Physicians Are People After All: Effective Organizational Socialization

Of all professional organizations, medical groups may have the most difficulty socializing newcomers. After a person completes college, an additional 7 to12 years of technical education is required to become licensed and achieve specialty certification in the United States. Although the technical training in medicine is intense and comprehensive, physicians rarely receive training in group dynamics or guidance on how to integrate into a group practice let alone a complex healthcare system. Prolonged or ineffective integration can cause increased dissatisfaction, increased physician turnover, and waste resources that might have been used to deliver health care. The loss of a single physician from a medical group costs approximately $300,000 in expenses not related to direct healthcare and unnecessary use of medical resources. Understanding how to mitigate these problems would be valuable to all medical organizations as increasing numbers of people gain access to medical care and more physicians join healthcare systems because of healthcare reform and the efficiencies of group practice.

This presentation will discuss results from a survey study that suggests that the participants gained traits such as understanding how to effect change without disruption, taking on ownership of problems in the workplace, assuming leadership without formal appointment into a leadership position. Further, the participants of the program had increased job satisfaction, developed strong social networks, developed strong social and organizational identity - all indicators of decreased intention to leave an organization. These results confirm the value of an organization investing time and resources in the organizational socialization of newcomers into a complex healthcare system.

The value to an organization of newcomers, who have been socialized quickly with minimal ambiguity and conflict, is inestimable. Knowing they are valued and supported by their organization is a critical part of a newcomers’ socialization. The socialization program examined in this study appears to have been successful in creating that knowledge. The result is a decreased likelihood of turnover, which benefits patients, physicians and the organization, mitigation of poor integration experiences, and the development of informal leadership responsibilities because of participation in the program.