Week 7: Culture and Anticipatory Socialization

Anticipatory Socialization

The episode of The Simpsons is a great example of anticipatory socialization. Bart and Lisa take an aptitude test and the results said Bart would be a police officer and Lisa would be a homemaker. They had two completely different reactions to the results. Bart was excited to hear he would make a good cop and was happy with the result. Lisa was surprised by her results and became discouraged about her future. The two pretty much switched places and Bart became the good student and Lisa was the trouble- maker. The test had such an effect on them their lives changed for awhile. When Lisa was told she was going to be a homemaker she anticipated that it would matter how she did in school or how she acted. Bart on the other hand anticipated that he needed to start behaving better to be a policeman. This would an example of the vocational type of anticipatory socialization because Bart and Lisa are still children and learned about these vocations through teachers and family members.

Tests like the career aptitude tests can have huge effects on people. As was seen in The Simpsons episode Bart and Lisa’s behavior drastically changed. People may take this test too seriously and think that the results are the only type of careers they will succeed in, especially children. Adults who take this test may take the results into consideration and look into those careers. High school students who take this test may think about majoring in a subject related to their career results. After I took the aptitude test I wasn’t too surprised by my results. My top two results was a public relations specialist and an advertising agent, which makes sense because my major is communications and my minor is marketing. I was surprised by my third result, which was a choreographer because I have never participated in anything dance related in my life. This just shows that you shouldn’t take these tests too seriously but they also may provide careers that should be considered.

Culture

I think the book does a great job of defining organizational culture. On page 122 it says, “organizational culture stands for the actions, ways of thinking, practices, stories, and artifacts that characterize a particular organization”. So the authors are saying that the way employees and managers communicate and act in the workplace is what makes up the culture in the workplace. The book’s way of defining culture compared to my own definition is pretty similar. My definition of culture would be the way in which people view, react, and feel in certain situations based on their beliefs and surroundings. I think the culture in the workplace is a huge selling point for future employees. No one wants to be miserable at their job and feel out of place. The culture in the workplace may be the reason why certain employees choose to work there. An article in Fortune names culture one of the greatest tools for employers, you can read it here. This shows that an employee’s salary isn’t the only reason why some companies are viewed as better to work for than others. Another article in Entrepreneur lists 10 companies with the best cultures, which is here. As you can see Southwest Airlines is on the list which the book also mentioned about having a good cultural workplace. Overall, culture in organizations should improve the company and not hinder it.