This article reports an ethnographic study of part-time teller assimilation in a large branch banking organization. Although strict adherence to formally established policy was emphasized by socialization agents at teller training school, the substance and application of these rules were contradicted by agents at the branch banks. These contradictions were never fully resolved, making assimilation difficult for the tellers as they struggled to understand what role requirements to follow and how to interpret their overall experience. The altered rules forced the tellers to rely on superiors to oversee many day-to-day decisions. The tellers responded to the contradictions with surprise and disappointment, and disparaged elements of their assimilation experience. The contradictory assimilation messages also interfered with newcomers' developing feelings of membership and willingness to remain in the organization's employ. The manuscript concludes by discussing ways by which management practitioners may ease newcomers' entry experiences in contradictory bureaucratic systems.

Existing models of organizational crisis response effectiveness provide useful insights but are limited in terms of offering a guide for practitioners dealing with actual crisis situations. This analysis examines the relative effectiveness of image repair tactics based on differences in root causes of crisis events. Results suggest that certain image repair tactics are seen as the most and the least effective regardless of crisis type. At the same time, there were some differences across crisis types that could guide practitioner tactic choices. Limited results here and in past research raise questions about whether image repair tactic effectiveness can be usefully mapped to situational variables, such as audience or crisis type. This article concludes with discussion on this matter and suggestions for future research.

No abstract

This article is a study of employee responses to identification inducements in a newsletter at the U.S. Forest Service. A systematic analysis indicates that the Forest Service attempts to induce identification through strategies and tactics embedded in the newsletter. The data revealed four employee responses to the newsletter content. Nonidentification responses do not produce feelings of identification. Textual identification responses manifest feelings of identification, as readers link themselves to the organization through newsletter depictions. Contextual identification requires evoking memories of past organizational participation if the person is to manifest feelings of membership in response to the newsletter. Finally, disidentification responses are associated with feelings of separateness from the organization. The implications of these findings are discussed.

No abstract