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DRAFT REPORT ON
“ACCULTURATION PROCESS” SUBMITTED BY RISHI RAJ PHUKAN

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF Dr. Sudhanshu Verma (Associate Prof. of Finance) KAZIRANGA UNIVERSITY Course Name: Human Behavior in Organization
Course Code: SB.220.07
Program: MBA
Semester: First, 2012

Acknowledgement

Statistics is a science of collection, presentation, analysis, and reasonable interpretation of data. In Graphical Presentation, I look for the overall pattern and for striking deviations from that pattern. Over all pattern usually described by shape, center, and spread of the data.
The main aim of my project is “The Employee Acculturation Process”.
I worked hard to gather as much as information as I could and tried our level best to accomplish the task. PROJECT MEMBER RISHI RAJ PHUKAN

The Success of this research work would have been uncertain without the help and guidance of a dedicated group of people. I would like to express our true and sincere acknowledgements as the appreciation for their contributions.
I would also like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Sudhanshu Verma (Associate Prof. of Finance) who helped us in this project by giving all required information required in the project.

Also I would like to give profound thanks to KAZIRANGA UNIVERSITY’s faculties and Head of departments, who have stood by us so far, also the management for giving us the opportunity to explore more into the relevant areas of the course MASTER OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT.

INTRODUCTION

Large enterprises typically have a steady stream of newcomers entering as employees, whether as new hires or through acquisition. This can pose a challenge to successful organizational acculturation, the process in which employees make sense of an organization’s culture (e.g. the beliefs and values shared by an organization). Acculturation can be supported by formal training sponsored by the organization, or informally through social interaction with co-workers and observation while on the job. This process differs conceptually from socialization, which deals with the strategies newcomers employ to become accepted members of a group, in that acculturation focuses on the learning and integration of these values into one’s identity as an employee.

Supporting acculturation with adequate resources can be especially helpful for the employees of organizations. New members of the organization need to learn about its characteristic beliefs and values as they adjust to employment in a new environment. In addition, employees working in globally distributed locations may require additional support in the acculturation process, particularly as they may not be able to draw on the same resources as those who are located closer to headquarters.

However, the application of Acculturation in organizational context is novel. Infusion of organizational practices, values, attitudes and norms from one organizational culture to another organization culture could be described as acculturation.

ACCULTURATION

Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and social institutions. Noticeable group level effects of acculturation often include changes in food, clothing, and language. At the individual level, differences in the way individuals acculturate have been shown to be associated not just with changes in daily behavior, but with numerous measures of psychological and physical well-being. As enculturation is used to describe the process of first-culture learning, acculturation can be thought of as second-culture learning.

Acculturation is, in a large sense, the process of two cultures coming into contact with each other and impacting each other’s language, behavior, and beliefs. This process is often viewed as a form of cultural assimilation in which one culture is taken into another culture until one group has little or no remaining cultural identity. Though this is a somewhat negativistic view of the process, much cultural research focuses on this potentially devastating aspect of the process. While the general definition of the term implies that both cultures might impact each other equally, more often the minority culture is more heavily impacted than the majority culture or the culture with greater power.

ACCULTURATION IN ORGANIZATION CONTEXT
Acculturation in organizational context has not received much attention of scholars, though culture-building exercises of CEOs have been well documented. Infusion of organizational practices, values, attitudes and norms originated in one organizational culture to another organization culture may be regarded as process of acculturation in organizational context. This process is much significant when organizational cultures of two different countries are involved. It is essential that cultural transmission takes place instead of mere technique transfer. Application of foreign techniques does not amount to be acculturation. The process through which acculturation occurs within organizational context is yet to receive attention from researchers. The presence of culture catalyst is important in acculturation process. The culture catalyst is the driving force to infuse cultural practices from the dominant one to weak one (or more appropriately the receiving culture). In some occasions, in the absence of a culture catalyst acculturation takes place. This is a natural transfusion of values, norms, behaviors and attitudes from high culture to low culture.

ACCULTURATION OBJECTIVE An acculturation objective is defined according to the organization’s structure. Companywide objectives include those that apply to all employees, such as passing the company’s network security policy exam, creating a company social network profile, and indicating satisfaction regarding the company’s group health benefits. Departmental or business unit objectives provide greater specialization, such as passing the IT department’s help desk usage test, or publishing a technical post on the engineering wiki. Specific skills associated with the position, inherited from the job description, represent the most specific objectives, and if measured through the use of a competency assessment system represent the most objective measurements of productivity in the AI and should be weighted accordingly.
Finally, objectives might be established for the specific individual assuming the role, particularly if the individual needs remediation in certain skills. A good implementation of an acculturation system would allow for the assumption of the majority of acculturation objectives for individuals based on the position, job, and organization structure (location, business unit, department, division, etc.), including companywide objectives, and allowing for the dynamic specification of objectives specific to the individual; otherwise, the burden of establishing objectives for each new hire would hinder the consistent application of acculturation objectives.

BENEFITS
Companies that take an acculturation approach gets benefits such as: * Reduced turnover * Higher retention rates * High level of employee satisfaction and engagement * A talent pool that is highly qualified and anxious to join your organization
Employees that join an organization taking this approach reap benefits such as: * Strong training and career development programs * Coaching and development by experienced managers * Mentoring and leadership opportunities * Succession initiatives * A culture that focuses on innovation and creativity * Positive and fun work environment * Talented colleagues and teammates * Business pride

CONCLUSION