New Don Assimilation into Organizational Culture: A Case Study of Nursing Faculty from Two Institutions of Higher Learning in Kenya

Abstract

Whereas expert clinical nurses were needed to fill nurse educator vacancies, academia had fairly different requirements, expectations and responsibilities as compared to clinical practice. The transition from the industry to academia could come as a shock to some. Theassimilation ofnew faculty into organizational culture often left long lasting impressions. Aim:The study explores the nuanced dynamics the new faculty goes through before settling Objectives:(a) To examine the respondent’s lived experiences within their nursing programs as novice nursing faculty. (b) To capture the respondent’s lived experiences as new nursing faculty in relation the ‘Assimilation Theory and Organizational Culture’. Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive qualitative study that utilizes theory as a guide while looking at how the new nursing faculties got assimilated into their workplace in two institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Results:Shown that it was challenging for those transitioning from nursing practice to nursing academia. New nursing faculties were expected to understand and adapt to the work environment in the university as soon as possible. Anyhowly, they were expected to ‘hit the ground running’. Experiences varied from: ‘disillusionment’, ‘culture shock’ through to ‘loss of identity’ to ‘what did I get myself into?’ among others. Conclusion & recommendation: New faculty needed help in order to make positive social change, but the reality from this study was that a good number of faculties had a less than smooth transition.