Organizational Personality and Acculturation

The way your company goes about acculturating new hires has a lot to do with what type of "personality" your organization has. Author Vincent Natoli wrote an interesting whitepaper titled "The Organizational Personality & Organizational Performance" that offers a brief overview of workplace outcomes that are linked to different types of corporate cultures. Here's a look at each one and how acculturation onboarding could be improved in each situation.

Coercive

This type of organization is highly authoritarian and gains compliance from employees through punitive action. A new hire is likely to be called out publicly and berated for making mistakes instead of receiving constructive criticism in private to improve performance. Absenteeism, high turnover, bullying, and litigation are some of the negative outcomes that correlate to a coercive work environment. Using positive reinforcement instead of punishment based incentives and giving new hires more agency in decision making is one way to improve the onboarding process for this type of organization.

Normative

Non-profit businesses and religious organizations that rely heavily on volunteers tend to seek compliance by appealing to values that the members hold in common. Employees are encouraged to participate in decision making. There are a number of positive outcomes that are associated with this "personality" including job satisfaction and commitment. Oddly, this type of organization is also noted for retaliating against whistle blowers - perhaps because the high level of socialization leads to management feeling betrayed if someone is "disloyal" and goes outside the group to resolve a problem. Onboarding for new hires should ensure that rights and expectations are fully explained so the work environment remains professional while still being productive.

Utilitarian/Remunerative

According to Natoli, this in-between category is where most businesses fall. This type of organization promotes compliance by rewarding employees for performance. This practical approach may be supplemented by disciplinary action under the punitive model or enhanced by socialization under the normative model. New hires need to receive detailed orientation information on how their performance will be measured and what types of incentives they can take advantage of for career advancement.

No matter what organizational personality your company is aligned with, you can use the AllegroHR Acculturation Program to help new hires understand both the written and unwritten behavioral expectations in your corporate culture.