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Social-Behavioural Sciences 37 FACTORS WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE PROCESS OF INTERNALIZATION OF MILITARY VALUES Crenguţa-Mihaela MACOVEI “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania [email protected] ABSTRACT The efficiency of organizational socialization is reflected in the level of understanding and respect that a newcomer shows to values and norms of the organization. The congruence between the values of the newcomer and organizational values proved to be a strong predictor of his/her success in the new role. In the military system, the task of transforming students into military professionals by successful organizational socialization rests to military academies. To identify those aspects of military academic and social environment that facilitates the internalization of specific values we have built a questionnaire consisting of thirty-nine items grouped into thirteen dimensions that may constitute predisposing factors. The factor analysis resulted in detaining four factors with significant impact on the process of internalization of military values. KEYWORDS: military values, anticipatory socialization 1. Introduction Organizational socialization is a particular type of socialization according to which a person learns a new role in an organization. In this process, a number of specific content is learnt and the organization and the individual use tactics to facilitate this learning (Chao, 2012). Jablin (2001) classifies the organizational socialization process in three distinct phases: anticipatory socialization, organizational entry and assimilation, and organizational disengagement/exit. Anticipatory Socialization takes place in the period before the individual’s entrance in the organization. The individual begins by assimilating some of the norms and values of the organization, of the group or desired profession anticipating and practising the role it strives towards. Doing this, he assesses its compatibility with the group, organization or occupation. The way Caforio G. shows, in the military system, military academies have the task of transforming the anticipatory socialization into complete professional socialization: “In examining the officer profession, we see that anticipatory socialization takes on particular value in the selection process for admission to the military academies. This selection, usually made on large numbers of applicants, has the specific aim of choosing the individuals best suited to the next process – REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 38 Social-Behavioural Sciences professional socialization – not only from the intellectual stadpoint but especially for adherence to certain social values, character traits, role commitment, and an aptitude for identifying with a highly particular proffesional reference group. From this point of view it differs substantially from the selection procedures normally adopted by the other professions. For the military, those who enter the academy become part of the institution itself, they immediately become members; their expulsion is therefore in some way a pathological event” (Caforio, 2006, p. 256). 2. Stages of Anticipatory Socialization According to Jablin (2001, pp. 732818), there are two kinds of anticipatory socialization: vocational and organizational. Vocational Anticipatory Socialization. This type of socialization refers to the complex process at the end of which a person gets to decide on a profession or career path to follow. In this process it will be influenced by five main agents of socialization: family, media, peers, educational system, and previous organizational experience. Following the influences of family and of a group of friends, a person forms certain attitudes, beliefs and values that will shape the way he/she perceives and relates to employment in general and to specific occupations in particular. The educational system provides information, education and training for certain occupations, professions and careers in the world of work. In this way the educational system accomplishes the individual’s familiarity with the particularities of the various professions and the training programs they offer facilitate the orientation and self-definition in relation to them. The media offers a wide range of information more or less realistic or accurate about the world of work and about various occupations possible in a given space and time, with a scale of values that these occupations are placed on. Work experience within an organization has the role to shape the perception of a person on the functioning of that organization and thereby develops his/her ability to understand other organizations or other forms of activity; also it helps to form attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors oriented towards work and interpersonal skills necessary for a good integration in future working communities. In order to include career changing and volunteering in organizations in this category, Kramer (2010) believes that the term anticipatory socialization role should be used and he defines it as follows: “… the ongoing process of developing expectations for a role an individual wants to have in some organization. These role expectations are developed through interactions with family members and friends, educational experiences, other organizational experiences and media portrayals of occupations” (Kramer, 2010, pp. 6-7). Organizational Anticipatory Socialization is the process by which a person chooses the organization he/she wants to join. This process is completed in a shorter time than the previous one and implies that the person decides what role he/she wants to play in the organization. The second step in the process of organizational socialization includes the entry of the person in the organization and his/her assimilation by the organization. According to the model of F. Jablin (2001), this stage is developing in three steps. Pre-entry. At this stage the person begins to consider entering into an organization; after that decision he/she begins gathering information about what the signification of work in it, studying what appears in the media or interacting with staff recruitment and selection of the organization. The person structures his/her first impressions and complements them with thoughts and feelings about the organization and the possibilities it offers. If the person persists in his/her commitment, REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 Social-Behavioural Sciences there appears an initial psychological contract: “Individual beliefs, shaped by the organisation, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organisation” (Rousseau, 1995, p. 9). Entry. At this stage of the socialization process, the person strives to assimilate organizational culture and at the same time to let herself/himself assimilated by it. He/she becomes familiar with the demands of work and of the job he/she occupies, with others’ expectations, norms, rules and policies of the organization. Also, at this stage, a process called individuation, which the person negotiates, within the business world, some changes to it (environment) to better match his/her expectations, attitudes, needs and values. This step is essential to achieving a state of congruence between the requirements and needs of the organization and of the new employed person. Metamorphosis is the third step of this stage and involves a transformation of the person from a newcomer into an established member of the organization. This transformation is a dynamic process that takes place in a long time and involves carrying out psychological transformation after which the individual begins to feel comfortable and confident in his role and position in the organization. If a person is promoted in the organization in new roles and functions he/she can experience again two of the steps described above – entry and metamorphosis – whose intensity will depend on the quality and characteristics of status change and of the activities to undertake. The success and effectiveness of the socialization process is reflected in the extent to which the newcomer understands and respects the values and organizational rules. They will provide the employee a framework and context for interpreting work events in the organization whilst promoting communication with other employees. 39 The congruence between the newcomer’s values and organizational values is a strong predictor of his/her success. Organizations will seek to employ people whose values match their own values and will strengthen this congruence in the process of socialization. 3. Methodology Starting from the information above, we intend to perform a study pursuing to identify those aspects of academic and social environment that facilitate the internalization of military values by the students of the Military Land Forces Academy in Sibiu. For this we applied a questionnaire consisting of 39 items, built on 13 dimensions that may constitute predisposing factors. The 13 dimensions are: I. Family 1. Parental attitudes towards military values. 2. Family pre-existing values. 3. Other relatives’ attitudes to military values. 4. Role models having military values present in the family. II. Friends 1. Developing affinity with vocatinal group members. 2. Values pre-existing in a group of friends. 3. Friends’ attitudes towards military values. III. Colleagues 1. The existence of moral guidelines among colleagues. 2. The existence of benchmark values among colleagues. 3. The group pressure for military values internalization. IV. Examples from the army 1. The influence of a professional group on the personal system of values. REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 40 Social-Behavioural Sciences 2. Recognition of the values worth following in the case of professional group members. 3. The superiors’ influence on the attitude of subjects towards military values. V. Examples outside the army 1. Search for the company of people outside the military system who admire this institution. 2. Encourage choosing the military profession/career by people outside the professional group. 3. Recognition of military values in professionals outside the military system. VI. Heroes 1. Attitude towards heroic military figures. 2. Adoption of military models from history. 3. Using heroic patterns for the shaping of their own training. VII. Education 1. Parental models in the spirit of values very close to those of the army. 2. Models of school education in the spirit of values similar to the military ones. 3. Models of teachers who instilled some values similar to the military ones. VIII. Related pre-existing values 1. A pre-existing stricter code of behavior/conduct. 2. A pre-existing value system very similar to the military one. 3. Previous experience related to military values. IX. Courses, books, regulations, magazines etc. (1) The influence of academy courses (2) of books with military content (3) of military regulations and (4) of publications that promote military values. X. Information from the virtual environment, Internet, films, games etc. (1) The influence of the Internet (2) of films with military content (3) of video games with military content (4) of the virtual environment in general. XI. Symbols, rituals, ceremonies (1) Affinity and curiosity for the military symbols, rituals and ceremonies. XII. Rewards and punishments (1) Compliance with the military values for fear of negative consequences or (2) of the positive ones on career (3) because of faith in them or (4) because of integration into their own system of values. XIII. Religion 1. Compatibility of the military values with those promoted by religion/faith of subjects 2. Consultation of significant people in the Church in relation to career behavior and in the stance of a professional military. 3. Watching heroic examples of Saints and Martyrs described by the Church. Students were asked to indicate to what extent the issues listed above have contributed to the process of military values internalization, using a Likert-type scale with values from 1 to 5, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The questionnaire was applied to 270 students of the academy. The sample structure was as follows: 188 boys (69.6 %) and 82 girls (30.4 %), 90 (33.3 %) college freshmen, 90 (33.3 %) second year students and 90 (33.3 %) third year students. Results from the questionnaire were analyzed and the chosen procedure was that of Principal Component Analysis. KMO value (.62) was considered acceptable; the probability associated with the Bartlett test was < 0.001. After studying the anti-image matrix, those items of the questionnaire with a KMO index less than .50 were REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 Social-Behavioural Sciences 41 eliminated. As a result, 32 items have remained and were subjected to Principal Component Analysis. KMO value increased to .71 and the probability associated with the Bartlett test was < 0.001. The anti-image matrix identified those items with a KMO index lower than .50. Therefore, only 26 items were detained for analysis. The antiimage matrix analysis indicated that all items had a KMO value greater than .05. Following the removal of items with comunalities less than .50 and of those who were loading several factors simultaneously, 15 items remained in the model, grouped into four factors explaining 57.2 % of the total variance. The data obtained from this statistical procedure are displayed in the tables below. Table no. 1 KMO and Bartlett’s Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. Approx. Chi-Square Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity df .711 6,227.321 861 Sig. .000 Table no. 2 Factorial Structure – Rotated Factor Matrix Items The military career allows me to use/improve virtues promoted by my religion/faith. I appreciate a lot that the military values are already part of the value system of my colleagues. I believe that academy officers have values worthy of imitation. Books with military content inspired me and motivated me to behave according to military values. I watch videos about the army on the internet that shape my behavior in accordance with military values. My superiors’ behavior determines me to believe in military values. I like people who can devote themselves to a noble cause. There were teachers who inspired me some values that are part of the military value system. I always tried to find the meaning behind each military symbol, ritual and ceremonial. 1 Factors 2 3 4 .580 Communality .510 .651 .820 .665 .723 .706 .598 .751 .712 .792 .736 .593 .588 .731 .583 .754 REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 .637 42 Social-Behavioural Sciences Items 1 Factors 2 3 Many of my colleagues are already models of military behavior. I read publications that promote military .627 values. The virtual environment influenced me in .808 adopting the system of military values. I like the values hidden behind each military .684 symbol or military ceremony. I respect military values because I feel they .707 are a part of me. Eigenvalue 4.96 1.86 1.72 Percentage of total variance 29.18 10.96 10.15 4. Discussions Factor analysis revealed the presence of four main factors, which, according to the students’ answers have significant influence in the process of internalization of military values. All these four factors explain 57.2 % of the total variance. The first factor is charged with four items that relate to the fact that the military values are an important part of their own value system and that is why students always felt motivated to seek those values in publications, symbols and military ceremonies. We call this factor “affinity to military values”. This factor explains 29.18 % of the total variance. The second factor is loaded with three items that relate to the main sources of information on military profession and its specific activities: books with military content, films about the army and the virtual environment in general (Internet, video games etc) that have inspired and motivated the students to behave according to military values. We call this factor “information source about profession”. This factor explains 10.96 % of the total variance. The third factor is charged with three items that relate to the existence in the life of the students of moral guidelines represented by military officers in general but especially by those with whom students interact constantly. Also included in this 4 Communality .622 .633 .689 .631 .604 1.17 6.91 factor we may find moral reference offered by religion/faith that can be practiced in a military career; situations that may occur during this allow students to use or improve their virtues promoted by religion/faith. This factor can be called “moral guidelines in the army”. This factor explains 10.15 % of the total variance. The fourth factor contains items that relate to the fact that students appreciate the presence of military values in the value system of their peers and teachers they had over time. They also appreciate the people who can devote themselves to a noble cause, a fact actually indicating appreciation of certain military values: duty, honor, sacrifice. We call this factor “military values appreciation”. This factor explains 6.91 % of the total variance. 5. Conclusions For students who responded to our questionnaire, the factor with the greatest impact on the process of military values internalization is their affinity for it. They always felt drawn to the military values they found in the special literature textbooks, in military symbols and ceremonies. The attraction to these values led them to look for information about the military profession in books with specific content or on the internet and to maintain interest in watching movies and playing video games. REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016 Social-Behavioural Sciences 43 Another factor impacting on the uptake of military values is represented by the presence in the academic environment of some moral guidelines represented by officers in general but especially by those with whom students interact constantly. The expression of military values in peer and teacher behaviour is another factor with significant impact. For many military students there is a close link between military values and the Christian ones, a bond that would merit a more thorough analysis supported by data collected by a focused research. Students include them between landmarks and moral values offered by their faith/religion. The Romanian army is overwhelmingly formed of Orthodox Christians and the institution of the military chaplain has a long history closely connected to the history of the Romanian army. Military priests are now assimilated to military ranks from major to colonel by the size of the garrison where they operate. Their mission is both to officiate regular religious service and to design and implement programs of religious-moral, ethical and social character that stimulate the militaries’ responsibility to reduce the incidence of violent, immoral acts or insubordination. We believe that our findings support Cockerham’s idea (apud Bachman, Sigelman and Diamond, 1987:187) that the potential for values and pro-military beliefs of cadets is given by the very personal set of attitudes that they bring in the socialization process. Therefore, even in the anticipatory socialization stage a process of self-selection takes place that is based on the tendency of a certain type of people to get into the military service while other types have a tendency to avoid it. REFERENCES Bachman, J., Sigelman, L. & Diamond, G. (1987). Self-Selection, Socialization, and Distinctive Military Values: Attitudes of High School Seniors. Armed Forces & Society 13(2), 169-187. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/68068. Caforio, G. (2006). Military Officer Education. In Caforio G. (Ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of the Military (pp. 255-278). Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. Chao, G.T. (2012). Organizational Socialization: Background, Basics, and a Blueprint for Adjusment at Work. In S.W.J Kozlowski (Ed), The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Psychology, Vol.1. (pp. 579-614). Oxford University Press, Inc. Jablin, F.M. (2001). Organizational entry, assimilation, and disengagement/exit. In F. M. Jablin & L.L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 732-818). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kramer, M.W. (2010). Organizational socialization: Joining and leaving organizations. Malden, MA: Polity. Rousseau, D.M. (1995) Psychological Contracts in Organizations: Understanding Written and Unwritten Agreements. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. REVISTA ACADEMIEI FORŢELOR TERESTRE NR. 1 (81)/2016