Dear Stephanie,
this sounds like the results from the 'classic' van Maanen (1975) study.
He found that over the course of the socialization process the motivation of recruits declined significantly and that paradoxically those recruits with low motivation were ranked higher (by supervisors) regarding their performance:
Van Maanen, J. (1975).
Police socialization: A longitudinal examination of job attitudes in an urban police department.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 20, 207-228
As Roxanne pointed out, performance often is a socially constructed parameter.
Kind regards,
Tobias
Prof. Dr. Tobias Braun
Berlin School of Economics and Law
Faculty of Business and Economics
Badensche Straße 50-51
D-10825 Berlin
Dear Stephanie,
How did you measure the dependent variable, "his or her protégé's job performance and OCB"?
One of the features of a strong hierarchy context, such as the military, is a tendency not to stand out and not to criticise colleagues publically.
I can't give you the references off hand but you can find a lot of studies at the Naval Postgraduate School's Library, which you can search online. This should get you started in exploring the very large literature on military organisations and culture.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Roxanne
Dr. Roxanne Zolin | Associate Professor | School of Management
QUT Business School | Queensland University of Technology | www.qut.edu.au/business
Phone: + 61 7 3138 5095 | Mobile: 0433 400 113 | Email: r.zolin@qut.edu.au | CRICOS No. 00213J
Hi Stephanie,
Not sure if Police forces can be considered paramilitary, unlike the military, they include a sworn and unsworn workforce with law enforcement as the main priority. Nevertheless, they are indeed very hierarchical and formal (rigid rules and regulations). This formality might be used to limit officers discretion in handling many situations, and to follow departmental policies. Significantly many organizations will have this hierarchy and formal structures.
I believe that you have a very interesting result with mentor's performance and protégé's OCB.
With best wishes
Alberto R. Melgoza, PhD, MBR, ANAM, FASHRM
البرتو راميرز ملقوزا
Organization Consulting Department (OCD)
Saudi Aramco
Tel. +966 013 873 35 16
Mob. +966 507 260 177
Hello Everyone!
Please forgive cross postings with RMNET.
We've been collecting data with fireman as the respondents, and gotten some surprising results. We are looking at the following relationship: INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: an individual's performance as a mentor; DEPENDENT VARIABLES: his or her protégé's job performance and OCB.
Contrary to our theory, we get a non-significant correlation between mentor's performance and protégé's performance and a significant but negative relationship between mentor's performance and protégé's OCB.
Also we noticed VERY little variance in job performance and OCB. The means and variances were 6.1 (7 point scale) mean, .34 variance and 5.34 (7 point scale) mean, .71, respectively. Perhaps lack of variance explains the non-significant correlation????
Our sample consists of firefighters which we judge to work within an organization with characteristics similar to military organizations. All new employees are assigned a mentor for their first year, and many individuals enter into informal mentoring relationships after that point. Respondents indicated that 88% have been mentored, 47% are currently being mentored, and about 50% of individuals currently are serving as mentors.
Has anyone seen these type of results?
Of course it doesn't have to be mentoring, but the idea that in a military type sample, otherwise sound relationships may not hold.
We wonder if perhaps some moderating variable (militaryness [for lack of a better term]) could be attenuating the relationships. We were wondering because it makes much sense to us that if someone was mentored well, then they would perform well, or at least better than someone who was mentored poorly. Of course, our theory could be wrong but before giving up, we wanted to see if anyone had any input for us.
Further, we'll be conducting more surveys at other fire and police departments in the near future and would like to include a measure to capture this unique "militaryness," but I have had trouble finding a construct that quite embraces what we're looking for. I was hoping someone could recommend a construct (ideally with measures) for the individual's perception of the degree of "militaryness" of the organization.
Many thanks in advance!
Stephanie Maynard-Patrick
PHD Candidate
Department of Management
New Mexico State University
svmp@nmsu.edu
575-646-6847
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