The supportive side of organisational socialisation: how it boosts employee commitment

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of organisational socialisation tactics, namely, context-based, content-based and social-based tactics, on affective commitment by the mediating role of perceived organisational support.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative study was conducted using a judgmental sample of 119 newcomers with one-year experience or less in Jordanian small and medium-sized enterprises. The collected data were analysed using bootstrapped procedure by the partial least squares-structural equation modelling.

Findings

The empirical results show that perceived organisational support plays a crucial role in mediating the relationships between socialisation tactics and affective commitment. Specifically, both social-based tactics and content-based tactics have a significant indirect effect on affective commitment through perceived organisational support. However, context-based tactics do not directly or indirectly influence affective commitment or perceived organisational support significantly.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first studies in the Jordanian context that investigate the relationship between organisational socialisation and affective commitment by the mediating role of perceived organisational support, thus adding originality to the existing literature. Furthermore, this study contributes to the scholarly debate on the relationship between socialisation and outcomes.

Citation

Awwad, M.S., Abuzaid, A.N., Al-Okaily, M. and Alqatamin, Y.M. (2023), "The supportive side of organisational socialisation: how it boosts employee commitment", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2023-3742