New Employee Induction Processes at CityMail of Sweden
Entry Management of Operational Employees at CityMail of Sweden. (Part 1)
Kwesi Agboletey
(Institute of Behavioural Studies) Linköpings University.
Supervisor: Lauritz Brännström (P. hD.)
This research ascertains the nature and characteristics of entry management at CityMail of Sweden. Entry management is that set of activities by which a newly employed person is integrated into a task role and an organisation's work culture. The individuals interpretation of those sets of activities and their effect on the employees job performance, attitude and job satisfaction. The organisation's climate may have an effect on the outcome of the ease of new employee induction. The integration of a new recruit into a tightly knit work group, carrying out its tasks with a deliberately coordinated team orientation has deep psychological ethos, and the distinctiveness with which each organisation orients its management activities to facilitate the induction process is at the focus of the study. The easing of the worker into his or her job is a critical element of the effective organisation. A process that tones the new workers perception of the organisation and commitment, in a new job. The present essay attempts to elucidate that process, drawing on sets of applicable concepts of work groups and processes within work groups and integration of new group members. This study conducted as a case study, assesses through focused interview this process of formally inducting new employee into a service organisation.
Introduction
The paper presents how service organisations facilitate appropriate entrance through entry management processes for new employees. In organisations, entry management is among other things, a means of negotiating preferable organisational states with existing employees and/or work groups to accommodate new employees. It is also a process that enables a dynamic human processes chain with feed forward goal responsive reactive mechanism built in. The formal induction process is occasioned by regular assessments that aim at ascertaining organisation's satisfaction with the newly-employed and the newly-employed's satisfaction with the employing organisation.
A work group is defined by Guzzo and Dickson (1996) as made up of individual's who see themselves and who are seen by others as a social entity, who are interdependent because of the tasks they perform as members of a group, who are embedded in one or more larger social systems (e.g. community or organisation), and who perform tasks that affect others (such as customers or co-workers). Work groups in different organisations; have situationally induced norm patterns that vary. In a way, different work groups, create different psychological dimensions of shared experience among group members or variations along similar psychological dimensions in comparable groups. Work groups are dynamic wholes that like all social phenomena must be understood as force fields, whose prescient state depends on the balances between the forces operating at the moment. For this reason the work group needs to be understood as a quasi-stationery process, which can change along measurable dimensions, influencing and capable of being influenced. (Döping and Prahl, 2000).
The basic assumption is that, an individual is employed, and enters a nebulous work setting where he or she is supposed to realise primary ends of paid employment within specified and structured work environments. But the individual is beset by situational defining constructs by which reality is interpretatively structured and defined within delimited specifications of the work group or organisational department in which the newly employed is located.
In highly task (goal) oriented work groups, the initial dislocation that is experienced, as the newly-employed struggle to 'position' the self in a new environment may over time be resolved as the individual is 'hazed' through each working day. The individual employee is an emotionally laden, consciously reactive suggestibility, reacting to the work environment, unlike a programmed robotic task performer. Interpreting the environment, task and evolving situation to establish self defined reality. Likewise the work place is not altogether a placid, neutral, task programmed environment where the individual enters a task role to realise expected ends for the employer. It is a dynamic, environmentally and organisationally responsive, adaptive setting, peopled by decision makers, implementers of decision, facilitators and workers.
Groups (collections of employees performing specifically assigned task/s) have been and remain the basic form of shared engagement in organisational task design in many workplaces, therefore the need here for a re-evaluation of organisational groups at various levels in response to changes in workforce composition. This research emphasises how new employees are made to appreciate their employing organisation and the nature of their task requirements and provisions made to facilitate task performance by formal organisational processes.
Entry management cannot be discussed as only pertinent to new entrants to the organisation but it must take into consideration the existing work groups into which the new employee is inducted. The relevance of delineating the nature of task structured interaction which typifies a group's task related activities becomes obvious when one considers that what passes for the generic term, work group or team finds an extremely diverse expression in actual organisational settings. Ranging from homogenous and stable highly educated and lowly educated, to cultural and ethnic criteria for differentiation. The numerical constituent of components likewise varies depending on the organisation's designated task requirements.
A work group can be defined as a collection of two or more persons who interact with one another and share some interrelated task goals. These two characteristics, interaction and interrelatedness, distinguish a group from just a collection of people (Spector, 1998). A work team is a type of work group, but a team has three specific properties (Baker, 1991):
1. The actions of individuals must be interdependent and coordinated.
2. Each member must have a particular, specified role.
3. There must be common task goals and objectives.
The nature of activities within groups range from independent, individual output, modelled within small groups in specific physical locations to totally dependent supportive task mediated interaction within a group, where one person's work output is integrated into another's, or a variation of these activities at different and varied levels of task performance.
Basically, groups in organisations are conceived as formal or informal. The psychologically defined group with invisible physical boundaries but manifest behavioural presence which McCollom (1990) intones, is a qualified reality in organisations, because no matter how integrated a group evolves to become, certain group participants exercise a wilful choice of degree of participation they will engage in over and beyond formal work requirements.
The implication among other things is that informal groups offer, potentially, the richest source of academic theorising, from such fundamental precepts as defining the boundaries of the psychological group, conditions and variable states that enable its formation right down to its effect on group productivity. The element of subjectivity that is inherent in this concept coupled with McCollom's assertion that it is inadequate for management to focus on only rational and task related issues to the detriment of emotional and unconscious questions conditioned by group joining. McCollom's assertion introduces a controversy of relevance for the student of organisations. The controversy arises from the simple fact that formally designated groups do not encompass the full group influence on organisational states; and defining the invincible boundaries of the informal group introduces non-formally verifiable influence in mapping the full effect of the group on the organisation.
At the lower, skilled labour end, management's requirements of employees and the basis for work group formation emphasises practical considerations underlined by organisation's production and profit focus. In this production oriented organisational setting, the group is a functional entity with specified ends. Coordination of tasks is the responsibility of a designated leader, whose task coordination activities are intended to engage formal group members in working to realise the group's goals, as well as enabling an acceptable work environment that is conducive for effective group activity.
1.a 1.b 1.c
Figure 1. Nature of formal task coordination and task based interaction within work groups.
Figure 1. Indicates the likely variations in task-based interaction among group members. In figure 1a. the task allocation radiates from a core directive source; each individual is allocated a task which he or she performs virtually independent of any and every other member, the only common referent source being where the task emanates from. Each person has a substantial degree of freedom, the criteria of performance is determined in conjunction with the task giver or the task is allocated with a defined end point, which determines the rate and tempo of task performance. For example, a mail deliveryman is given his route and a batch of mails to sort and deliver. He is virtually on his own and has a fairly self-determined pace, albeit he must deliver all the letters by the end of the working day and accomplish all other related activities relevant to his task role. The only group referent is that all the workers belong to a specific task designated site and have a formal recognition from an organisational viewpoint as belonging to a particular group. (There is an informal awareness and acceptance dimension, both of which are operative and reflect different levels of acknowledgement to be explained in detail later).
In figure B. The output of one person serves as the input for the next person, the input verified as a completed phase by the prior individual is processed to a specified level by individual 'b' and is then verified as a completed input for the next person in the chain. Till a final acceptable product moves out of that group's responsibility as completed product by that work team. Verification procedures are established and standardised and the group leader supervises to ensure acceptable standards in task performance. Whoever is in position as a functional group leader may be an active participant in the chain of activities, but has an added responsibility of coordinating member task performance activity, which responsibility depending on the task reduces as individuals gain increasing expertise on the task.
Figure C. Is the free-ranging, unconstrained, contact environment, where highly efficient or qualified, task capable individuals perform a range of activities with ease of resourcing for information or task relevant engagement with any member of the group as and when the task demands or warrants such contact. It must need be pointed out that what passes for task capability is task determined and employee realised.
These functional task structured activities formally linking group members determine not only an interaction pattern with relevance to task completion but also becomes a patterned framework for work related internal communications, to a significant degree. But outside the formal work patterned relationship within a group are the association responses that is a response to individual affiliation fulfilment needs, that override formal patterns on the job leading to an informal, individually focused and defined, task irrelevant, association between individual group members (and non group members). In some organisational settings these informal associations have only indirect bearing on actual task performance, but in other instances, especially in loosely structured work groups where task completion is independent of other group members output at some or all stages of whole task processing, the informally established linkages between dyads or sets of the larger group have significant and direct influence on task performance. From the above, it can be concluded that the nature of formal, existing framework of linkages between group members is exclusively group task dependent and is very much task required interaction defined. In most instances, entry management focuses on new employee induction into the formal existing framework of linkages. However, organisational studies emphasise time and again that the informal group has the potential to effectively and conclusively determine the outcome patterns of formally instituted arrangements, over and beyond anything conceivable and therefore capable of control from formal set-ups.
Task organisation around a group may reflect an excessive diffusion of role position, which may effectively eliminate any semblance of leadership, leading to a figure 1c pattern of task related interaction structure, where each individual is equally task capable and accessible to any group member for support, direction, confirmation of an idea or adopted work process when and as required. It is a group interaction pattern best appreciated in dynamic, high-intensity, creative, knowledge based work environments but is liable to break down if cohesive task organisation and performance interruptions cause dissemblance of the smooth interactions across task and individual boundaries.
Irrespective of the nature of group structure, new employees must be 'ushered in' with a not altogether naive assumption that all individuals are equally predisposed to enter the 'group menagerie' as ready and capable production elements.
However, in most organisations, as specified above, there is an intruding non-task relevant behavioural context that affects task behaviour and requires consideration for maximising the effectiveness of work groups. Thus the intermediary human characteristics of behavioural disposition that makes individuals amenable to accommodating each others presence in the public space within organised work need be identified and cultivated just as the opposing distinctive elements that instigate divisive, task adverse, tendencies must be unravelled within the definitional specification of a work group's unique setting, inasmuch as the combined influence of these variables on bottom line organisation production effort is not obviated by ignoring their effect.
In a typical workplace, individuals are employed, put together for the purposes of performing some specified activities with an organisationally desired end productive benefit; they are assigned classification as work group members, without necessarily, exercising selective control of who constitutes other group members. That group members are individually disposed to seek employment for their own benefits is a given, that over time, they manage their individually predisposed characteristics to work with an end, within the specified or evolved organisational structures manifest within the group is developmentally inevitable, that the group assumes a characteristic over and above its individual constituents is indisputable, that the group develops through a fairly complex process involving interactions across diversified spheres of influence, cumulatively affecting the organisation as a whole positively or negatively and that there are emergent variables that occasion each level of group manifestation that are liable to structuration to achieve desired organisational ends, is an important preoccupation for students of organisations.
While the nature of group characteristics of relevance to organisations is dependent on a variety of factors, least of which is not the behavioural disposition of the individual constituents, enhanced by their educational, training and work experience, life experiences and social background of the group's members. The ambience of the organisational environment within which the group is operative and the formative, directive influence of the group upon its constituents, all give cause to the reasoning that it is 'altogether shallow assumption to conclude that once employees are provided with task specific requirements, the organisation will realise its expectations of its workers.' Though this primary assumption underlies any deployment of organised work groups.
A critical requirement of the organisation is to orchestrate entry of workers into the organisation so as to ensure the establishment of grounds of mutual respect, tolerance, task focused behaviour and hopefully engender a sense of commitment to common causes among new group members and old employees. The extent to which an organisation enables workers to interact and talk about task relevant issues as well as 'individual well-being' related issues with the organisation's management representative and the considerations of appropriate response the organisation makes will have important ramifications for internal group dynamic outcomes. This organisation-group interface issues depart from the more intense focus on issues related to internal group processes and group dynamic theoretical orientation, yet the fact remains that humans are constantly interpreting reality and their perceptions strongly determine their actions. Indeed, as Schein (1980) points out " . . .there is overwhelming evidence that some of the strongest motivational determinants of human behaviour are situational and role related." As he quaintly points out, "a worker might really produce at a high level for a boss who treats him or her fairly but become a saboteur if the treatment is perceived as unfair." Invariably, the situation defines the reality. "Motives are tied to particular situations, and one cannot assume that the same motives apply to all people at all times in all situations." Entry management thus, assumes a duality of mutual expectations, of ascertaining employee quality from an organisation's perspective and organisation's adequacy for fulfilling an employee's occupational aspirations.
Work groups or teams formed to work exclusively on a task or a set of related activities to achieve defined ends for the organisation, as has been pointed out in numerous researches are psycho-social entities assuming defined character and patterns which are socially and situationally derived interactions between the group constituents and their unique situational demands interacting across a broad range of intervening variable states.
This paper assumes a fundamental analytical viewpoint of re-appraising the management-group interface; deliberating on some psycho-social considerations that can be managed to influence individual integration into an existing group, to bring employee into a facilitated, integrated, commitment to the organisation.
Granström (1999) has typified work groups into three significant categorisations typifying principal organisation types in which they are found; these are groups within hierarchical organisations, which organisations often tend to be individual focused, rule structured, positional focused and low on collective decision making; groups in matrix organisations, where the individual responsibility tends to shift with changing specifications in allotted tasks; and the truly group cantered, team organisation, where groups or work teams assume functional role responsibility to see a task through to its completion. It is to be noted that these are not absolute states of differentiation rather; they are preponderances of defining characteristics along certain definitive qualifications. The two qualifications that Granström specifies are group-centeredness or individual centeredness; and problem solution manoeuvrability, i.e. whether there is overemphasis on rules or innovativeness. Effectiveness of group types are task and situational dependent, there being no best or worst. Effectiveness being related to the organisation's specific internal and external environmental demands; and the organisations 'flexibility' with regards to group management. Irrespective of the type of organisational structure, it is the confidence expressed and entrusted to independent units to carry a task through to completion as in certain types of teams or have a say with regards to the formal task allocation process that determines a group's effectiveness. However task type and the culture of an organisation may also play a fairly strong role. Considering that individuals are usually located within some defined grouping within an organisation, entry management needs to take into consideration the characteristic nature of the group into which an individual is located in an organisation.
The notion of the flat, position irrelevant, task functional role responsibility organisation structure, has emerged in recent times as a panacea for all control related issues. Favourably touted as diametrically opposite to inflexible Tayloristic approaches to lower level employee management, it is in reality an 'academic fantasy' and a non-reality in real world organisations, as "Anonymous" a supposedly former Silicon Valley high-executive wrote in Fortune (December 6, 1999. p. 135) "As regards Silicon Valley's culture of flat hierarchies. It's not that they are really flat; leadership and responsibility are very important to the success of start-ups. What it does mean is that the troops grant leadership to certain people, based on how smart they are, how hard they work, and how well they evangelise. In a big corporation, title and power are what matter; start-up leadership, on the other hand, is effective when the guy in charge earns the team's respect, most of all, that of the 'techies' who are at the heart of the firm." In essence, instead of overemphasising 'flat structures' the diversity of variations that occasion actual organisational group settings needs making room for more expansive group modelling.
Figure 2. Indicates a likely representation of independent work teams within an organisation.
Situational Influences
The nature of relationship between group composition and the group's task performance efficiency, are largely determined by situationally relevant factors, with second level management and organisation influence where support and material requirement from this higher level affects task performance and workers response state and psychological well-being. Each work group or team finds configurational identity within the organisation. The organisation specifies through its physical layout, task specificities and machinery, and management implementation processes certain uniqueness upon any work group as an identifiable entity within some interconnected network of varying degrees of integrated, associated, entities. Any such differentiating enabling unique identity in the formal organisation, are designated along task relevant specifications. The degree of nearness within physical space and degree of interdependency in task activities and therefore the extent of influence exerted by other groups on a group's activities and internal states, are very much related to established organisational specifications and varies for different types of organisations and functions being performed by the group in relation to the wider organisation.
The focus on varying dimensions of group activities in whatever organisational structure thus begins by determining the exact boundary/-ries that determine a group's identity; the task specifications of the group, the expected characteristics and qualifications of the group's constituents, the actual composition and the nature of employment of individual constituents (a consideration that assumes enormous importance when one wants to consider the extent to which group members control the type of individual that intrudes or is absorbed into an existing stable group), the degree of member mobility within a group (whether it is a group that consists of long term constituents or rapidly changing members working on short term basis), the allocation of individuals to specific tasks within the broader task designation/s of the group (a group may perform the same set of tasks over a long period with gradual changes within the same type of set of tasks performed or may perform varieties of different set of tasks, depending on the organisation and its task allocation strategies). The degree and ease of mobility within different groups within an organisation will also determine the extent to which the group influences member behaviour (in some cases a branch office group member is employed and retained by that branch office and the individual's range of activities are limited to and within that sub-unit of the larger organisation), the employee training and its duration, the flexibility of role positions that the job enables and individuals ability to make preferential assignment choice or rotation of roles to enable equity or lower boredom etc, the leadership role responsibility within the group, the group leader and their functional responsibilities, the group's acceptance and acknowledgement of a leader, the group leader's role in relationship to realising set tasks and meeting group task needs and psychological support needs that maintains group effectiveness in performing their tasks needs. In group's whose constituents consists of individual members with marked differences such as cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, age differences and religious backgrounds, leadership capabilities and reaction to such differences will invariably determine outcome of efforts to focus the group on task oriented goals and creating a stable non-attritive work environment to facilitate optimum productivity. In any induction process all these group characteristics within the broader organisational framework comes into consideration. These factors essentially determine the situational characteristics of a work group mediated by intervening variables to determine the group's productive capability, efficiency in task performance and overall relevance to the organisation in relation to its effectiveness.
Individuals within groups, depending on the group's proximity to other organisational constituents, tend to adopt a role functional attitude toward their task in the group, based on the way they perceive the organisation (whether exploitative or fair), and the organisation's perception of its workers and the sort of authority structures and rule enforcement procedures it employs in managing its workers. This viewpoint can best be understood within the framework of Etzioni's (1961) typology of individual-organisation relationships by classifying organisations on the basis of (1) the kind of power or authority they use to elicit compliance and (2) the kind of involvement they elicit from members within the organisation. On the authority dimension, Etzioni has identified three basically different types of organisations that focuses on the internal "climate" of the organisation in terms of whether they use pure coercive power, economic or other material incentives combined with rational-legal authority, or "normative" rewards or incentives. Organisations in this last group generally provide opportunities for their members to contribute to goals that are intrinsically valued and congruent with individual goals and also display either a charismatic or rational leadership style. Etzioni also provides three types of involvement that these authority dimensions elicit from organisational members. These are 1. Alienative, which means that the person is not psychologically involved but is coerced to remain a member. 2. Calculative, which means that the person is involved to the extent of doing a "fair day's work for a fair day's pay", and 3. Moral, which means that the person intrinsically values the mission of the organisation and his or her job, and is personally involved and identified with the organisation.
Types of Power-Authority Versus Types of Involvement
COERCIVE UTILITARIAN NORMATIVE
Alienative *
Calculative *
Moral *
* Represents the predominant types. Source based on Etzioni (1961)
The table indicates that the organisational types that fall along the diagonal have workable or "fair" psychological contracts with their members, in effect the expectation and provisional requirements between the organisation authority type and member involvement are realised in pure form at these junctures. These "pure" types of organisations are for definitional purposes, in reality organisations are realised as complex mixture of several types, and "pure" types serve descriptive purposes enabling a consideration of type of power-power and type of psychological involvement. As society develops it's been observed that, there has been a shift away from pure coercive and normative types of organisations toward various combinations of utilitarian with either normative or coercive. As has been noted, in the development of business and industry, there has been a gradual movement away from a coercive atmosphere in which labour was compelled to follow company dictates because of the scarcity of jobs and an overall low standard of living, to company concern for adequate economic rewards, job security, and many other kinds of employee benefit. The growth of unions and collective bargaining has promoted the utilitarian, rational-legal type of contractual relationship between management and labour (Harbison & Myers, 1959). Schein (1980) observes that as business and industry have become more complex and more dependent on high-quality performance from both managers and workers, a trend has begun toward making the psychological contract more utilitarian-normative. By this is meant that companies are seeking to establish new kinds of relationships with their members. These new relationships to some degree abandon purely utilitarian conceptions in favour of normative ones. Members are increasingly expected to like their work, to become creative in the service of these goals; in exchange, they are given more influence in decision making, thus reducing the authority of management. While these clear-cut designations are illustrative they do not occur as pure states within any organisation, rather levels within the organisation may reflect a disposition towards one authority dimension, and employees at different levels may display different involvement responses. Contract workers in a group may be on the whole calculative, likewise workers in groups at lower positions within the organisation, such as wage earners, while middle level managers may display higher commitment and moral disposition, depending on their age and career orientation goals within the organisation. Of relevance to this paper with a humanistic philosophic bent, is to enable employees at all levels approximate organisationally amiably, more moral state of enhanced commitment.
In an increasingly complex and competitive world it may be essential for organisations to fully involve all their employees in order to maximise productivity and creativity over the long range. An important first stage of involving employee occurs at the employee entry-level activity. Here management procedures the organisation adopts to integrate the new employees may determine employees oriented disposition to the organisation.
The group within the functional realisation of an operative organisation is a functional task unit, consisting of a number of individuals employed and grouped for the organisation's benefit. Within the wider, open, organisational structure, the individual is of relevance to the organisation only if he or she is productive within the specific configured location the organisation allocates that individual as a productive entity, and more often than not this is within an organisational group of one sort or another. The organisation is represented by appointed management staff and the way the organisation is perceived is greatly determined by the managements activities. Management personnel are qualified individuals employed with the necessary acquired knowledge to manage along task specified designations on the basis of their background qualifications and task configurations. The actual management-worker interface assumes dualistic nature, the first, is a task relevance, directive and instructive function which is a mechanical, rational activity of measured proportions, The second aspect of management-worker interface activity is a supportive psychological function, where the manifest psychological issues of motivation and job commitment tend to merge with the basic physical task activity to influence the psychological balance that the worker experiences in his task allocation within a group. While some work groups do find distinctive identity along some shared lines of mutual acceptance either due to physical location or nature of task performed and overall organisational structure. The group mirrors the organisation as an open system, being influenced by issues arising within its unique environments, issues arising from beyond the group in the larger organisation, or developments in the organisations external environment or individual idiosyncrasies, differences and similarities that converge to determine the nature and characteristics of a specific group. The psychological and organisationally relevant analysis of a group thus features in a sense this dualistic nature of management orientation, the first being that the group must fulfil critical productive goals for the sustainable development of the group and increasing organisational effectiveness, the second is that the effective group must find a centre of equilibrium where the group in its evolvement provide a psychologically balanced social environment where group members are motivated to be committed to a caring organisation. The nature of group research in organisations is as much about analytical detailing of the existing state of a collection of individuals within defined boundaries as it is about how by eliciting details of the group's intricate dynamism such knowledge can be coupled with an organisation's management processes to enable sustained effective group development processes to enable optimum organisational states. This applied perspective of group studies is one of the prime pursuits of the organisational psychologist, since any attempts to improve on group states within the organisation implies full application of extensive knowledge of primary groups and knowledge derived from applied group research in functional settings; the two states of group research find a common ground in studies of groups in organisations.
In inducting new employees into any defined work group, the basic question arises of who constitute group members and what are their primary bonding orientations, over and above the formal work designated patterns of interaction and communication. Closely related to this, is how the organisation's gatekeepers assist or overlook the formation of a perception of an organisation by new group entrants. - The new entrants interpretation of the organisation's goals and the value of employees to the organisation within the context of organisational goals. Do workers see themselves as exploitable, discardable production elements or cared for, involved and consequently highly committed participants in shared organisational outcomes?
Hempel (1998) surmises, with interesting insight, that most organisations put too much emphasis on task accomplishment and pay too little attention to the social, emotional and unconscious dimensions of life in organisations.
Entry management responsibilities
Entry management is a form of overt social orientation process, engaged in by an organisation's boundary managers or access controllers at all or various levels of formal organisational segmentation, with an aim to impose a certain state of awareness of organisational states amiable to the realisation of a supportive group climate, that overides individual and informal group prejudice and idiosyncrasies through informative, conditioning of new employees through directive influence, that induces an expected pattern of behaviour among group members towards new employees and new members appreciation of their employing organisation in a preferably positive light. It equips the new entrant with the basic knowledge framework to be able to function effectively within the organisation.
Crude and psychologically untested forms of entry management have been a apart of organisational practices since car manufacturer Ford, forcibly decreed " accept them or resign" dictate that overode strong informal group opinion and forced integration in his car assembly plant. Far from forcible management dictates of accept or quit, present day entry management on one hand practically orients an new employee to function effectively within a new organisational setting and subtly inducts that new employee into a group prepared beforehand to absorb the new entrant. The present case studies attempt to elicit the mutual engagement that occasions new employee induction in a mail delivery organisation.
One of the perennial activities of managers is issuing instructive directives to structure patterns of behaviour within an organisation. The group leader or whoever is engaged in the functional role of leadership has a responsibility for issuing group directed instructions that overrides any other considerations within a work group. In lower level labouring tasks, the organisation's employment needs may override any secondary consideration of an employee's preferred work-mate or 'someone like us' or any other unmediated individually significant, albeit organisationally irrelevant considerations. But the formal acceptance of an employee leaves unresolved the consistently complicated group acceptance process 'ritual' elaborated by Moreland and Levine (1982, 1988). However, due to the unique demands of organisations needing to employ workers for task related functions and the functional capability of the individual employed. The existing, group evolution process is only partially accountable for full understanding of the process of formal acceptance to work within a specified group and the informal acceptance by the group of a new member. Thus for example, an employee who may be designated a 'cultural transvestite' for reasons of lack of common grounds of identity between that individual and existing employees, may find formal employment within a group but 'full acceptance in the informal group and participation in its norms' is a separately negotiated reality. The latter informal group acceptance process seems to find more accurate analytic explanation under the group socialisation model of Moreland and Levine, without necessarily implying that, outside a purely task related functional existence within work groups, a process of grafting and circumventing process is initiated by intricate human association needs that existing group development processes has not fully accounted for.
The functional leader must articulate a need for tolerance, compassion and task focused supportive behaviour to enable the effective functioning of the formal group, as to whether the individual over time finds acceptable accommodation within the informal group is a different but psychologically relevant concern, since in small homogenous formal task designated groups, the formal and informal groups are sometimes the same or differentiated along barely distinguishable lines. That being the case, inability to progress from formal group acceptance to informal group absorption, may mean miserable job experience that ultimately has organisational consequences. Invariably, any individual's perceptual interpretation of the organisation in relation to its workers tends to vary, even, if one were to cursorily enquires whether 'they think the organisation provides a good enough environment to work in permanently? The nature of response invariably will be influenced by the degree of social support the employee receives.
The role of the organisation's representative in presenting the new employee with a positive image of the organisation to new group members and providing a basis for establishing a consistent interaction medium for group members to access the organisation with their opinions, demands and needs enable the establishment of trust and confidence between the new employee and the group members; and between the group and the organisation. The former process is what referred to as 'portal or entry management' for the new group entrants and the latter is an aspect of consensual management or the so-called 'open door policies' as exists in some organisations.
As to whether this entry management process to enable ease of entry into the group on the one hand and the presentation of a positive, supportive, individually focused organisational image on the other hand, contributes to individual well being within the organisation is far from an absolute conclusion. It can be verified as to its relevancy by a simple and straightforward study to determine whether when that process is appropriately managed it influences individual perception of the organisation after elapsed time and in what direction the influence has been. Entry management processes evolve at a secondary level as an intermediation between the individual, the group and the organisation. And is a purely management supportive activity with psychological consequences for facilitating rounded individual participation within the group. Rounded participation encompasses the enabling of accommodating group climate within existing organisational capabilities where the task and the human need fulfilments are optimised. This requires a proactive intervention approach to enable the new employee settle into the work group. And a post implementation process assessment of the induction process that occasions the entry management of the individual within the work group. To be able to do this, one needs to outline the induction process as actually realised in organisations.
Groups existing in workplaces find categorisation along varied significant dimensions that have consequence for the nature of analysis pursued within any organisation's environment. The work group is an organisational construct, constructed around a task designation, consisting of mobile and changing individual constituents depending on particular organisation's circumstances and needs; thus while the mid-level management may remain fairly stable and consistent, thus evolving and developing fairly predictable group norms, lower level employees may be highly mobile, segregated and indifferent to other members beyond task accomplishment purposes, bonding and establishing affiliation fulfilment needs at distinct unit (personal) need levels other than within the formal work group. Thus the level within the organisation at which the group will be studied becomes a contingent consideration.
The Study and Its Aim.
The study will ascertain the formal characterisation of the entry management activities to induct new employees to their designated work group and their employing organisation. Entry management activities generally involve employees being: 1. Introduced to their employing organisation. 2. The employees reception, interpretation of conveyed messages about their employer. 3. The actual introduction to their task setting, the task and the task requirements.
The Study Questions
The study would simply seek to answer the following questions; i) what sort of activities and information content do organisations employ and provide to introduce new employees to their new organisations. ii.) How do employees receive, interpret and perceive their employers in the light of the information and procedures generated as entry management processes. iii.) Are employees adequately inducted into their new work roles and work groups?
Hypotheses
The working hypotheses is that data detailed and involved entry management would positively influence employee attitudes, organisation's climate and employee satisfaction.
Methodology
Qualitative research methods have gained ascendancy in recent times. "The last few years had seen as explosion of interest in qualitative methods, particularly within organisational psychology. A number of commentators have proffered explanations for this phenomenon. Henwood and Nicholson (1995) suggest that, although the methodological repertoire of psychology has generally included qualitative methods, these have tended to be seen as appropriate for the pilot phase of a project or as an adjunct to other research designs. Yet as stand-alone techniques there are clear areas of contribution that are now being recognised. Henwood and Pidgeon (1995: 116) argue that there are two particular issues within psychology that enhanced use of 'qualitative paradigm', as they call it, can address. Firstly, they suggest that an overemphasis on theory testing, as is typically the case within traditional approaches to psychology, can produce a worrying underemphasize on the systematic generation of new theory. Such generation of new theory, traditionally 'grounded' in data, is a key principle of qualitative research. The use of qualitative methods can therefore counteract the perceived current imbalance between theory testing and theory generation. Secondly, they suggest that qualitative approaches, with their emphasis on exploring the research participants' own situated experiences, offset the critique of much psychological research that the richness and significance of individual experience is neglected in favour of overarching of reductionist explanations." (Simon G. & Cassell, 1998). The theory generating capabilities this research method offers remains its strongest point.
Within qualitative research, there is usually applied a range of data collection techniques such as interviewing, observation, surveys etc. Bryman (1988) makes a distinction between 'epistemological' and 'technical' justifications for using qualitative methods. In the first case, qualitative methods may be used because they are regarded as more in tune with the researcher's paradigmatic commitments, and in the second, they are regarded as more 'useful' for the problem at hand. In qualitative research, of course, the distinction between data collection and data analysis may not be clear-cut.
In practice, for example, as a series of interviews progresses, the researcher will often be creating, testing and modifying analytic categories as an iterative process, such data analysis may be considered 'an organic whole that begins in the data-gathering stage and does not end until the writing is complete' (Potter, 1996). Without the tools for incisive and insightful data analysis and interpretation, the amount of data generated through the use of qualitative methods can seem overwhelming and the analysis process itself confused and confusing.
Insightful analysis is really at the heart of successful qualitative investigations. As Wolcott suggests: 'the real mystique of qualitative inquiry lies in the process of using data rather than in the process of gathering data' (1990). He continues With experience, most researchers becomes less compulsive about collecting data and more proficient at using the data they collect, but the problem of transforming unruly experience into an authoritative, written account never totally disappears. Silverman (1993) outlines his 'discomfort' with a large proportion of the qualitative research to be found in leading academic journals. He lists a number of related tendencies that give rise to this concern, for example, 'the use of data extracts which support the researcher's argument, without any proof that contrary evidence has been reviewed' (1993). A key question here is the criteria against which the findings of qualitative research are evaluated. The traditional criteria on which research is evaluated stem from a positivist paradigm where tests of the reliability and validity of the data are seen as integral to the 'rigorous' conduct of research. Some qualitative researchers seek to apply these criteria to their own work using a variety of techniques, such as inter-rater reliability (King, 1994). However, assessing the output from qualitative techniques on the criteria generated to assess quantitative techniques creates problems for other qualitative researchers. Given that most qualitative researchers do wish to justify their interpretations of their data in some way, it is indeed; a positive development that some authors have generated lists of alternative criteria suited to assessing the 'rigour' of qualitative research. The best known of these are Guba and Lincoln's (1989) 'authenticity' criteria. These authenticity criteria are explicitly formulated to reflect the concerns of alternative paradigms.
1. Resonance (the extent to which the research process reflects the underlying paradigm);
2. Rhetoric (the strength of the presenting argument);
3. Empowerment (the extent to which the findings enable readers to take action);
4. Applicability (the extent to which readers can apply the findings to their own contexts).
The Analytic Induction Technique
Johnson P. (1998) provides a description of the analytic induction research methodology that serves as the blueprint for the conduct of the present study. Usually analytic induction (AI) is defined as involving the intensive examination of a strategically selected number of cases so as to empirically establish the causes of a specific phenomenon. Intrinsic to the approach is 'the "public" readjustment of definitions, concepts, and hypotheses' (Mannig, 1982: 283). According to Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995: 236, when carefully delineated AI 'seems a plausible reconstruction of the logic of theoretical science'.
The term 'induction' refers to the processes by which observers reflect upon their experience of social phenomena and then attempt to formulate explanations that may be used to form an abstract rule, or guiding principle, which can be extrapolated to explain and predict new or similar experiences (Kolb et al., 1979). Hence AI is a set of methodological procedures that attempt to systematically generate theory grounded in observation of the empirical world. A such it sharply contrasts with deductive procedures in which a conceptual and theoretical structure is constructed prior to observation and then is ostensibly tested through confrontation with the 'facts' of a cognitively accessible empirical world (Wallace, 1971: 16 - 25). Although, debate between rival proponents of induction and deduction is complex (see, e.g. Lessnoff, 1974). The justification for induction in the social sciences usually revolves around two related claims. Firstly, it is argued that in contrast to the speculative and a priori nature of deductively tested theory, explanations of social phenomena which are inductively grounded in systematic empirical research are more likely to fit the data because theory building and data collection are closely interlinked (Wiseman, 1978) and therefore are more plausible and accessible (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Secondly, there is the argument that deduction's etic analyses, in which an a priori external frame of reference is imposed upon the behaviour of social phenomena in order to explain them, are inappropriate where the phenomena in question have subjective capabilities (see Shotter, 1975; Giddens, 1976; Gill and Johnson, 1997). It follows that social science research must entail emic analyses where explanations of human action are generated inductively from an a posteriori understanding of the interpretations deployed (i.e. cultures) by the actors who are being studied.
How cases are chosen depends upon what Glaser and Strauss call 'theoretical sampling' (1967: 184). In this, having developed a theory to explain observations of a particular case of the phenomenon, a researcher can decide on theoretical grounds to choose to examine new cases that will provide good contrasts and comparisons and thereby confront the emergent theory with the patterning of social events under different circumstances.
Bloor presents an approach to analytic induction that categorises, in terms of similarity and difference, variations in the phenomenon to be explained so that cases in other categories could stand as a control group for those cases in the category being analysed. (Bloor, 1978: 547). Bloors approach may be seen to entail four basic steps and is summarised by Figure 4.
Figure 4. Adaptation of Bloor's approach to analytic induction (Gill and Johnson, 1997: 123; adapted from Bloor, 1976; 1978).
Bloor's model will be the basis for analytical conduct of the present sets of studies at City Mail. The studies will begin by examining the entry management process in place at the City Mail Company, the nature of group management processes, workers appreciation and interpretation of induction processes and employees attitude toward their organisations and their co-workers as a result of the engendered group climate created through existing entry management processes.
The analysis will seek to define cumulatively certain defining characteristics of the entry management process at this service organisation. What specific organisational activities determine, as discerned through comparative analysis of focused interview data, unique orientations within groups and individuals, towards set patterns of organisation' perception, employee expectation and assessment of their employing organisation. The analysis in effect seeks to answer whether CityMail's formal entry management and consequent induction processes are a true reflection of new employees expectations and existing employees desires.
Procedure for Conducting the Study
While entry management has not featured extensively in academic journals, there are a few articles and research papers merging from the United States of America, indicate it is an important area of academic concern in organisational studies.
The extensive formal provisions outlined is one thing, the extent to which they are actually realised in the fast paced and demanding work environment of the City Mailer is another. The study will thus seek to ascertain the extent to which the organisation follows and effectively implement its outlined induction procedures. The interpretation of those actions from employee perspective and employees appreciation of their employing organisation, which will among other things seek to ascertain the extent to which practices at their workplaces depart from employees expectations of adequate and appropriate management practices. The study will focus more on the employees self-initiated interpretation of organisational states, and will thus involve individual and group focused interviews to be analysed and discussed employing analytic induction technique, within a case study methodological framework.
The case study research methodology will be the framework, employing the focused individual and group interview technique for data gathering. In addition recourse will be made to documentary materials and such archival materials of the organisation that can supplement the study.
(Three separate offices will be selected as case study locations. All employees in those locations become participants of the study as data sources, which data will be gathered employing the focused interview.)
New employees at operations, is the work group whose entry management is of current research interest and their task activities and induced collective behaviour parri-passu the organisations provisions and activities are at the focus of the study. The initial procedure of the interview is to begin to obtain a description of their task routines from employees own perspective. Then comes the formal employee introduction plan and finally the employees response to the entry management as it is realised.
Interviews would be conducted with new employees, those in employment for less than six months. Permanent employees refer to those whose employment is full time and probationary; these are those in employment for more than six months. Normally, a new employee is on probationary employment for six months and then confirmed for permanent employment. The 'coach' refers to the task group leader or coordinator and may include the local area manager. The case selection is illustrated diagrammatically as shown below: -
Figure 5. Case selection and analytical categorisation of each case diagrammatical.
Phase 1: gaining access
Initial contact was established through management staff at the Human Resources section.
Phase II: Case specificities and Identification of variations
As the term generally implies, processes of analytic induction focus upon the analysis and interpretation of data. Except for induction, analytic induction does not specify how data should be collected. In principle, it can therefore be used to analyse data that derive from any method of collecting data that has been applied in an inductive fashion, such as life histories, participant observation, repertory grids etc.
In the present research the data collection method will be through the focused interview and references made to organisation's documentary database.
Phase III case features and causal analysis
Although the primary aim of the first interviews would be to gather data about variability in orientation and appreciation of the influence of the entry management procedures and consequently construct taxonomy of categories, a secondary aim will be to elucidate case features so as to facilitate the development of an explanatory framework.
This process entails movement down the 'funnel structure' of 'progressive focusing' (Hammersly and Atkinson, 1995: 206) with a shift of concern from description to the development of grounded theory regarding the categories by explicit reference.
To their involvement in a complex of inter-connected variables that the observer constructs as a theoretical model . . .which best explains the data . . . assembled (Becker, 1970: 196)
From the data elicited it may be possible to compare employee pattern of entry management procedures and employee response patterns to definable aspects of the entry management procedures.
Proposed Focused Interview Guide.
(This is a guide rather than a fixed set of interview enquiries!)
- Are you satisfied with uniform and cycling shoe provisions?
- How do you relate to the other workers, do you think that the induction process facilitated ease of interaction with your work group members?
- How will you assess your group/team leader's (branch manager's) leadership capability?
- How did your assigned work group ensure co-cooperativeness among its membership?
- For what activities did you daily depend on other workers to fulfil your day's task allocations?
- If your work group doesn't feel comfortable with a new employee, how did it deal with it?
- Are you fully informed about the health advices for employees?
- Based on your past experience with this organisation, would you recommend it to another person?
- As a permanent employee were you consulted before a new person was employed to join the group?
- How many times (how often) were you assessed on your performance and given feedback on your performance during probationary employment period? Are you comfortable with the assessment process and the effect it has on your (present) future tenure?
- Based on your working experience so far how would you assess the induction processes implemented in this organisation?
- Have you had any development or motivational talks since you began working? How would you assess their effects on the way you view the organisation?
- Have you read the Collective Bargaining Agreement, of what use was this document to you practically?
- Would you want to comment on the employee policies of this organisation?
- Have all your pre-employment expectations been met by your employer?
Entry Management at CityMail of Sweden.
General Information about City Mail Sweden.
CityMail Sweden AB (publ) was formed in January 1996. In addition to CityMail Sweden two other major independent affiliated companies exist, these are CityMail International and CityMail Interactive. But the focus of this study is CityMail Sweden, a private mail distribution agency, with distribution in the three largest Swedish cities of Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö.
The organisation has set a goal of becoming a market leader for computer-addressed mail. Computer addressed mail is generally mail originating from businesses destined for consumers. This distinguishes this type of mail from mail placed in mailboxes. In the enhanced telecommunication environment that developments in technology has enabled; a niche market has been created for the former type of mail as businesses seek to maintain, and expand and improve, respectively, customer base and relations.
The organisation has only 5% of the national postal market as against an average of 1% for other private operators and 95% for the state owned Swedish Post. Yet in the niche market of computer addressed mail market, it has 10% of total national distribution. The company has about 2,500 clients, 200 of which account for approximately 80% of total business volume. The total distribution area as earlier specified, encompasses the Stockholm Metropolitan are, Central Gothenburg and Malmö, and averages 1.2 million households and businesses plus over another 26,000 in Gotland. The organisation (CityMail Sweden) as at the time of the study had 955 employees.
In 2000 the company merged with Royal Post of Gt. Britain. The organisation believes that there is ample room for growth. As a profit oriented private sector company in a blasé state monopoly business environment, the organisation has been more or less a trend setter in private mail distribution not only in its home market of Sweden but in Europe. The challenges of a starter are evident. In 1999 annual revenue that saw an increment of 17% over the previous year, was a reporting revenue of SEK 374.1 million, which indicated an operating loss of SEK -51.7 million against the previous years loss of SEK -56.3 million.
In its 1999 annual report the organisation set two visions; firstly that through the success of all its employees, CityMail shall steadily and deliberately develop and improve. Secondly, CityMail shall lead developments in its particular business area, both nationally and internationally. The former vision is in synchrony to the organisation's assertion that employees are the key to the company's success and that it is the management's responsibility to ensure that corporate culture is characterised by openness, a sense of responsibility, respect and a humanistic leadership philosophy.
Composite Study Results
The Employee at CityMail.
The organisation seeks to emphasise a team orientation at its various centres. Top on its human resources agenda are: Increased safety of employees. The creation of a spirit of togetherness among fellow employees. Creating an increased sense of responsibility among employees. Making it easier for managers to have an oversight of task progress each working day. Create opportunity for easy solutions through networking among localities, to resolve issues such as vacancies, openings and overburdened localities. Preferably, an amiable work climate for new, temporary and permanent employees is desired.
The task at the localities are to be structured around a supportive team orientation, where each locality executes daily task as team headed by a 'coach' who orients group task actions efficiently and reports to an (City) Area Manager. The 'coach' is responsible for daily task allocation; ensure that group members work co-operatively and supportively; actively create a positive, employee supportive work climate and ensure that the work group performs efficiently.
In taking in new personnel, the organisation normally conducts an employment interview; this is conducted by means of a semi-structured interview schedule; which holds information requests on formal requirements like educational background and previous employment to questions regarding interests and motivation for seeking employment with CityMail. The individual is also requested to state preference for wearing the organisation's standard issue uniform. The manager of the locality has an assessment form for assessing on qualitative basis his impression of employees on their task performance and general orientation.
Every employee goes through a period of trial employment, or what may be more appropriately referred to as a probationary period, before being upgraded to full employment status. Since mail distributors by the nature of their task have access to private and sensitive information, the employees are also required to sign a consent form for responsible behaviour which among other things require employees to oblige by secrecy and confidentiality code of conduct in respecting the privacy of mail. Infringement and any conduct leading to deliberate destruction of mail are liable to criminal prosecution.
Since mail delivery for the most part requires power pedalling of loaded front and back end bicycles; as well as hopping up and down stairs for any time from three to six hours; undoubtedly, it requires a good physical condition and is by its very nature physical demanding. New employees are also provided with physiotherapeutic advice and access to specialty medical centres for muscle-skeletal pains. The medical advise is given as part of the introduction to the new employment. Among other recommendations for maintaining good physical conditions, it suggests that the new employee must maintain a relaxed tempo and build up 'tempo' or working rate with time. New employees are informed that it takes a while for the kneecap to adjust to the stress induced when descending steps. Cycle seats should not be set too low when cycling since these are bad for the knee and could lead to severe pains in the knee. Too much spitting or excessive strain is a body signal for rest, at least for a couple of months before returning to strenuous physical activity. Employees are advised to stretch after distributing their mails, since they had continually been engaged in physical activity for two to three hours. Pains must be reported to the manager for a solution, be it need for medical attention or a visit to the physiotherapist. One must not forget to have a good drink of water especially on warm days before distribution begins. One must use a good shoe. Employees are provided with special shoes/sports shoes, which is financed by the organisation. Indeed the company has specialty sports shoe shops recommended where a good analysis using running board and video will facilitate the appropriate fit. Shock or impact absorbers fitted at the heel and toes are required in these shoes, this provision is important since running up and down stairs is part of the job requirement. The shoes must also provide good stability sideways and backwards on slippery grounds (a not to be taken for granted requirement in Sweden where iced ground can last up to three months of the year). Employees are advised to lift by bending their knees and lift by straightening their knees rather than bearing their weights on the back muscles. Lifting and twisting at the same time is not advisable. Two persons must carry the heavy mail container boxes, preferably, employees must use the wheeled trolleys, available at all localities. An employee must never distribute mails while running fever. One is advised to stay at home till the fever has run its course. In throwing letters into the sorting boxes at the office the employee is advised to assume the right positioning to ease pressure on the shoulders. Advisedly, the employee must learn to throw letters with both the left and the right hands, and for boxes set too high above the worker's head, the employee should stand on a platform or a tray to enable comfortable throwing of letters into the boxes. These task activities take place at the localities. If an employee is in pains and is admitted to the hospital or receives treatment at a health centre, the employee is required not only to present a doctor's report to his area manager, but also to follow strictly doctor's recommendations and must inform the manager how healing is progressing. Where physical dispositions arising from work related injuries make it difficult to run up the stairs, the worker is advised, to take other tasks such as cycling with a colleague or helping at the office are possible. Discussion with the manager about other tasks possibilities other than the primary task designation are encouraged, if there are genuine grounds for consideration such exemptions from normal activities. (ref: Medical Advise coordinated by Wärleus, Karna; Legopied Sjukgymnast. The Sports Clinic, Råsunda Soccer Stadium, Stockholm.)
The new employee is kitted with a set of working attires and must sign to take good care of this uniform and return them when resigning from the employment. The attires are specially designed to take into consideration the marked seasonal changes in the Nordic climate of Sweden. The uniform comprises of a brass metal nametag; a pair of knee bands, a winter jacket, a pair of trousers, a pair of shorts, overcast trousers (for wet weather and slushy ice), T-Shirts, college jumper, raincoat, a leather belt, a skull cap, a woollen neck shawl/collar, a waist bag, thermal gloves, open ended gloves and a peaked cap. These are all signed for under an obligation to return them when one is leaving the organisation. In all localities, in-house laundry equipments exist to enable employees to clean their working kit at work.
Upon being employed the organisation has a printed introduction plan 'Introduktionsplan för nyanställda CityMan'; - An Introduction Programme For The Newly Employed Citymailer. - The programme entails activities required of a new employee to familiarise -self with the organisation. It is a one-page outline, covering a time period of up to five months, during which period the individual is on probationary employment. The aim of the introduction programme is to enable the new employee to have easy comprehension of his I.) Task requirements. ii.) Meet and integrate easily with his new work mates. iii.) Appreciate his new organisational environment.
Generally the new employee is expected, as detailed on the form, to obtain uniforms of correct fitting. 1. Obtain information materials and employment forms to be completed, these materials can be obtained from the organisation's intranet under the 'new employees' net page.
Employees are required to take note of the particularities of their locality, the floor design of the workplace, the locker rooms, the bicycles and their parking areas, the working area, etc. Get in touch with his 'CityHost' or whoever has been given and assumed responsibility for the new employee at this stage. Try to visit City Mail Centre or the head office before beginning work.
2. On the first day at work: The employee is presented to his new work mates. A tour around the location is undertaken, to changing rooms, where one is allotted a locker or a peg for clothing, the telephone and computer banks, introduced to daily routines etc. At this time the employee fills in all required employment forms. New employees are advised to observe and participate in activities at the work place. The manager emphasises to the employee the importance of taking in enough fluids, nutritious food and good shoes; an immediate order is then placed for a shoe as the need is made by the employee.
3. Between day one to five: The employee goes with a trained CityMailer to the new employees area of distribution. The 'CityHost' or a trained employee, who takes on the new employee, makes daily assessment of the new employees task skill acquisition and development.
Aside the practical task acquisition activities, 'the host' takes the employee through daily exercises taken out of 'CityIntro'; a schedule of activity programmes that updates and brings the new employee's task knowledge base to optimum functional level comparable to that of the rest of the team or group. Within this period the manager goes through with the employee the set of scripted activities referred to as 'Välkommen till CityMail' or Welcome to CityMail. Welcome to CityMail is a document that is presented to the new employee, which the organisation considers important that the employee familiarises -self with its contents. It contains the organisation's employee policy; elaborating issues like injury and sickness policies and provisions; the pay scheme; types of company insurance schemes for employees, work attire/uniform, foot wear and physical training provisions, what employment forms an employee needs to fill-in, who and where to turn to with different issues, problems, needs and questions. The document also includes information relating to such topical issues as work climate policies, alcohol and drug policy, handling of employee complains.
4. Days five to ten: Follow up and emotional support of the new employee from the 'CityHost'.
5. Within one month: There is a worker educational programme managers must ensure all new employees attend.
Wednesdays are usually days when no distribution takes place, on this day managers are required to try and take quality control of workers, go around to inspect 'split' and other non task related activities.
Within the first month the manager is also expected to have a follow up re-assessment interview to ascertain the worker's orientation to the new employment role. At the end of the first month it is obligatory of the manager to check up on the new employee to determine how far the employee has come along to settling comfortable in the task role requirements; at this stage the manager conducts an assessment test to ascertain the students capability. This employee performance review serves as reference when final pre-full employment assessment is being conducted.
From one to five months: Recurrent 'pep-up talks' from the manager. As well as follow up on issues like quality, uncertainties within the group as regards any group member, task activities, beginner physical pains, job related stress and tenure must be identified and resolved quickly. The manager is advised that it is often the case that symptoms of physical pain may be due to psychological pressure of adjustment to new and demanding circumstances and likely inadequate support and 'propping' from other task group members.
7. Finally based on the performance assessment and follow-up interview which follows observations during the trial employment period, the manager coordinating with the coach and group members comes to an understanding whether to retain the employee for permanent employment or not.
In addition to 'Welcome to CityMail', new employees are also required to familiarise themselves with 'City Intro'. This document is an introduction to details of daily task activities and task execution formats. The new employee is encouraged to read the document since it contains many of the answers to frequently asked questions. The employee is advised nevertheless to seek for further clarifications with management staff where the need arises. This document is regularly updated to be current with the requirements of rising needs and changes. The employee is made aware at the introduction of this document that feedbacks from employees on work and organisational conditions are relevant inputs to updating and making necessary changes to organisational provisions.
The document begins with a vision for the organisation; "the organisation CityMail shall through all its employees successfully continue to conscientiously develop and improve and improve upon its activities. CityMail shall lead in innovativeness within its area of operation nationally and internationally." It then goes on to elucidate, laying emphasise on employee development both within and outside the organisation through worker self responsibility, mutual respect among all employees of the organisation, honesty within the organisation and in its relation with the external environment, viz business sources, deliveries etc, a positive and supportive work environment, where workers are happy as well as open and straight forward communication.
Employee development is dependent upon individual needs and is not solely task restricted nor through formal education but occurs also at the individual level and through inter-personal relations. To lead in innovativeness in a business area of operations, such as computer addressed mail, the company implies, is not in terms of size such as being the biggest organisation in the area of business activity but in terms of how quickly the business establishes itself as pace-setter in the development of its business concept, the nature technology employed and the work processes applied to task performance; which can be referred to as the organisation's way of doing things.
On the whole CityMail leads in international innovativeness by being a forerunner within an unregulated postal-market (Sweden) and this affects its operational agility.
Task Activities From Employee's Perspective
When a person is newly employed at any CityMail locality, the individual is required to undergo a one-week apprenticeship riding with any employee interested in 'riding' with the individual. Provisions are also made for another employee to take on the new employee if the first person is unable to continue 'riding' with the new employee or not present. The 'ridings' are to familiarise the new employee with a route, as well as the intricacies of mail distribution and other subtle aspects of the mailers task activities. The new employee is encouraged to take task related initiatives as part of the learning process. There is no fixed pace or learning period to ensure that learning the new task requirements becomes stressful. The area of distribution for which the new employee is assigned is generally supportively illustrated by maps, property addresses, marked outdoor letterboxes, and a bicycle. The most important task routines are taught during the first week, intensively, but over the following weeks, practical hints and easing into the task continues such that the new employee assuredly exhibits task capability. The manager is armed with a checklist to ensure that everything that is relevant has been taught and that functional knowledge is acquired and exhibited.
This whole exercise is underlined by a humanistic philosophic orientation that among other things requires managers to ensure orderly group presentations; to ensure that the group welcomes new employees; that new employees be socially integrated into the work group. All task functions are perceived as the group's responsibility. Nurturing a strong team orientation. As the organisation puts it metaphorically "it is a pleasure to have a godfather, the godfather is the social coach, not some one who alone helps but helping is the whole group's responsibility".
Task Specification of the City Mailer
A typical CityMan distributes mail in three demarcated areas everyday. Work normally begins at 7 a.m. each day. The tasks are separated into a connected series of activities: 1. Gross separation, when the days mail is collected to the distribution area for the days 'tossing' a process where the mails are sorted according to area, street, house and apartment addresses. 3. The sorted mails are then packed according to distribution route. 4. Excess mail that cannot be packed on the bicycle are loaded in a box and driven to pre-determined locations on the distribution route where the employee packs them on the bicycle for continuation of delivery. 5. Letters not be delivered because of change of addresses or new occupants at an address, are returned after the day's distribution, where they are checked against the list of change of addresses on the offices computer database and appropriately re-addressed by pre-prepared stickers or sorted as return to sender mails. 6. The after distribution task basically consist of sorting new mails, which will be added to the next day's distribution load. 7. The individual must try as much as possible to begin distribution before 11.00 a.m. 8. Property/Owner reference addresses index card must be daily brought up to date to reflect address changes. 9. Preparatory prior to each days distribution must always be carried out.
Each locality or area office holds a weekly meeting, every Thursdays between the hours of 8.00 to 9.00 a.m. where workers discuss their problems and suggestions for improvements with the area manager. In addition, development or motivational talks are organised, organisation-wide twice a year. The organisation has guiding document 'Utvecklingssamtal' that serves as the guiding procedure for structuring the content and structure of these motivational talks. The organisation explains in its guiding document for conducting motivational talks that a motivational talk is a systematic, regularly conducted talk with an updated agenda between employees and work group leaders for planning and mutually affecting information. The goals of these development talks are among other things: I.) To enable employees to be involved in establishing their task oriented goals and plans for improving their task performance. ii.) To discuss task environment and work climate related issues, as well as psychological and social dimensions of their employment activities. iii.) To discuss, issues related to permanent employment and prioritise the details for realisation of previous work group discussions. iv.) To discuss the effects of realisations of previously determined group activities. v.) To analyse the work group's development needs. vi.) These talks offer an opportunity for mutual feedback and comments from employees on aspects of the task and task environment related issues. To keep these talks functional and goal specific- that is increasing motivation of workers- the manager is advised to inform and ensure that participants in the talk are well-prepared ahead of the scheduled day for the presentation. This preparation can be guaranteed by ensuring that specific and clear aims of the talks are specified, and the presenter presented with a subject, and points of relevant issues that must be addressed. In addition to simply requesting the participants to be well prepared.
These talks are usually conducted for an average of 1 to 2 hours and must by its nature of conduct create an atmosphere to enable full participation of all participants. Follow up discussions of previously raised issues and solutions implemented from the previous session/s are referred to, to indicate that the organisation takes these talks seriously. By so doing, a form of mutual, all inclusive, social contract for the future is enacted as to what the organisation and its constituents desire and would work to realise. This being the case managers and leaders are advised not to promise 'things' that they cannot realise for their area offices.
A method of conduct is advocated where: the leader listens attentively and tries to understand what participants are vocalising. Encouragement to enable full expression of participants thoughts is advocated. The leader of the talk or the area manager is advised to be conscious of body language; there is the need to show expressive interest, not to be rigid in thoughts but to have a flexible mind set, equality of stature, maintaining eye contact. Silences and pauses in speech should be used for reflecting on issues raised. Speakers are not to be cut-off, but the leader steers the discussion towards the theme of common interest. Each item is conclusively exhausted and summarised before there is transition to another item. In the conduct of these talks, as much as possible leading questions should be avoided as well as questions beginning with 'why', since such questions are often leading questions. The discussions should be deep and focused but lead to a commonly agreed course of action on an issue requiring attention. After the discussions a summary, summarising the main issues discussed should be prepared, and the goals set outlined. This should be distributed among all the participants. During discussions, the leader of the discussion should make note of attempts to avoid discussion of issues that make participants uncomfortable, assume 'flight' behaviour from issues being discussed. These are often indicated by blindsiding those issues as irrelevant, trifling, or joking about their relevancy; suddenly talking about the weather, talking about others not present at the discussion/talk, posing such questions that generate responses that one prefers to hear, intolerant of criticism, and not addressing important or relevant issues, go on the counter-attack, being argumentative and/or trifling over insignificant points.
A checklist of core considerations for the motivational talk is outlined under a series of headings: What really matters at CityMail? Issues to be considered under this title are, what are the immediate goals of the area office or the organisation as realised at the area office, how are the goals realised in the immediate task environment; the updating of scorecards. Task outcomes: which addresses issues such as; how has support to facilitate efficient work outcomes realised? How has the susceptibility towards independent point of view at the workplace been managed? Giving of feedbacks on employees performance and manner of task execution, among other issues. The physical work environment itself: What is the quality of the physical task environment? How can improvements be made? Other issues. Work experience and employee comfortability. Possibility of seeing the task as a meaningful whole. Sufficient task allotments. Other issues. Teamwork: How has co-cooperativeness among the work group evolved? What accounts for the observed outcome? How has co-operation between managers and among workers been? What accounts for the observed outcomes, are there unresolved conflicts or disputes? Other issues. Management Practices: Which type of management practices is needed for best performance? How is work efficiently directed, is there enough directive leadership? Other issues. Development: There is a need to see development not only in terms of new task assignments, but also those personnel related issues as team spirit, self-initiative, etc the manager is advised. What is needed to complete the task with continuity? What new tasks assignments are worthy of consideration? Is it appropriate to increase the teams role responsibilities?
Existing State of Organisation
Bergman, M. (2000) Conducted a survey study of CityMail employees attitudes. The study reveals that among the non-managerial staff 53% feel they have a future with the organisation, while 57% have a positive evaluation of the organisation. Among the management staff 65% have a positive evaluation of the organisation and 62% think they have a future within the organisation. The study also measured employees on a nine item variable two scale of improving or worsening. The items were: - I.) Leadership and decision-making, ii.) Ideas, visions and developments, iii.) Goals and results, IV.) Organising and planning, v.) Employee relationship, VI.) Team spirit, vii.) Information and communication, viii.) Task allocations ix.) Work environment. The study indicated that in general, the workers see a worsening climate in reference to leadership and decision making as well as planning and organisation. While Goal setting and result orientation is seen as no better or worse. On the whole, there is a conclusive general improvement in work climate.
Analysis and Discussion
The type of entry management an organisation engages in can be perceived from two distinct perspectives the formal, organisational orchestrated management activity and the individual's informal induction into a work group that has been or not been sensitised to effectively absorb new employees. The formal process can be detailed and well conducted by some prespecified, ascertained criteria or haphazardly conducted. Likewise the group can either by its predisposition (whether by management effort or the group's naturally evolved inclination) by accommodating and supportive or insensitive to the needs of enabling and supportive group activity that will enhance new employees easy induction.
The conjecture is made based on figure 6, that different types of formal entry management processes and group receptive environment are likely to lead to differences in certain critical psychological states of the new employee. The organisation, such as CityMail of Sweden that engages in high quality entry management at the formal organisational level invariably takes into consideration the type of work group climate that the new employee is being employed. Thus efforts are made to ascertain the group's opinion on organisational practices. Which in the case of the case studied, is realised through motivational talks. It is proposed here that high quality entry management, in a high supportive work group milieu will be characterised by i.) Easy employee integration into the existing work group, ii.) Generally high employee commitment to the organisation, iii.) A positive employee orientation towards the organisation and the group, finding in them a source of positive support, leading to iii.) A more effective utilisation of labour, since focus will be not detracted by counter organisational activities, that detract the new employee from task focused activity emerging from informal group pressure.
On the other hand where the organisation has a poor quality of formal employee entry management and also a non-supportive work group milieu, i.) The new employee is likely to be poorly integrated, ii.) There is likely to be high informal group activity, which may be counter-organisational, iii.) Quitting rates may be comparatively high, iv.) And the new employee appreciation and perception of the organisation may be decidedly low and negative, v.) While overall productivity may be low and employee commitment to the organisation may also be low. In between these two are suggested variations to these extremities. However, many other factors unrelated to entry management, may account for dismal organisational states. Likewise, a poor overall management approach may be reflected in the type of entry management activity that an organisation practices.
Figure 6. Plane diagram of interaction of quality of entry management and group supportive milieu and the psychological characteristics engendered in the new employee, the group and the organisation.
As an organisational activity entry management is a short-term activity, a process that inevitably extends no longer than when permanent employment status is conferred on the newly employed. In most organisations this period hardly extends beyond six months. However, as a process modulated at the highest management level and realised for each and every person employed into the organisation, its importance can hardly be overemphasised. Entry management is that formal introductory activity that introduces the new employee to the organisation and presents the organisation to the new employee. Formally, it is a period of adaptive stabilisation for re-orienting the new employee to become task capable. It also paints a picture of the organisation to the new entrant and tones their perception of the organisation and how they respond to the organisation. The need to separate formal organisational entry management activities coordinated at higher management levels from the group focused informal induction effects of new employee integration into an organisational subsystem unit, is based on observation in organisations to the effect that formal management of entry is realised in actual group settings where their expected outcome can be undermined or promoted by factors not considered as part of the formal management process. The observation that formal organisation did not describe the actual work pattern in the industrial enterprise dates to the Hawthorn studies. The other relevant factor dominant in the organisation is the informal organisation, and essentially, the informal organisation is a group-oriented organisation. That being the case, any attempt to fully understand and influence organisational states must take into consideration and if possible integrate significant aspects of the informal organisation in establishing desired organisational states.
Conclusion
As is obvious from above, the organisation, CityMail, has in place a fairly detailed and comprehensive employee induction and continuous orientation assessment procedures as well as a task-specific employee support scheme orchestrated to provide adequate psychological and physical balance to ameliorate the demands of the task requirements of a mail distributor and ensure improved work climates. The study by Bergman (2000) could yield utmost comparative value if it were possible to compare the employee stance with those of employees in similar organisations. However the quality of entry management undoubtedly determines how the employee perceives the employing organisation, and how the organisation facilitates employee performance effectiveness in the new job. On the other hand, by taking into consideration subtle group effects, and integrating this awareness in realising a supportive work group environment for the new employee, the organisation proactively, positively orients a more accommodating group climate to absorb the new entrees.
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