on what tasks to perform with the priorities and time allocation implicitly and explicitly. The management of conflicts between personal life and work life as well as the role conflicts are mutually accepted. The basic tasks of the new job have been learned; the self-confidence and the positive performance are established. The personal value is adjusted to the group norms and culture. The new employees may feel liked and trusted by co-workers.

Conclusion

            Three stages of organizational socialization include Anticipatory Socialization, Encounter, and Change and Acquisition. The quality of the information that the participants collected is very important to make sound judgment. Accurate information about the organization can help potential employees better fit the new position with suitable personality and skill sets. Encounter accommodation, is the period in which the individual sees what the organization is actually like and begins to take his or her place in it. If the individual and the organization have accurate knowledge of each other, a sound psychological contract can be developed, and the possible discrepancies will involve in only non-critical issues. Both anticipatory and encounter phases affect the change and acquisition phase directly.  The change and acquisition process is made easier when new employees are active in seeking information about their job, role, and the organization’s culture, and the new employee developed good relationship in the encounter stage.

            In the anticipatory stage, the individual could develop a picture about the goals, climate of the company, job duties, skills, abilities that are appropriate to take the job. At encounter phase, new employees would manage life conflicts to balance personal life and work life including demands from employees’ family, amount of preoccupation with work, and scheduling. The inter-group role conflicts would also handle in this stage.  At Change and acquisition stage, the agreement had been arrived with the work group on what tasks to perform, the priorities and time allocation implicitly and explicitly. The personal value is adjusted to the group norms and culture. The new employees may feel liked and trusted by co-workers.