I got a few domestic chores out of the way and while I'm having lunch I decided to continue on with the next article.
There's one subject I've been toying with addressing in some of these introductory comments to posts, and that is a response to a comment mom said a couple days ago, that I didn't seem to like the family. That's really a loaded statement and there is a lot, I think, I could say about the subject. Of course, one would have to consider what is meant by "like", and philosophers, psychologists and theologians have looked more thoroughly into that than I could ever hope to. Also, it would be hard to deal with this subject without considering "love" and "dislike" as well, at least as might pertain to my relationship to my family. It would probably have to be considered in a developmental context as well.
I'm not going to begin that discussion with this post, however.
***
Also, I just looked at the stats for my blog and I see there are a few readers and that they are geographically fairly widely dispersed. I'm not ready to take on comments yet because I think that would divert me from progressing in my story and I think there are enough hindrances already in my life. Eventually, though, I will have to open up the comments option, but it's going to be a long time, I'm afraid before that happens. You see, I'm expecting that if my blog ever really gets any attention I'm going to have a lot of detractors, and I want to at least have the opportunity to get my whole story out before that happens. I don't know if it's going to end out well for me or not vis a vis the information in this blog and the resultant consequences. So there is some risk for me in that regard. Again, at least you can't say fear is something very dominant in my personality. Also, I'm at a point in my life where I have a bit of a safety net, by way of my being on disability and not risking my career or the like, although I haven't given up entirely yet on my eventually being able to work, but it may well be just part-time.
***
The next text from the "Socialization" file that I've chosen is:
Van Maanen, John. (1978). People processing: strategies of organizational socialization, Organizational Dynamics, 7(1), 19-36.
You will notice that this is the same author that wrote the last chapter I discussed in the book edited by Dubin.
***
"I will argue here that people acquire the social knowledge and skills necessary to assume a particular job in an organization differently not only because people are different, but, more critically, because the techniques or strategies of people processing differ. And, like the variations of a sculptor's mold, certain forms of organizational socialization produce remarkably different results." (p. 19)
This isn't terribly enlightening, but it does point out (at least in my reading of this text) that even just the selection of socialization methods, without any regard for content of the socialization, can be helpful in understanding what the intended results of the organization are vis a vis its socialization efforts.
***
"Three primary assumptions underlie this analysis. First, and perhaps of most importance, is the notion that people in a state of transition are more or less in an anxiety-producing situation. They are motivated to reduce this anxiety by learning the functional and social requirements of their new role as quickly as possible." (p. 20)
This seems true, but in my case with the Vienna mission, I did indeed try to reduce my situational anxiety, but not in the way the organization intended. Since I consciously felt a clash of values between me and what I perceived in the mission's internal reality, and I had reached some of these values rather consciously and via a focused effort to come to the conclusions that I did, I didn't see changing my values to what I thought the mission wanted as an option (although I never knew what the ultimate values might be, in the sense of I only maybe had a glimpse of the initial issues and not ones that might be revealed the farther one entered the inner sanctum of the organization).
So that meant I had to find another way to deal with the stress, and the stress did mount, and rather quickly, it seemed to me, with no sign of letting up. Eventually I picked up jogging, and I understood that that was a stress management tool for others too, mainly the men, it seemed. And I also began taking some over the counter herbs that were supposed to help with stress. But these steps, of course, did nothing to alleviate the source of the stress, namely the mission and it's efforts to socialize me (which is what I saw them as doing, although I didn't call it "socialization" because I hadn't read the literature yet; but I knew they were trying to test me and wanted me to change to become like them). I'm just talking about the first few months here.
***
"Second, the learning that takes place does not occur in a social vacuum strictly on the basis of the official and available versions of the job requirements. Any person crossing organizational boundaries is looking for clues on how to proceed. Thus colleagues, superiors, subordinates, clients, and other work associates can and most often do support, guide, hinder, confuse, or push the individual who is learning a new role. Indeed they can help him interpret (or misinterpret) the events he experiences so that he can take appropriate (or inappropriate) action in his altered situation. Ultimately, they will provide him with a sense of accomplishment and competence or failure and incompetence." (p. 20)
For the most part, I didn't really have any detractors until somewhere around the middle of my time with the mission, probably when the mission began to understand that my future with them was less certain, at which time there began to be some signs of others competing with me for potential positions. Also, towards the end there was more of the disinformation (as I saw/see it) so that I didn't really know what was what in many regards.
I did indeed, however, as this text suggests, look to others for guidance, to see how things were done (or not done), in order to better understand the organizational culture and also how I was supposed to act and think in my position. I think I'm generally a pretty straight forward person, but I saw a lot of things that I thought probably weren't what they seemed to be - that is, had indirect intended or unintended meanings or purposes. If there's too much of this, though, it's easy to lose one's bearings, I think. But that might have been exactly what was intended. My defense, though, was to sort of take a mental note about what I thought was going on (and keep testing these theories against future events), but act on the direct meanings. The mission could deny there being any hidden meanings, but so could I. The problem with this was, of course, that there was a great power imbalance. It felt to me that an inordinate amount of my experiences were somehow related to socialization, or pressure to change.
***
"Third, the stability and productivity of any organization depend in large measure on the way newcomers to various organizational positions come to carry out their task." (p. 20)
This is where the risk to the organization comes to play. But the risk wasn't so great that they would meat me on equal terms to get to the heart of our differences in a mutually satisfactory way. So I learned that probably every single one of the workers in the mission was expendable, which is a similar kind of thinking as that which I saw in the mission that I had previously had part-time and short-term work with. In that case, missionaries were brought home from the field and those in the home office laid off very quickly, apparently for financial reasons. There seemed to be no regard for the people, their workers, in these acts, on top of demonstrating questionable money management.
***
"A concern for the ways in which individuals adjust to novel circumstances directs attention not only to the cognitive learning that accompanies any transition but also to the manner in which the person copes emotionally with the new situation." (p. 20)
There was a certain amount of concern, I think, regarding coping skills and the ability to handle stressful situations well. Part of this varied according to the position. For example, those missionaries living inside an East European country would be among those that would need to handle the most stress. But, as the author stated above, there was also the anxiety that was just part of the entry into the organization. In my case, I think I had more stress not so much because of my position, but rather because I wasn't responding well to socialization efforts.
***
In the next section the Van Maanen describes how organizations can consciously select socialization strategies knowing their usual effects, and can also adjust their strategies as needed. The rest of the article deals with seven continuums on which can help to define any particular socialization effort. We'll start with the first one next time.
~ Meg
