Workplace culture and socialization

Question 1

Workplace culture

Answer 1

beliefs, values, attitudes, norms and accepted procedures

Question 2

two key sources of workplace culture that shape how we perform our work

Answer 2

1. the kind of work being done (occupational)
   – specifically professionals how they adopt professional culture
2. The organization in which it is done (employing organization)
   - Family friendly?

Question 3

Workplace Culture

Answer 3

May be formalized and deliberately created
-Training people to adopt to workplace culture

may be informal

• Not necessarily explicit
• Perform your tasks but ‘we don’t do that here’

may conflict with one another

• Between different departments
• Conflict – depending on the goals they are trying to pursue

Conflict – that professionals experience when they work in large bureaucratic organizations
-Bureaucracy and professionals often have internalized work related cultures
Ex: health profession (nurses or doctors) – goals and values = provide the best patient care possible
Employer in charge or a large organization: the hospital – interested in efficiency and profit

Question 4

Professional socialization and training:

Answer 4

Theoretical, abstract knowledge

Applied skills and techniques
-Formal aspects

Professional subculture

Question 5

Constantly being socialized

Answer 5

People before they enter a professional training school they have anticipatory socialization in regards to that occupation

Ex: why do students go into engineering?
Students – know someone who is an engineer
Know what they are going to get into
Some people just fall into professions, others may have a pre-socialization of what they are getting into

Important in forming our adult identity
Our occupation becomes a key identity to who we are
Internalizing an occupational identity – how it affects our work

Lower status occupations – intense subcultures and identities associated with them
Ex: police, Cooks, Circus performers, Zoo keepers

Question 6

Socialization and training: Acquiring professional knowledge

Answer 6

adult socialization

formal and informal

Question 7

Adult socialization

Answer 7

Adult socialization and training:
Already acquired many traits, norms and values associated with being a student
Acquire those norms what will be associated with your future career

Ex: Medical students – involves a lot of exams, hard science, but little to do with being a doctor = abstract knowledge

Second and third years – applied and practical skills (clinicals)

Question 8

Formal and informal

Answer 8

Learn from interactions with their peers

Take place in school or outside of school

Knowledge based occupations

Individuals need to acquire a lot of knowledge, and abstract theoretical knowledge

Question 9

Applied skills and techniques

Answer 9

Applied or clinical part of program
Learn by doing

Focus on technical aspects

Learn how to identify what needs to be done

Diagnose situations and figure out what you need to do
Identify the problem – find a solution

During – they are learning how to apply their skills
Ex: Lawyers articling – applying those skills
Social workers – practicum
Teachers – student teaching
Doctors – clinicals

Question 10

Professional subculture

Answer 10

formal and informal aspects
Have long intensive, standardized processes where we can break apart and see where the students are learning what
How we acquire this new identity in our adult lives

values, norms, and symbols 
-Picking up habits – as we socialize to adopt a particular identity – is associated with being a member of that organization 
Professional schools 
Distinctive value, norm and symbols 
Ex: Santas – distinctive dress 
Ex: white coat, stethoscope - doctor

Question 11

Changes in students s

Answer 11

rites of passage

changes in student orientation

Not that interested in the formal training of the abstract knowledge and social skills

Rites of passage – transition from a student to a practioner

Not interested in assessing their knowledge

Question 12

Rites of passage

Answer 12

separation
transition
incorporation

Question 13

Separation

Answer 13

From others

People going to the professional schools are separated from other students

Ex: law school – different building
When your classes are scheduled
And the work you are doing

Question 14

Transition

Answer 14

Ambiguous and stressful

Sense of in betweenness – not sure how to act

Lost their general identity

Doing more clinical and applied aspects

Question 15

Incorporation

Answer 15

Marked by a ceremony

See this in the formal ways we refer to these incorporating stages

When lawyers finish their law school training they are called to the bar

Now licenced to be a lawyer

Big step towards formally identifying with that occupation

Question 16

changes in student orientation

Answer 16

attitudes towards clients or patients

depersonalization and detached concern

Question 17

attitudes towards clients or patients

Answer 17

How their attitudes change
Researchers have documented stated that students enter the work field with noble idealistic view

Strong humanity concerns and commitments

By their 3rd or 4th year they seem to be less concerned about helping others and instead emphasize certain skills
More practical tasks – being more successful

Important part of understanding the shift in identity

These students are now internalizing the professional identity in which they are training for

Question 18

Depersonalization

Answer 18

Their clients or their patients

Impersonal bureaucracies are
Treating us like a number – treatment will be equally and equitably

Another impersonal – efficiency and rational

Not going to connect emotionally or personally, want them to be treated in a rational and efficient manner

Concern for them but a detachment
Use of cadavers – medical schools start to train students to depersonalize students
What they are treating is a physical object
Depersonalization in the operating room
A corpse – is considered ”the body”
Language shifted, to do their job to fix a body not whether if that person was a mother or a person with characteristics etc.
They refer to the disease not the individual

Medical schools focus on the training and technique and applied skills rather than the way they speak 
Whether empathy (concern and feelings) is something inherent or something they can train?