Emmanuel A. Turuka
Unsuccessful Organizational Assimilation: the Case of Higher Institutions in Developing Countries
Introduction;
The higher academic institution throughout the
world and particular in developing countries for better performance need a
strong a human resources management policy which
must be guided by underpins the importance of attracting and retaining
management and administrative staff of high quality, technical and auxiliary
staff with the requisite academic, professional and administrative competence
to effectively manage and provide administrative, technical and auxiliary
support to the work of their academic counterparts.
In order to achieve its objectives, it has to have effective
management policies and strategies to ensure productivity from all staff.
According to the human resources management policy, the effectiveness is
influenced by abilities, skills and motivation that staff poses on one hand,
and institutional strategies that exist to enhance them. The policy further
elaborates that it is also influenced by the way in which staff are recruited
(deployed) and how individual’s skills are utilized in providing efficiency in
operation.
Statement of the problem:
Many higher learning institutions in Africa are governed by the
workforce size which is too large and leads to inefficient due to
uncontrolled growth in the recruitment process, insufficient application of
employment rules and regulation and higher level appointments which ignored the
rules and guidelines that govern the employment process in the civil service. It
was also characterized by poor record keeping of employee’s particulars
including those concerning recruitment and motivation; faced many problems as a
result of low level competence in its employee capabilities. As we are aware
that organizational inefficiency is claimed to be accelerated by unskilled
workers, lack of accountability and eroded of ethical behavior. In this line of
thinking it is easy to analyze how people continue to attack nepotism and
favoritism as a bridge used to attack unfair hiring practices of increasing
unskilled labor in the organization. The organization begins the assimilation
process by assessing candidate’s competence and technical skills. While on
the other hand the assimilation process follows an input and output model, assimilation
begins with recruitment and continues as a leader evidences an increased
ability to perform in the new role.
A successful assimilation process within the organization depends
very much with the conditions for the recruitment process within the organization,
recruitment process needs to be competitive, and whereby people
will be selected based on competence and ability to perform the assignment to
which they are going to be recruited. Therefore there is a need for job
openings and vacant positions to be advertised in the labor market so that
those who meet the required qualifications can get the opportunity to apply.
Those short listed based on their evidence of qualification should be called
for interviews and selected upon rating score done by recruitment personnel.
All these procedures of advertising for job openings, interview and selection
needed to be conducted transparently. Most problems concerning Human
resources capabilities commences when recruitment is not handled properly.
Resignations, low motivation, poor performance may be due to incorrect
procedures in the recruitment process. The organization assimilation is a
process by which person learns the values, norms and required behavior
that allows them to participate as members of the organizational structure and
members contribute their knowledge and experience towards organizational
achievement.
Many people we see in organizations today are in the wrong jobs
and as a result, they are not utilizing their full potential. This is
compounded by the fact that some companies have built a tradition of hiring
people based on personal connections when the person is not qualified for the
job. This is a vivid case in most Organizations today. From the author’s
experience, most recruitment that involves managers which has an element of
nepotism is conducted during discussions at lunch hour, at social clubs or
during the coffee break time. All the other processes that follow will only be
a formality as the decision would have been made by line managers involved in
the process. Many of those appointed may not have the necessary skills and
competencies to carry out the functions competently. Also they may not have
proper qualifications in the field they are working. Such people will not have
much desire to make any contributions in terms of growth and development.
Their contributions are marginal if any; they are just passengers in the
system and are protected by those who recommended them. If you start the
process without a systematic approach, you can rush your decision and end up
with a mismatched person who will not be suited to work in the Organization.
This is a typical case in some organizations. There is a need to have a system
that assists to assess candidates throughout. This reduces the odds that you
will have to repeat this extensive, time consuming process
What is organizational efficiency?
It can be explained as timely accomplished of goals and in good
quality and quantity. In other hand it can as well explained as the realization
of Return of Investments (ROI) due to qualified staff. Analytically effective
organizational performance can be highly dependent on the proper hiring and
assessment of personnel. Recruitment is the premier major steps in the
selection process in the Organizations. It has been explained as an activity
directed to obtain appropriate human resources whose qualifications and skills
match the functions of the relevant posts in the Organization.
What is an assimilation theory in organization?
Organizational Assimilation theory does credit the individual with
the free will to choose to assimilate or not. Of course, other factors, such as the
quality of training may affect one's ability to assimilate/socialize
into an organization as well. It is more important for organizations put more
effort on encounter stage to help new employees adjust to the
new workplace than in the other three stages. Although Organizational
Assimilation theory states that all people either will or will not assimilate
into an organization it also states that the individual may affect an
organization as much as the organization affects the individual.
Organizational assimilation according to Jablin 2001 refers “the
process by which individuals become integrated into the culture of an
organization” this can be translated as Successful transformation of the
input process that happens when the organization and individual meet. Organization
as an open systems are faced with varieties of procedures and structural
changes as well as challenges that are frequently forced employees to adapt,
cope, learn, assimilate and re-assimilate. This kind of situation requires
employees to possess enough educational and experience qualifications across
different roles and when they join the organization helps them to adapt in the
new workplace settings.
Organizational assimilation for newcomer in an
organization consists of three stages anticipatory assimilation which is the
first part of the process everyone goes through before they enter into an
organization. It is the expectations stage which can either be a help or
a hindrance to the work life in the organization. The second stage is
finally hired by the organization; the newcomer begins the encounter
process. Newcomer learns about the organization and its expectations it
can be the good, the bad, and the ugly. The people that newcomer
encounters the most in this early stage helps to define her encounter
process. People in the office that attempt to help new employee get to know
the company and its expectations play an important role for her
along the way. The metamorphosis stage involves the new employee’s role
within the organization as one of them and is ready in cooperating in the
culture of the organization.
Literature Review:
Therkidsen 2000 observes that poor performance, inefficiency
and corruption in the recruitment process are the common practices in most of
organizations in developing countries including Tanzania. He further
insisted on merit-based recruitment in which initial entry into civil
service is determined by independent testing, a relevant university
degree, or academic credentials. On the other hand the World Bank report of,
2004: 8 pointed out that the large numbers of Civil Servants in Tanzania have
been employed without the necessary education background in a
given position. While and NORAD report of 1995: 10, shows that the
increase and expansion of the civil service size led to the employment of
people without the necessary educational background the report clearly shows
that, “principles of merit-based recruitment and promotion was played down and
elements of nepotism crept into the system”
According to Vernom D. Miller and Fredric M Jablin 1991 argue that
upon the entering a new job and organization, newcomers typically experience
some degree of surprise. While Van Maanen 1995 argues that newcomers are faced
with learning the formal and informal requirements of a new role and the ropes
of the organization hence they feel that the situation often associate with
high levels of uncertainty. Bullis 1999, Clair 1999, and Turner 1999 observe
that assimilation emphases the process where individuals’ giving up their
individualities to fit in with their collective. Jablin 1982 explains
the organizational assimilation theory as “essentially organizational
assimilation encompasses those on –going conscious and unconscious, behavior
and cognitive processes by which individual joining organizations, become
integrated into the cultures of organizations, negotiate their roles in
organizing
There is a lack of research on how to measure a successful
individual assimilation in the organization. Most of the scholars just assume
that employees are assimilated in a kind of linear progression. The employee
may be assimilated in some aspects of the organization because they are
involved in their work, but may have failed to develop productive working
relationships in the environment. It should born in our minds that
organizational assimilation is a dynamic process
The easy way for the newcomers to learn their role are likely
accelerated by the qualifications one has during entry stage those with
required knowledge skills and attributes for a given position will have a high
level of understanding and adapting to assimilate and to organizational roles
and low level of uncertainty when you compare with those with no required
skills. Do I have the skills to produce the behaviors required by the new job?
Discussion
Organizational leaders who are involved in the recruitment process
should apply organization rules regarding recruitment process. When a leader is
unsystematic about recruitment process this habit leads to poor recruitment and
miss-profiling of individuals who will in turn become part of the problem in
the system. Recruitment and assimilation process goes hand in hand given the
two aspects work as an open system. If we believe that people are contributors
to competitive advantage in the businesses recruitment must be a core strategic
asset. Many organization leaders just jump to the conclusion in the recruitment
process by defining efficiency is a measure getting someone in the organization
right away than getting the right person later through the right procedures.
They don’t like to the effectiveness leaders who hire the right person at the
right time by using a right process. Appointing unqualified
employee violates organizational well established rule and procedures and is
therefore is ethically unjustified, because such considerations do not play a
role in defining an organization's legitimate interest.
Wrong placements at officer levels can lead to stagnation within
the system.
Successful recruitment accelerates assimilation process and will
improve an organization's ability the time it takes for the new employee to
become productive and effective as well as Minimizing disruption to business
cycles and team processes and moves a newcomer from a position of
uncertainty toward full competence in the new role quickly. But when a leader
recruits people who are friends, who mirrors what the leader was interested sometimes it's so
difficult in assimilation process as far as if the assimilation process is done
by someone else and not the same leader because the new employee build a
stubborn behavior to other employees because of the connection one has with the
leader who hired him or her.
The best organizational assimilation will depend on how the
recruitment personnel hire the best persons for the job and it is so easy to
get beyond the pitfall in the assimilation process. It should bear in
everyone's mind that hiring the right person takes time and effort but it is
cost effective. As Ferne Cherne 2004 argues that “good employees are the
backbone of any business brings competence at work and as a model for superior
performance”
For the leaders it should be understandable that unethical
practices contribute to unsuccessfully assimilation process in any
organization. The bottom line here is that what we are asking for those leaders
who are concerned with this kind of situation is to develop trust in their
daily routine work which will accelerate organizational efficiency.
When employees join a new
organization they enter a new organizational context. This means that new
employees those hired from outside, experience assimilation in similar
ways like those who were there before them it might take couples of months to
completely finish the process of assimilating to that new context. (Gabarro 1987)
To accurately predict the time required to assimilate into any organizational
context requires consideration of circumstances such as:
- The severity of the business problems facing the new employee unit and the organization as a whole
- The organization’s readiness and responsiveness to the needs of assimilating new employees
- The degree to which a team is ready for the arrival of an employee
The competence and motivation of a new employee team, assimilation
process helps that the potential of human resources is being fully utilized. It
involves analysis an of pertinent to human resources management such as
turnover, grievances, absences, accident, employee attitudes, job satisfaction, etc;
and also deals with human resources planning, development and utilization. As
the reality of the new organizational context becomes clear, new employees may
experience doubts about whether their skills match the requirements of the new
role.
The ability to engage in communication helps to build the state of
assimilation which ostensibly improves one’s contributions to the organization.
New organizational employees have uncertainties about how to fit in, how, how
to do their jobs, how their performance will be evaluated, how to relate to
other socially. The assessment used during a fair interview session can
alert an organization if a candidate may have trouble in building new
relationship networks. Such process helps organizations to identify and creates
a roadmap which will help the new hire to easily assimilate
with other Co workers.
Implication of the study;
Personnel audits are
frequently used in the organization as a basis for
administrative decisions such as employee promotion, transfer and allocation of
financial rewards, employee development, including identification of training
needs, layoff, or downsizing. The importance of human resources as a capital
that plays a key in the operations of an organization is a well-recognized
factor. People are the most important potential of an organization. It is for
this reason that each organization should regularly conduct personnel audits to
check whether and to what extend its employees are suitable for the positions
they hold and the extend to which they positively contribute to the objectives
of the organization.
What is the lesson for future leaders?
This case study shows the importance of good recruitment systems
in the organizations. Most problems concerning Human resources commences when
recruitment is not handled properly. Resignations, low motivation, poor
performance may be due to incorrect procedures in the recruitment process. The
research paper shows that a successful assimilation rely more on good
recruitment process given that recruitment does not stop when it commences, it
is a dynamic activity. The purpose of it is to provide an Organization with a
pool of qualified candidates. It is the heart the organization. Therefore
a successful assimilation process in the organization will depend on an
organization to be able to recruit the right people; hence decreasing the time
it takes for newcomers to become productive and effective and minimizing disruption
to business cycles and team processes. Let us avoid what happened at the
institute of marine sciences for failure to increase return on investment by
relying on unqualified employees.
Conclusion
Therefore fair recruitment process and assimilation is part of organizational culture which explains the interaction of people at all levels, and to understand how this interaction defines the organization’s attitude towards people and process. Understanding organizational culture is central to strategic Human relations and organization achievements which ought to lead to initiatives which develop the organization as a whole
Therefore fair recruitment process and assimilation is part of organizational culture which explains the interaction of people at all levels, and to understand how this interaction defines the organization’s attitude towards people and process. Understanding organizational culture is central to strategic Human relations and organization achievements which ought to lead to initiatives which develop the organization as a whole
Keeping recruitment a core strategic asset for your organization
will benefit the organization. Organizational leaders who have involved
themselves in corruption, nepotism and favoritism in any organization have lost
part of their soul and will be more likely to engage in unethical, socially
irresponsible, and illegal behavior. I for one I believe that as a leader the
first step toward making this vision a reality is to determine what types of
hiring any organization requires and how hiring processes drive organizational
success. We have found that the most useful top-end measurement is hiring
efficiency against hiring effectiveness. This framework will enable
organizational leaders to select hiring systems that best support the given
organizational objectives and determine the degree of process automation
necessary to support the hiring needs. Therefore recruiting, hiring, developing
and retaining the right people who will help the organization to realize the
return of investments is essential.
Angela Lumpkin (2008) stresses
that “values comprise the foundation upon which an organization is built.
Therefore the leader who makes a good organizational growth is guided
by values.” Depending on the unspoken practices of the organization,
cultural cohesion reflects the ways ethics play out in the daily life of the
organization and the ways in which ethics statements and/or ethics training
impact behavior within an organization. Hence good recruitment process works
hand in hand with a successful assimilation process for organizational
efficiency and ROI.
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Cataloging-In-Publication Data
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