Organizational Assimilation

1. MODEL OF ORGANIZATIONAL
ASSIMILATION
Anna Freund

2. What is it?
Frederic M. Jablin defines organizational
assimilation as “the process by which
individuals become integrated into the
culture of an organization.”

3. Three Stages of Assimilation
Anticipatory
Socialization
• A reflection of
how people
develop
expectations
about work
• New employees
go through an
information-
seeking process
• Development of
communication
skills
Organizational
Entry and
Assimilation
• Planned and
unintentional
efforts to
socialize
employees and
attempts of
organizational
members to
individualize or
change their role.
Organizational
Disengagement/Ex
it
• When people
decide to leave
the organization,
they engage in
behaviors to end
interpersonal
relationships.
• A slow decrease
in communication

4. Who uses it?
Members of
organizational
settings, both
non-high reliability
(advertising,
banking,
publishing, non-
profit, etc.) and
high-reliability
organizations (fire
and police
departments) are
always socializing
their new
employees into
their company.

5. What’s the point?
Organizational Assimilation is important to
the study of organizational communication,
communication within and between
organizations, and a group’s future success
when it comes to their employees.

6. Criticism
The study of organizational assimilation
would be enhanced by the use of multiple
research perspectives rather than by
evaluating one perspective, the “newcomer,”
as more appropriate than another.