Georgia T. Chao

Organizational socialization: Its content and consequences.

Content dimensions of the socialization domain were defined in order to determine relationships between learning particular features of a job/organization and the process and outcomes of socialization. Six socialization dimensions-performance proficiency, politics, language, people, organizational goals/values, and history-were supported by a factor analysis on data from 594 full-time professionals. The socialization process was then examined by comparing three groups of respondents who did not change jobs, changed jobs within the organization, or changed jobs and organizations. Results showed these groups had significantly different response patterns on all dimensions

The cultural mosaic: a metatheory for understanding the complexity of culture.

Workforce population trends have increased the numbers and kinds of culturally diverse people who work together. Researchers in organizational behavior have often examined culture through values; however, cultural values can be based on collections of people other than traditional nation states. A cultural mosaic is presented as a framework to identify demographic, geographic, and associative features underlying culture. An individuals unique collage of multiple cultural identities yields a complex picture of the cultural influences on that person. Developments in chaos and complexity theories are proposed as a theoretical base for study on the complexity of culture at the individual level. Additional developments in network theory serve as a theoretical base for cultural research at the group level. The cultural mosaic is described as a complex system with localized structures, linking cultural tiles in ordered and chaotic ways. Research propositions examining multiple cultural identities at individual and group levels are discussed.

Advancing Multilevel Research Design Capturing the Dynamics of Emergence

Multilevel theory and research have advanced organizational science but are limited because the research focus is incomplete. Most quantitative research examines top-down, contextual, cross-level relationships. Emergent phenomena that manifest from the bottom up from the psychological characteristics, processes, and interactions among individuals—although examined qualitatively—have been largely neglected in quantitative research. Emergence is theoretically assumed, examined indirectly, and treated as an inference regarding the construct validity of higher level measures. As a result, quantitative researchers are investigating only one fundamental process of multilevel theory and organizational systems. This article advances more direct, dynamic, and temporally sensitive quantitative research methods designed to unpack emergence as a process. We argue that direct quantitative approaches, largely represented by computational modeling or agent-based simulation, have much to offer with respect to illuminating the mechanisms of emergence as a dynamic process. We illustrate how indirect and direct approaches can be complementary and, appropriately integrated, have the potential to substantially advance theory and research. We conclude with a set of recommendations for advancing multilevel research on emergent phenomena in teams and organizations.

Exploration of the Conceptualization and Measurement of Career Plateau: A Comparative Analysis

Data from 1,755 managers were used to compare a perceptually based operationalization of career plateau with the traditional measure based on job tenure. Results for four outcome measures (intrinsic job satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction, organizational identification, and career planning) showed the perceptually based measure of career plateaus to account for significantly more variance than the job tenure-based measure. Controlling for age, hierarchical regression analyses for the managerial sample also supported job tenure as a moderator of the relationship between a perceived career plateau and three of the four hypothesized outcomes. Specifically, the negative effects of a career plateau were most pronounced when the plateau was perceived during the early years of an individuals job tenure. Results are discussed with regard to the perception, adjustment, and consequences of career plateaus.

Unravelling the complexities of trust and culture

Badri is an Iranian businesswoman representing her firm in first-round negotiations with a new alliance partner from Munich, Germany. When she enters the room, her counterpart from the German firm, Johann, reaches out his hand for her to shake as a first gesture of goodwill. Badri hesitates, but takes Johannʹs hand briefly, shakes it once, smiling the whole time. Then she sits down. Johann is impressed by her apparent openness; for him, this bodes well for the talks ahead. Behind him, a few colleagues wince at his indiscretion, but are relieved when it appears he has got away with it. Behind her, Badriʹs male colleagues from Iran are shocked. Some are disgusted. For women to touch unfamiliar men is neither customary nor appropriate in their culture. But Badri has studied and worked in the States for several years and, though she finds such incidents uncomfortable, she has learned to ‘switch’ between styles of working when required. Plus, for her, the priorities of her employer mean that nurturing a solid, trusting relationship with their German partner is of paramount importance. Sean and Nils are elected employee representatives sitting on the European Works Council of the Anglo–Dutch steel firm, Corus, for whom they both work. Nils is Dutch and works in his native Holland; Sean is Irish but works in a smelting works in England. They are both union members (though in different unions), both Corus employees, and both engineers.

Building an infrastructure for organizational learning: A multilevel approach

Organizational environments are increasingly turbulent, chaotic, and unpredictable thereby creating demands for organizational flexibility, agility, and adaptability (Terreberry, 1968). Organizations have responded to these pressures in a multitude of ways. They have made structural changes to organize work around teams (Lawler, Mohrman, & Ledford, 1995) to push expertise closer to the source of problems, to enable more rapid decision making, and to empower flexible action. They have made investments in information technology to manage Furthermore, they have invested in human capital to increase their collective knowledge stock and capacities (Davenport, 1999). A key theme running through these responses is the need for learning and adaptive capabilities operating at multiple levels of the organizational system. Learning has been specified as a key individual capability that enables adaptation with respect to their capacity to acquire capabilities and to adapt to changes in their environments. Indeed, organization learning, from its early roots in the development of the science of organizational behavior, and particularly over the last decade, has evolved to become a multidisciplinary, vibrant, and diverse area of inquiry. What is organizational learning and how can it be enhanced? The answer from the literature is diffuse. Since its inception as a concept in the 1960s, organizational learning has been very broadly conceptualized across different levels of analysis – often at the macro or organizational level; more rarely at the meso, work unit, or team level; and frequently at the micro or individual level (see Fiol & Lyles, 1985, for a review). Indeed, the particular level of interest is often not explicitly specified and an explanation can wander across multiple levels. Organizational learning has been viewed as informal processes that promote knowledge acquisition (e.g., organizational culture, socialization, mentoring) and as more formal systems that capture and compile such knowledge (e.g., knowledge management, information systems). Moreover, the different and unique ways that organizational learning has been conceptualized cut across multiple disciplines and literatures that tend to be insular. The result is a very broad, fuzzy, and multifaceted concept that has much intellectual appeal. However, it also has limited operational utility so that the question posed at the beginning of this paragraph cannot easily be answered. The conceptual challenge is a multilevel one. The process of learning can be reasonably well defined as an individual-level psychological phenomenon, but it is ill-defined and more amorphous when applied to higher levels of conceptualization. It is rooted in individual …

Going DEEP: guidelines for building simulation-based team assessments

Background Whether for team training, research or evaluation, making effective use of simulation-based technologies requires robust, reliable and accurate assessment tools. Extant literature on simulation-based assessment practices has primarily focused on scenario and instructional design; however, relatively little direct guidance has been provided regarding the challenging decisions and fundamental principles related to assessment development and implementation. Objective The objective of this manuscript is to introduce a generalisable assessment framework supplemented by specific guidance on how to construct and ensure valid and reliable simulation-based team assessment tools. The recommendations reflect best practices in assessment and are designed to empower healthcare educators, professionals and researchers with the knowledge to design and employ valid and reliable simulation-based team assessments. Overview Information and actionable recommendations associated with creating assessments of team processes (non-technical ‘teamwork’ activities) and performance (demonstration of technical proficiency) are presented which provide direct guidance on how to Distinguish the underlying competencies one aims to assess, Elaborate the measures used to capture team member behaviours during simulation activities, Establish the content validity of these measures and Proceduralise the measurement tools in a way that is systematically aligned with the goals of the simulation activity while maintaining methodological rigour (DEEP). Summary The DEEP framework targets fundamental principles and critical activities that are important for effective assessment, and should benefit healthcare educators, professionals and researchers seeking to design or enhance any simulation-based assessment effort.

Evaluation of a computer-based educational intervention to improve medical teamwork and performance during simulated patient resuscitations

Objectives:To determine the impact of a low-resource-demand, easily disseminated computer-based teamwork process training intervention on teamwork behaviors and patient care performance in code teams. Design:A randomized comparison trial of computer-based teamwork training versus placebo training was conducted from August 2010 through March 2011. Setting:This study was conducted at the simulation suite within the Kado Family Clinical Skills Center, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Participants:Participants (n = 231) were fourth-year medical students and first-, second-, and third-year emergency medicine residents at Wayne State University. Each participant was assigned to a team of four to six members (nteams = 45). Interventions:Teams were randomly assigned to receive either a 25-minute computer-based training module targeting appropriate resuscitation teamwork behaviors or a placebo training module. Measurements:Teamwork behaviors and patient care behaviors were video recorded during high-fidelity simulated patient resuscitations and coded by trained raters blinded to condition assignment and study hypotheses. Teamwork behavior items (e.g., “chest radiograph findings communicated to team” and “team member assists with intubation preparation”) were standardized before combining to create overall teamwork scores. Similarly, patient care items (“chest radiograph correctly interpreted”; “time to start of compressions”) were standardized before combining to create overall patient care scores. Subject matter expert reviews and pilot testing of scenario content, teamwork items, and patient care items provided evidence of content validity. Main Results:When controlling for team members’ medically relevant experience, teams in the training condition demonstrated better teamwork (F [1, 42] = 4.81, p < 0.05; &eegr;2p = 10%) and patient care (F [1, 42] = 4.66, p < 0.05; &eegr;2p = 10%) than did teams in the placebo condition. Conclusions:Computer-based team training positively impacts teamwork and patient care during simulated patient resuscitations. This low-resource team training intervention may help to address the dissemination and sustainability issues associated with larger, more costly team training programs.

Taking Stock of Two Relational Aspects of Organizational Life: Tracing the History and Shaping the Future of Socialization and Mentoring Research

As part of the centennial celebration for the Journal of Applied Psychology, this article reviews the literature on organizational socialization and mentoring. Our review includes a comparison of organizational socialization and mentoring as processes for employee adjustment and development, the historical context that fueled the emergence of these two areas of study, and a chronological mapping of key foundations, trends, themes that emerged across time, and major milestones. Along the way, a special emphasis is placed on research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and high impact work is highlighted. We conclude with a discussion of five areas for future research. Specifically, we outline ideas for bridging the socialization and mentoring literatures, better understanding and capturing dynamic processes across time, the development of multilevel theories and models, addressing causality, and considering the implications for organizational socialization and mentoring research based on how technology is changing the way we work.

Capturing the multilevel dynamics of emergence Computational modeling, simulation, and virtual experimentation

Emergent phenomena—those that manifest bottom-up from the psychological characteristics, perceptions, and interactions among individuals—are a fundamental dynamic process in multilevel theory, but have been treated in a very limited way in the research literature. In particular, treatments are largely assumed (rather than observed directly), retrospective, and static. This paper describes a research paradigm designed to examine directly the dynamics of micro-meso—individual, dyad, and team—emergent phenomena. We identify, describe, and illustrate the sequence of theoretical, measurement, computational, data analytic, and systematic research activities that are necessary to operationalize and utilize the paradigm. We illustrate the paradigm development process using our research, focused on learning and team knowledge emergence, and highlight key design principles that can be applied to examine other emergent phenomena in teams. We conclude with a discussion of contributions, strengths and limitations, and generalization of the approach to other emergent phenomena in teams.