Learning the ropes, paying your
dues, passing muster, earning your stripes—all terms we use to refer to the
rites of passage from outsider to insider.
Practical jokes, intentionally
meaningless or humiliating tasks, and unnecessary assignments are all forms of
hazing, and newcomers are hazed to test them for potential membership. Will
they fit in, be loyal to the group, be reliable, have a sense of humor? The
tests for compatibility are varied: a new counter clerk at McDonald’s is told
to inventory pickle slices, a hospital orderly is asked to look for the
fallopian tube, a bank teller has her keys hidden, an engineer is given
cleaning jobs, and a new lawyer gets the most boring cases.
Hazing accomplishes a number of
goals for a group: it gives senior members a way of establishing their
seniority and dominance; it ensures that formal work rules will be respected,
and that unwritten practices will be followed; it ensures continuity of the
existing ways of relating and working; and it makes membership something to be
valued.
Group membership is valued more if
becoming a member is a privilege that must be earned. The group will
temporarily keep the newcomer on the outside because the longer he or she stays
there, the more appealing membership becomes.
In order to prevent newcomers from
rocking the boat by participating too soon, group members will often try to put
them in their place—at the bottom of the ladder. Like most animals, we align ourselves
in a definite pecking order. It is always the dominant male lion who gets to
eat from the carcass first and the same cow that leads the others to pasture.
Acceptance is usually not marked
by a specific event but by the person’s inclusion in informal get-togethers
after work, casual sharing of information and gossip, and implicit assumptions
that the new member will take part in the hazing of other newcomers.
As long as hazing is done more or
less equally to all newcomers, has an end, and the goal is membership, then it
is not harassment. The objective of hazing is inclusion, whereas the goal of
harassment is exclusion.
Primitive tribes, medieval guilds,
fraternities and sororities, and corporate offices all have rites of passage
for new members. And the transition from outsider to member is surprisingly
similar, whether in the African bush or on Wall Street. Often the only difference
is that the tests in primitive tribes are public. The terms and conditions are
clearly spelled out: the initiates know more or less what to expect; the rules
of behavior are understood; and, above all, initiates know that the rite is
common practice, that they are not the first or the only ones subjected to the
ordeal, and that the reward for the humiliation is membership and acceptance.
This may no be so for employees
entering a new organization today. Here the initiation rites are covert, criteria
for membership are unknown, tests are unpredictable, and correct behavior is
not spelled out.
Initiation rites must be
considered not as isolated events, but as a function of the human need to
maintain social order. They are thus a necessary practice that eases the
transition from newcomer to group member. Putting hazing in this context may
help reduce the stress it evokes.
The unpleasantness and the
duration of hazing depend on three factors: the cohesiveness of the group, the
individual’s fit into the group, and the newcomer’s response to hazing. My
research has shown that the tighter the group, the more difficult it is for new
members to be accepted. The looser the group, the less resistance they
encounter. When coworkers are not a group but rather an agglomeration of
individuals who happen to work in the same place, then membership is not an
issue and hazing does not occur.
There are many creative ways to
deal with hazing and to gain acceptance into the desired group. The keys seem
to be patience and tolerance. Keeping a cool head while seeing this whole
experience in perspective, maintaining a sense of humor, and generally being
low key are all successful outward responses to hazing.
Hazing in fraternity houses that
has gone out of control with several fatalities has been in the news recently. These
are adolescents testing their powers. As we know the frontal cortex is not yet
fully developed until the early twenties and the rational part of the brain
that controls impulses is not activated, thus the hazing goes further than
originally intended. Universities are now attempting to curtail the culture of
extreme hazing.
When the hazing is harmless, the
manager should explain to the newcomer that it is typical, that he or she is
not being singled out, that it can be endured, and that membership will
eventually follow. Being forewarned will make the hazing bearable, perhaps even
fun.
Copyright © 2012. Natasha Josefowitz. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment