I was going to end where I did last time, but pastor came by just as I was finishing up. I did a little work in the garden and then laid down to rest and after awhile mom called. I still have to really pace myself and avoid doing too much that will result in a setback (from healing from the surgery). It could be that my digging little trenches to covering an area with plastic is pushing the limit (see http://www.ecocomposite.org/restoration/soilsolar.htm or http://www.ehow.com/how_4037_solarize-soil.html for example). At least I was pretty tired afterwards. I might have to wait a while to continue with that project if I'm not ready yet for this kind of work.
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Continuing with the rather long chapter section on socialization upon entry to an organization:
"If the new member has been preceded by others who have been through the same situation and can instruct him about the setting, the pattern is considered to be serial." (p. 89)
From what I observed in Vienna, this was the set up there. I don't know if it applied to all parts of the organizations, but I suspect it did. Generally, at least according to my observations, it was people in the more or less same type of position who would be involved in this kind of peer socialization. Sometimes they would use their experience as a source of "understanding what you're going through" because they'd been there. This may or may not exactly be true, depending on how similar, in the end, your socialization was to your mentor's.
Others involved in the newcomer's socialization might be his/her superiors and their family members and sometimes others with some kind of (potential) relationship to the newcomer's work. Their parts in the socialization effort didn't seem to be so much based on an "I've been there" rationale, which would be too egalitarian for the Vienna mission.
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"Certain organizations possess selection devices which reduce the importance of the socialization process. For example, some organizations select only those individuals who have already assimilated the proper attitudes, values and motivations required for membership." (p. 89)
This was partially, but not entirely, true for the Vienna mission. The thing was that some of the "attitudes, values and motivations" were, it seemed to me, under wraps. The mission had a fairly elaborate selection process, but I'm not sure it was any more involved that is usual for nondenominational Protestant missions. I'm sure the mission would also try to assess the unspoken desired traits, but if they didn't want some of these requirements for success with the organization to become widely known they couldn't be direct in assessing them, which could leave room for error. Also, workers to the mission actually came from some 15 different participant missions, each of which had its own intake process, so there would have been some variation in this, possibly very great variation. It took me about 2 years to go from initial application, getting a response, raising funds and prayer support, and actually leaving for Vienna.
On this account I can only speak for myself, and I'm not sure what anyone else experienced before arriving in Vienna, so I would not even venture to suggest this could be generalized to other inductees. But for myself, once I was accepted but before I arrived in Vienna there were at least a couple incidents in relation to the Vienna mission that, if intentional, could have been tests or lessons. I'm not sure they were intentional though or intended this way, however. The two events were 1) the issue of living by myself and the phone call from the gal in Alaska when I was on the road in Colorado visiting churches, and 2) the last minute request for my to raise more money. If intentional, they could have taught me group centrality (i.e., no lone horses) and submission, or they could have been tests to see how I responded to these kinds of demands on me. Again, I am not at all certain these two events were intentional in these ways, but in hindsight the did seem rather prescient of things to come in Vienna. I believe I already discussed these events in my chronology.
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This is it for this subsection, so I'll break off here. The next section discusses "Relevant Group Factors."
