1. Describe the process of “socialization” and how it might assist Herb Kelleher in creating the
culture at Southwest Airlines. Make sure to discuss socialization (not just selection) using the
textbook concepts.
2. Consider Hofstede’s dimensions of National Culture (power distance, individualism,
masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance). How is Organizational Culture different from or similar
to National Culture? Give examples in your discussion.
Organizational Culture and Socialization
Socialization
When a company on-boards a new employee, they start by introducing them into their
culture. This process, known as socialization, can be broken down into three stages: anticipatory
socialization, accommodation, and role management (Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson,
2016). During anticipatory socilaization, the new employee is essentially trying to gauge the
company’s culture by attempting to seek out what working in the new organization is really like
(Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson, 2016). In the second stage of socialization, accomodation
occurs whereby the indivdual attempts to assimilate as an active member of the organization in
the following four activities: establish new relationships with coworkers and supervisors,
learning the required tasks of the job, clarification of their role within the organizaiton, and self-
evaluation of their progress (Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson, 2016). The final stage of
socialization, role management, occurs when there is conflicts either from their unresolved work-
life balance, or from un-managed stress due to work demands (Kanopaske, Ivancevich, &
Matteson, 2016).
Herb Kelleher recommends to “hire for attitude, train for skills, and look for leadership
capability in every potential employee (World of Business Ideas, 2016). This thought process
builds on the fact that there are intangible and unteachable personality characteristics when
looking for new employees, but at the core of these values one must have a sunny disposition.
Additionally, Herb Kelleher states that he uses model employees in the hiring process as these
individuals, whom possess the qualities sought after, are able to better identify the characteristics
needed to select an employee with the right “fit” (World of Business Ideas, 2016). I believe that
Mr. Kelleher is on the right track as the process of interviewing with model employees can lead
to the first step, anticipatory socialization. This is important not only because it also allows the
new employee a familiar face to socialize with during the accomodationan stage, but because it
lends the correct tone to the culture that they are trying to seek during the anticipatory
socialization.
Organizational Culture
Hofstede identified the following four value dimensions in which work values differ
across nations: (1) power distance, (2) uncertainty avoidance, (3) individualism, and (4)
masculinity (Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson, 2016).
Organizational culture can be very similar to national culture, in that you may have similar
values. For instance, in the United States, where in our national culture we are known to value
individualism, that is, we place a high level of importance on our own personal achievements
(Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson, 2016). This coincides with the organizational culture of
my hospital pharmacy department as we encourage the growth of our pharmacists’
achievements. This can be seen in how we model the pharmacist career ladder (promotions) of
team members based on their achievements of board licensures, residencies, specialty
certifications in the pharmacy department. This also happens to coincide with the fact that the
pharmacy departments director and assistant director are also both American. The similarity in
this example is shown in how both the national culture of the department leaders and the
organizational culture of the hospital pharmacy are both aligned in placing high values on
individualism.
References
Kanopaske, R., Ivancevich, J. M., & Matteson, M. T. (2016). Organizational Behavior &
Management. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Education.
World of Business Ideas . (2018, October 16). How Southwest Airlines built its culture .
Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_CeFiUkV7s
DQ2
1. What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
2. How might a manager’s knowledge about an employee’s personality or generation affect the
employee’s work performance?
3. What might be a potential solution to the problem of self-fulfilling prophecies at work?
Individual Differences and Perception
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person’s expectations eventually fall in line with
a manner that are consistent with those expectations (Kanopaske, Ivancevich, & Matteson,
2016). This prophecy can go in both a positive and negative light, with the former being called
the Pygmalion effect (Konopaske et al., 2016). The Pygmalion effect was discovered to hold true
in an experiment with elementary school children in which the teachers were told a random
selection of students possessed the capability to excel in their studies in the coming year based
off of a fake exam (Heroic Imagination TV, 2018). In this study, it was the expectation of the
teacher for the student to excel in their academics which placed the child at an advantage to learn
more due to the following four factors: Climate (creating a warm atmosphere for the pupil to
learn), Input (giving more material to the students more favorable to learn), Response
Opportunity (giving the pupil more dialogue to respond to questions in class), and Feedback (not
accepting the easy answers and giving feedback for less than perfect answers) (Heroic
Imagination TV, 2018). Given these circumstances, this positive approach led to higher
expectations on the children which led them to believe they must be able to meet those
expectations, as their intelligent teacher knows best.
Employee’s Generation, Personality, and Work Performance
As a manager, I believe that learning and connecting about your employee’s is an
extremely important factor in managing a department. Aside from learning about your
employees lives and hobbies, understanding their personalities and generations they grew up in
will aid in how to approach them. There are no two people that are the same, however, there may
be some commonalities in generational periods. For instance, as a millennial myself, I find that I
most easily relate to my staff that are also millennials. We have the same mindset, which
Konopaske et al. describes as needing on-going feedback, guidance on their performance, and
expect opportunities for growth (2016). I can leverage on the abilties of millennials to
collaborate with the rest of the department in a teamwork approach to the advantage of the
department (Konopaske et al., 2016). On the opposite end of the spectrum, it is much harder to
relate to the older employee’s in Generational X or baby boomers. While this generation does not
require constant feedback and praise, they do put more emphasis on what the organization can
provide in terms of working on projects and expanding their own training (Konopaske et al.,
2016). I find this holds true in my own organization as my older employees have reached out in
the past for continuing education opportunities that they were interested in. I took note and have
become more proactive since then in finding mutually beneficial training opportunities for some
of my employees in which our organization will pay for and it has created a more engaged
employee. They seem to feel that my interest in growing them must also correlate to how my
perception is of their potential. As such in this older population, the Pygmalion effect has been
already experienced in my institution, and without me even realizing it.
A managers’ understanding of their employee’s personality traits is also an important
element in affecting the employees work performance. Konopaske et al. describes the big five
personality traits as: Extroversion, Emotional stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and
