I worked in the garden a bit since I'd stopped at Home Depot, which isn't far from the doctor's office, and picked up a new lemon balm plant and 4 little corn plants! The last was sort of on a whim, so we'll see what happened. But then I immediately decapitated one of them; I planted the roots anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended actually being a burial instead. All my other plants are doing okay at the moment, except that I'm still anxiously waiting for artichoke seedlings to poke up out of the ground. The sugar snap peas are my little babies. I keep having to redirect them so they don't either grab on to something they shouldn't (like a nearby chive, for example) or they just start heading in a direction away from the net they're supposed to climb up. Meanwhile, the neighbors are still shaking their heads about my "mote" that will eventually be the outskirts of where I'll do the solarization. I'm just slow at these things. And every time I turn around my basils start blooming again, and their flavor decreases after that. So I keep cutting them back (and using the leaves), but before you know it they've grown back with even more branches and blooms. At least you can eat the blooms though, so that's at least some consolation.
***
We're still discussion socialization in the text, but we're not under the sub-heading "How People Are Socialized."
"Pascale (1985) modeled a seven-step process to depict what goes on in organizations with strong cultures.
1. Selection. Trained recruiters carefully select entry-level candidates.
2. Abandonment of past. Experiences that give the new recruit humility break down the hold of past assumptions and traits, making the recruit ready to accept the organization's norms.
3. Training. On-the-job training helps the recruit master tasks, with mastery rewarded by promotion.
4. Monitoring and reward. Performance is monitored closely, and the reward system is geared toward reinforcing the values of the culture.
5. Identification. Employees begin to identify with the organization's values, thus making them able to justify any personal sacrifices required.
6. Reinforcement. Organizational legends reinforce the culture and goals.
7. Role models. Successful members of the organization provide role models for others." (p. 141)
I want to go through these one by one and then try to organize them in a way that reflects what I think (that is, based on my observations) the usual socialization path should have looked like, and then go back again and try to recreate my own experience using these 7 steps.
1. I guess my comment regarding selection is that someone who knew what the position really entailed should have been in communication with someone who knew me. If the person who knew me was the North American head of my sending mission, fine; if the h.r. director at the Vienna mission was the one who knew the position, great. Just get these two men talking! Something obviously went haywire in the communications between North American and Vienna, because I was either the wrong person for the right job or the right person for the wrong job. All I know is that from my end I was completely open and honest with them in my home office: they knew I wanted an apartment by myself and that I wanted people ministry and intended to get that on my own in Vienna outside of work, and they also knew about my concerns about my former mission [which should have raised concerns considering the all-or-nothing submission requirement for full membership in the Vienna mission]. But the people in Vienna somehow didn't know any of this [although my sending mission did at least tell them about the apartment request and possibly the other things as well] and at the same time the job and its all-inclusiveness, etc., was not communicated to me at all - in fact, I don't think the North American office of my sending mission knew much more than I did about the position itself. I just want to make this very clear: communication, no matter how you cut it, is important. If communication sucks in an organization, chances are the organizations sucks all together.
2. I'm not sure how people other than secretaries experienced this, but I think secretaries went through this process, and if its true that a couple other women were sent back to the States for 'counseling' chances are they were going through this process too. The only thing is, did any of the men get this treatment, or was it unique to how the women were treated? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.
3. Yes, people did get on-the-job informal training to learn the ropes and details of what was needed to get done what you were supposed to do. There weren't promotions though, but I don't think that would be expected in a mission setting anyway, although in a seminary setting maybe.
4. Monitoring is ongoing, but I think that once one is situated and passes through the basic socialization phase all right that monitoring is more incidental or along the lines of how everyone had a collective responsibility for security, for example. I think there would really have to be a problem with someone's work to get ongoing intentional and/or targeted monitoring. I don't know of anyone besides myself who earned this dubious privilege, although it wasn't because of my work, but rather for security, since I hadn't passed the basic socialization "total submission" test.
5. Coming from the Vienna mission standpoint it's rather shocking to think of "identification" coming this far down the sequence. There it was mandatory to identify with their norms, and I mean with ALL of their norms. This wasn't a pick and choose affair like a smorgasbord or something; you had to take it all as a lump sum package deal, although you might not necessarily know all the norms right away; but you had to get to the point that you would accept anything the mission threw at you, and then when you were presented with something new you didn't have to bother with deciding whether or not you liked it or agreed with it, because you'd already agreed to agree with everything. This was bothersome to me; hence the resistance.
6. The reinforcement came through all the usual communication channels, including business-type meetings, social meetings, a mission newsletter, or even in individual conversations with someone more in-the-know than yourself.
7. This is where the cycle turns back on itself and the trainee becomes the trainer. I've said before that this was a kind of rite of passage, I think, when you knew someone was really "in".
Now for how this list should have been for Vienna new recruits [i.e., the expected sequence]:
1. Selection
2. Abandonment of past
5. Identification
3 & 4. Training and monitoring, which monitoring probably lasting somewhat longer than training.
6. Reinforcement
7. Role models
So identification is the main change there. Now here is how I experienced it:
1. Selection
1 1/2. Humility without the abandonment part
3. Training
1 1/2. More humility without the abandonment part [USA]
3 1/2. Monitoring without the reward [USA & Vienna]
6. Reinforcement
3 1/2. More humility without the abandonment part [last few months in Vienna]
That's it in a nutshell. Can we go home now?
No, wait, there's more, really.
No, seriously, I guess that is a fair proximity of how I experienced my time in Vienna with the mission. If there was anyone else who experienced anything even close to that, I'd really like to meet that person and compare notes.
Obviously, you should be able to see a problem there, that this wasn't the normal process - not how it was supposed to progress.
***
The text is moving on to another subject now, but I'm tired after being out this afternoon, working in the garden and then working in the kitchen. So I'm going to end here, but hopefully I'll be able to get another post in tonight.
***
We're still discussion socialization in the text, but we're not under the sub-heading "How People Are Socialized."
"Pascale (1985) modeled a seven-step process to depict what goes on in organizations with strong cultures.
1. Selection. Trained recruiters carefully select entry-level candidates.
2. Abandonment of past. Experiences that give the new recruit humility break down the hold of past assumptions and traits, making the recruit ready to accept the organization's norms.
3. Training. On-the-job training helps the recruit master tasks, with mastery rewarded by promotion.
4. Monitoring and reward. Performance is monitored closely, and the reward system is geared toward reinforcing the values of the culture.
5. Identification. Employees begin to identify with the organization's values, thus making them able to justify any personal sacrifices required.
6. Reinforcement. Organizational legends reinforce the culture and goals.
7. Role models. Successful members of the organization provide role models for others." (p. 141)
I want to go through these one by one and then try to organize them in a way that reflects what I think (that is, based on my observations) the usual socialization path should have looked like, and then go back again and try to recreate my own experience using these 7 steps.
1. I guess my comment regarding selection is that someone who knew what the position really entailed should have been in communication with someone who knew me. If the person who knew me was the North American head of my sending mission, fine; if the h.r. director at the Vienna mission was the one who knew the position, great. Just get these two men talking! Something obviously went haywire in the communications between North American and Vienna, because I was either the wrong person for the right job or the right person for the wrong job. All I know is that from my end I was completely open and honest with them in my home office: they knew I wanted an apartment by myself and that I wanted people ministry and intended to get that on my own in Vienna outside of work, and they also knew about my concerns about my former mission [which should have raised concerns considering the all-or-nothing submission requirement for full membership in the Vienna mission]. But the people in Vienna somehow didn't know any of this [although my sending mission did at least tell them about the apartment request and possibly the other things as well] and at the same time the job and its all-inclusiveness, etc., was not communicated to me at all - in fact, I don't think the North American office of my sending mission knew much more than I did about the position itself. I just want to make this very clear: communication, no matter how you cut it, is important. If communication sucks in an organization, chances are the organizations sucks all together.
2. I'm not sure how people other than secretaries experienced this, but I think secretaries went through this process, and if its true that a couple other women were sent back to the States for 'counseling' chances are they were going through this process too. The only thing is, did any of the men get this treatment, or was it unique to how the women were treated? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.
3. Yes, people did get on-the-job informal training to learn the ropes and details of what was needed to get done what you were supposed to do. There weren't promotions though, but I don't think that would be expected in a mission setting anyway, although in a seminary setting maybe.
4. Monitoring is ongoing, but I think that once one is situated and passes through the basic socialization phase all right that monitoring is more incidental or along the lines of how everyone had a collective responsibility for security, for example. I think there would really have to be a problem with someone's work to get ongoing intentional and/or targeted monitoring. I don't know of anyone besides myself who earned this dubious privilege, although it wasn't because of my work, but rather for security, since I hadn't passed the basic socialization "total submission" test.
5. Coming from the Vienna mission standpoint it's rather shocking to think of "identification" coming this far down the sequence. There it was mandatory to identify with their norms, and I mean with ALL of their norms. This wasn't a pick and choose affair like a smorgasbord or something; you had to take it all as a lump sum package deal, although you might not necessarily know all the norms right away; but you had to get to the point that you would accept anything the mission threw at you, and then when you were presented with something new you didn't have to bother with deciding whether or not you liked it or agreed with it, because you'd already agreed to agree with everything. This was bothersome to me; hence the resistance.
6. The reinforcement came through all the usual communication channels, including business-type meetings, social meetings, a mission newsletter, or even in individual conversations with someone more in-the-know than yourself.
7. This is where the cycle turns back on itself and the trainee becomes the trainer. I've said before that this was a kind of rite of passage, I think, when you knew someone was really "in".
Now for how this list should have been for Vienna new recruits [i.e., the expected sequence]:
1. Selection
2. Abandonment of past
5. Identification
3 & 4. Training and monitoring, which monitoring probably lasting somewhat longer than training.
6. Reinforcement
7. Role models
So identification is the main change there. Now here is how I experienced it:
1. Selection
1 1/2. Humility without the abandonment part
3. Training
1 1/2. More humility without the abandonment part [USA]
3 1/2. Monitoring without the reward [USA & Vienna]
6. Reinforcement
3 1/2. More humility without the abandonment part [last few months in Vienna]
That's it in a nutshell. Can we go home now?
No, wait, there's more, really.
No, seriously, I guess that is a fair proximity of how I experienced my time in Vienna with the mission. If there was anyone else who experienced anything even close to that, I'd really like to meet that person and compare notes.
Obviously, you should be able to see a problem there, that this wasn't the normal process - not how it was supposed to progress.
***
The text is moving on to another subject now, but I'm tired after being out this afternoon, working in the garden and then working in the kitchen. So I'm going to end here, but hopefully I'll be able to get another post in tonight.
