Chapter 6

Orientation of People

1. What does function mean? Why is it said that the organization is a system of functions?
Function is the set of activities and behaviors required of an individual that
holds a specific position in a business organization. Everyone performs
functions in different organizations.
The business organization is a comprehensive set of functions or activities that is expected
perform the individuals and groups that overlap and are formed by people who
they also have expectations placed on other people. In short, the organization is a
system of functions

2. Define the orientation of individuals in the context of their placement.

The processes for placing individuals include their integration and orientation, job modeling and the
performance evaluation. Some guidelines that the organization should offer to its employees
they are to print directions and orientations, define behaviors and actions, and establish goals and results
that should be achieved.

3. Explain what organizational culture is. Define strong culture and weak culture.
Organizational culture or corporate culture is the set of habits and beliefs established by the norms.
the values, attitudes, and expectations shared by all members of the organization. Thus, it refers to
the system of meanings that all members of an organization share and that distinguish it from others
others.

Strong culture: when its values are intensely shared by the majority of employees
and influences behaviors and expectations.
Weak culture: when its values are not intensely shared by the employees.

4. Why does culture resemble an iceberg?

Culture is like an iceberg, because only a small fraction of it appears above the water and represents
its visible portion. Organizational culture shows the formal and easily visible aspects, such as policies and
the guidelines, the methods and procedures, the objectives, the organizational structure and the technology
adopted. However, it conceals some informal aspects, such as perceptions, feelings, the
attitudes, values, informal interactions, group norms, etc.

Define the formal and open aspects of a culture

The formal and open aspects of a culture are the visible and publicly observable components.
oriented towards operational aspects and tasks.
The informal and hidden aspects are the invisible and covered, affective and emotional components.
oriented towards social and psychological aspects.

6. ¿Cuáles son los componentes de la cultura organizacional? Explíquelos.

Artifacts constitute the first level of culture, the most superficial, visible, and perceptible.
they are the concrete things that each person sees, hears, and feels when they encounter an organization.
Shared values constitute the second level of culture. They are the relevant values that are acquired.
importance for people and that define the reasons that explain why they do what they do.
The basic assumptions constitute the most intimate, deep, and hidden level of organizational culture. They are the
unconscious beliefs, perceptions, feelings, and the dominant assumptions that they believe in.
people.

What does value mean?

The value for the organization refers to issues that deserve priority attention, whether in the
decision-making process, or in the behavior and attitude of people within organizations.
The value for people is the ideas and expectations they consider essential and primordial.
The value for the shareholder is the return they perceive and evaluate from the investments and transactions.
financial transactions made with the organization.
The value for the customer is the performance they perceive and evaluate in their transactions with the organization.
when acquiring its products or services.
8. Is it possible to change organizational culture? Explain.
On certain occasions, it is not only possible to change the organizational culture, but it is necessary to do so. It is necessary.
change the culture of the organization when it has ceased to be effective, when it prevents the mission from being fulfilled or
the objectives of the company or institution, or when it harms or disrupts its functioning and endangers its
stability, its development or even its survival.

9. What are the characteristics of successful cultures? Explain.

Successful organizations adopt cultures that are not only flexible but, above all, sensitive, to accommodate the...
social and cultural differences of their workers, mainly when they act in global terms and
competitive, spreading across different parts of the world. On the other hand, people also become
flexible and sensitive, because they simultaneously participate in several organizations to work, study,
advise, consult, buy, rent, eat, dress, travel, etc. People must also integrate into
different organizational cultures to succeed.

10. Comment on Levi Strauss's culture.

According to Levi Strauss's culture, it must be ethical, provide profits, and at the same time, help to...
make the world a better place to live. It is a vision based on a set of corporate 'aspirations', such as
the following:
Opening: management must demonstrate direction, commitment to it, success of people and
willingness to contribute to the solution of problems.
Diversity: the company's values are based on a diversified workforce across all
levels. By reaching various points of view, diversity is valued and rewarded, and not suppressed.
Ethics: management must provide clear expectations, practice standards of behavior
ethical and strengthen them throughout the company.
Empowerment: the management must decentralize authority within the organization and place it as
as close to the products and customers as possible.
Consider that to react quickly to market changes, you will have to deposit more.
responsibility, authority, and information in the hands of the people closest to the products and the customers.

11. What differences are there between adaptable and non-adaptable cultures?
Adaptable Cultures Managers pay attention to all aspects, especially to the customers, and
They initiate change when they need to achieve their legitimate interests, even if it means taking risks.
Managers take great care with clients, investors, and employees. They grant great
value to the people and processes that can create useful changes (such as leadership at the top and
lower in the administrative hierarchy
Non-adaptable cultures. Administrators tend to behave in an isolated manner in political terms.
bureaucratic. Therefore, they do not change their strategies quickly to adapt or gain advantages with change.
In their work environments, managers take care of themselves, their immediate work group, or to
some product (or technology) associated with their work group. They place more value on order and reducing risks
in the administrative processes that lead initiatives.

12. Explain the paradox between stability and adaptability of culture

Stability with maintenance and permanence:
The organization is stable and survives despite the rigidity of its culture. Relative success in terms of
conservatism.
Stability with change and innovation
The stable organization survives and grows with change and innovation. Success in terms of innovation.
Instability with maintenance and permanence
The organization is unstable despite the rigidity and permanence of its culture. Survival at stake.
Instability with change and innovation. The organization is unstable despite its attempt to adapt to the
survival in dangerous game.

13. What conditions are required to change an organizational culture?

A dramatic crisis: it is the clash that affects the status that (maintaining the current state and takes out
to highlight the importance of contemporary culture. These crises are represented by a difficulty
sudden financial crisis, the loss of a major client or a radical technological change carried out by a
competitor.
Leadership modifications: a new leadership from the top that provides a new set of
values can be capable of responding to a crisis.
Small and young organization: the newer the company, the easier it is to change the culture.
of an organization.
Weak culture: the stronger the culture, the greater the commitment of the members.
the values and, consequently, harder to change.
14. How do workers learn the organizational culture?
1. Stories. They are tales and passages about the founder of the company, memories about the difficulties or
special events, the rules of conduct, the downsizing and relocation of workers, the achievements
and the previous errors that anchor the present in the past and explain the legitimacy of practices
current.
2. Rituals and ceremonies. They are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce values.
principles of the organization. The year-end ceremonies and anniversary commemorations
from the organization are rituals that bring together and bring closer the entirety of the workers to motivate and
strengthen aspects of organizational culture, as well as to reduce conflicts.
3. Material symbols. The architecture of the building, the offices and the tables, the size and the arrangement
the physicality of desks constitutes material symbols that define the degree of equality or the
differentiation between people and the type of behavior (such as taking risks or following the routine,
authoritarianism or the democratic spirit, participatory style or individualism, the attitude
conservative or innovative) that the organization desires. Material symbols constitute aspects
of non-verbal communication.
4. Language. Many organizations and also units within them use language as a
way to identify members of a culture or subculture. By learning the language, the member
confirms the acceptance of culture and helps to preserve it.
 Organizations develop unique terms to describe equipment, desks, people.
key, suppliers, clients or products. Also the way people dress and the documents
used constitute ways of expressing organizational culture.

15. What is organizational socialization? Why is it used?

It is the way the organization welcomes new workers and integrates them into its culture, its context and its
system, so that they can behave in accordance with the expectations of the organization. To adapt
the behavior of the worker in relation to the expectations and needs of the organization.

16. What are the alternatives of an integration program?

1. formal or informal: When the new collaborator is segregated and differentiated to make their role explicit.
As a new entrant, socialization will be more formal. This is the case with specific integration programs.
and orientation. Informal socialization immediately places the new employee in their position, with little
or no special attention.
2. Individual or collective. New members can be socialized individually or in a group and
they are processed for an identical set of experiences, as in military service.
3. Uniform or variable. The fixed program establishes standardized stages of transition from the stage of
entry into the worker stage. The variable program does not provide for any company program with the
steps for integration.
4. Serial or random. Serial socialization uses roles for training that encourage the newcomer.
worker, as in the case of apprenticeship and tutoring programs. Random socialization does not
uses papers and the new workers are free to act on their own.
5. Reinforcement or elimination. Reinforcement socialization confirms and supports certain qualities and qualifications.
of the new worker as necessary ingredients for their success in the position. Socialization by
elimination seeks to remove or neutralize certain undesirable characteristics of the new member and
adapt it to the new role it will play.
17. Comment on the HP Way.
HP is differentiated by its corporate culture, as its focus is on principles and values that
They run the company and the business administration, and their corporate culture is characterized by decentralization.
from the company, collective spirit, the hired individuals focus on change and innovation, the contribution
the workers' contributions are recognized and valued, promoting teamwork.

18. What are the methods of organizational socialization?

1. Selection process: socialization begins with the selection interviews through which the candidate
know your future work environment, the predominant culture in the organization, the colleagues, the
developed activities, challenges, future rewards among others.
2. Job content: The new team member must receive tasks that are attractive and sufficient enough to
to provide success at the beginning of their career in the organization, so that later they receive tasks
gradually more complicated and increasingly challenging.
3. The supervisor as a mentor. The new collaborator may be assigned a mentor who is in charge of
integrate them into the organization. For new employees, the supervisor represents the connection point with
the organization and the image of the company. The supervisor must take care of the new workers like a
true tutor, who accompanies and guides them during the initial period in the organization.
4. Work team. The work team can play an important role in socialization.
the new collaborators. The integration of the new member should be attributed to a work team
capable of provoking a positive and lasting effect in him.
 Group acceptance is a crucial source of social needs satisfaction; moreover, teams
of work exert a strong influence on the beliefs and attitudes of individuals regarding the
organization and the way they should behave.
Integration program. It is a formal and intensive initial training program, aimed at newcomers.
members of the organization, whose purpose is to familiarize them with the usual language, its uses and customs
internally, the main products and services, and the mission and objectives of the organization. It is also called
Induction Program represents the main method to indoctrinate new participants in the
organization practices. Their aim is to ensure that they learn and absorb the values, norms, and guidelines
behavior that the organization considers essential and relevant for the good performance of its
frames.

19. What are the main points of an integration program?

20. What is the content of an employee handbook?

 21. Explain the Walt Disney integration program.
It is an 8-hour integration program, followed by 40 hours of learning in the parks where the
Language has a fundamental importance since there are no workers but 'members of the show'.
people have roles, not positions. Customers are 'guests', the rides are called 'attractions'.
The HR department offers a welcome scheme where employees receive instructions.
about their work, whom they report to, how to dress, etc. On the first day, the collaborators are transported to the
Disney University for an orientation course, the history and philosophy is presented with presentations.
audiovisuals, The next day, the new collaborators receive their specific assignments for tasks such as
security, transportation, street cleaning, and food for the guests. Furthermore, the new
employees receive additional training to know how to answer guests' questions, also
they receive a newsletter called eyes and ears that contains news of activities, job opportunities, among others
others. Every Disney manager spends a week each year selling popcorn, organizes tour groups to
to know what happens in the park and how to maintain the quality of services. All the collaborators who
Those who leave the company respond to a questionnaire about their satisfactions and dissatisfactions after having worked.
at Disney to measure the success of employee and consumer satisfaction.

22. What are the advantages of an orientation program?

The reduction of people's anxiety
2. reduction of rotation
[Link] saving
[Link] of expectations.
23. Explain the orientation program of DuPont Merck
It is a program designed to guide people about what their work represents in the organization.
and help workers build connections in their new job.
Phase 1. New employees meet with guiding leaders to discuss the overall objectives, the
employees learn the company's philosophy and organizational culture. For 3 months the new
employees work together with their guiding leaders to acclimate to the company.
Phase 2. Each employee learns the role they play in helping the organization achieve its objectives.
And in the end, they return to work with an understanding of the nature of their position, the resources available to them,
norms and values of the organization.
Phase 3. Employees are informed of the strategic nature of the organization and the mission is reviewed.
long-term goals, achieving employee commitment to corporate objectives.