Feldman's theory of socialization

Feldman Socialization

Feldman's model of socialization can be used to assist in the development of an onboarding program for new crew members. Feldman (1981) notes that there are three different dimensions on which socialization occurs -- the acquisition of role behaviors, the development of work skills and abilities, and the adjustment to the work group's norms and values. Thus, he has development a model to help organizations to bring people on board while aligning them along those three dimensions. Feldman's model has three stages: the anticipatory socialization, encounter and change & acquisition. Organizations should have elements of all three built into their onboarding programs. This paper will illustrate how this can be done.

Anticipatory Socialization

Feldman describes the anticipatory socialization stage as the socialization that occurs before the person officially starts. At the earliest stages, an organization can acquire a reputation. People may be attracted to or reject certain companies simply based on what they perceive to know about the culture. But the organization also has the opportunity to create an impression with the applicant at all points in the recruitment process. So this is something I would build into my retail organization. Most of our staff are part-timers with varying shifts. So since we're not really offering a proper career, we need to focus on what we can offer. For many workers that kind of flexibility is important, and we also want to convey that they will enjoy their time here. So during the recruitment process, we want to take that opportunity to sell the company's benefits a little bit, and make sure that the candidates' needs are properly aligned with what we have to offer.

To make sure this happens, we will train the recruiters to ensure that they are selling the attributes of the company to the candidates. The candidates will learn during the interview process that the people in the company are just like them, and share their values, and they will learn a little bit more about our core values. Once the decision has been made to hire somebody, they will receive an information packet -- a welcome kit -- that will outline some of the key things that they need to know about the company. The first day on a new job can be quite daunting, so we want to give people a chance to learn a little bit about the company -- and maybe about practical things like benefits, and codes of ethics -- ahead of time. This will get them more ready to step into the company right away.

Encounter

The encounter stage is where the organization will be able to really make a good impression, but obviously a new recruit even having received a welcome packet might still be overwhelmed. So the focus is going to be to have a manager who is specially trained in onboarding handle the first day or two with the new employee. They will be trained in what the employee needs to know right away. So whether this is certain functional skills or for a low-level retail job it is more likely to learn about the organizational culture, that manager will be able to convey only the needed information during this initial encounter phase.

An important component during the encounter phase is to have a series of seminars over the first few weeks -- perhaps with multiple new employees -- where the employees can receive supplemental training that reinforces what they are learning from their supervisors and from the first trainer. It is also important to have a mentor at this stage. I find that the mentor can be somebody who is in the same position, but who has been around a while and is a good representative. The role of the mentor is just to help the new recruit learn more about the culture, but also to listen to questions, comments and concerns. The mentor is likely to receive more honest feedback from a new recruit than a manager would, so this is an opportunity to identify and deal with adjustment issues in a non-judgmental way.

Change & Acquisition