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1 – 10 of over 12000The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that influence employees' organizational identification. Focusing on the banking industry in Taiwan, this study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that influence employees' organizational identification. Focusing on the banking industry in Taiwan, this study aims to examine how locus of control and organizational socialization affect employees' organizational identification.
Design/methodology/approach
The author borrows and modifies scales from the literature on locus of control, organizational socialization, and organizational identification to create a questionnaire that was translated into Chinese and distributed to bankers in Taiwan. The author analyzes reliability of the scales and performs regression analysis on hypothesized model relationships.
Findings
Significant positive relationships are found between locus of control and organizational socialization, locus of control and organizational identification, and organizational socialization and organizational identification. Organizational socialization has mediating influences on locus of control and organizational identification.
Research limitations/implications
This research is a starting point in developing theory related to the relationships among locus of control, organizational socialization, and organizational identification. The research is based on data from Taiwan banking employees only and the sample was small (even though results were significant).
Originality/value
The research empirically demonstrates that locus of control influences organizational socialization and identification.
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The purpose of this paper is to look into the theories regarding leadership, organizational culture, and organizational socialization and the theory that some aspects of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look into the theories regarding leadership, organizational culture, and organizational socialization and the theory that some aspects of socialization (e.g. employee enthusiasm for, or lack of, cooperation) can influence an organization's culture.
Design/methodology/approach
Via questionnaire, 166 employees from a variety of organizations evaluated their leaders and companies on all variables. Correlation and regression analyses were employed.
Findings
Correlations revealed leader behaviors to be more control‐oriented in bureaucratic culture; and more flexible‐oriented in innovative culture; but, contrary to expectations, more control‐oriented in supportive culture. Regressions confirmed these results and revealed that both leadership and socialization explained significant variance in all cultures. The leadership behaviors were also differentially associated with the socialization content domains, supporting most but refuting some aspects of organization theory.
Research limitations/implications
The unexpected finding of highly control‐oriented leader behaviors in supportive culture suggests the need for more research in this area.
Practical implications
A need for more flexible leader behaviors in certain organizational cultures was found. Leadership behaviors needing development in regard to socialization were likewise revealed. Also found, were aspects of socialization content that need more management attention in all three types of organizational cultures examined.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical analysis of the interrelationships among the organizational socialization content areas, leadership behavior, and organizational culture.
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Elena P. Antonacopoulou and Wolfgang H. Güttel
Socialization is one of the fundamental processes that define how collectivities emerge. Socialization underpins the social structures that shape not only how social actors…
Abstract
Purpose
Socialization is one of the fundamental processes that define how collectivities emerge. Socialization underpins the social structures that shape not only how social actors interact in community but also the boundaries of action and the rules of engagement. In the context of organizations, socialization is a process that significantly shapes organization in the way core practices shape how things are done and why they are done in particular ways. This emphasis on consistency within and between practices is seen to be greatly facilitated by specific practices like staff induction. The purpose of this paper is to review the current conceptual and empirical research on staff induction as a process of organizational socialization and outlines some of the areas for future research particularly if a social practice perspective is adopted.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a systematic review of the relevant literature on organizational socialization and staff induction and outlines themes to which the debate can usefully be extended.
Findings
This paper focuses on how staff induction practices provide valuable insights about how social agents (especially newcomers) get socialized in organizations.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides a foundation for the various staff induction practices that other papers in this issue will be presenting. By outlining the current debate and insights from previous empirical research on staff induction, the objective is to extend the debate by outlining some new avenues for research that papers in the special issue both respond to and further explicate.
Originality/value
This paper explores staff induction and organizational socialization as a practice that can provide new insights into the dynamics of social interaction within organizations.
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Xiaoman Zhou, Yaou Hu, Yaoqi Li and Biyan Wen
Promoting interns’ organizational socialization has become an urgent concern for the hotel industry. Building on career construction theory, this study aims to use a time-lagged…
Abstract
Purpose
Promoting interns’ organizational socialization has become an urgent concern for the hotel industry. Building on career construction theory, this study aims to use a time-lagged design to investigate the interrelationships among perceived organizational support (POS), psychological capital and organizational socialization and their consequent effects on interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data were obtained in three waves from hotel interns from 21 upscale hotels located in 13 cities in China with a time lag of 10 weeks (N = 369). The structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.
Findings
POS has a significantly positive effect on interns' psychological capital. Additionally, both POS and psychological capital contribute to the intention to stay in the hotel industry through the mediation of organizational socialization.
Practical implications
Hotels should communicate with interns more explicitly, provide assistance programs to alleviate uncertainty and reward interns on their excellent service performance to improve POS. Moreover, setting up psychological capital programs and empowering interns to be involved in task development is beneficial for enhancing psychological capital. Hotels should also consider mentoring as a socialization approach. Further, career planning and counseling programs should be provided for interns’ long-term hospitality career development.
Originality/value
A time-lagged research method is adopted to provide a new approach to improve interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry from the interactionist perspective. This study enriches research about psychological capital, POS and organizational socialization.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify extant training needs for preparing supervisors to support newcomers’ organizational socialization and to develop a research agenda…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify extant training needs for preparing supervisors to support newcomers’ organizational socialization and to develop a research agenda concerning aspects that conduce to making supervisors efficacious in the process of organizational socialization.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the literature on the development of socialization agents for organizational socialization generally indicates that relatively minimal research has been undertaken on this topic. Most articles have focused on the effects of organizational socialization on other variables – such as newcomers’ work outcomes, turnover intention and organizational commitment. The review was conducted in light of this phenomenon. It is based on the structured literature review method, per Rocco, Stein and Lee (2003).
Findings
Supervisor training is suggested as a means for enhancing organizational socialization. However, supervisor training is not often studied in organizational socialization research. Therefore, the verification of the impact of supervisor training on organizational socialization is required. Given the proposed research agenda, identifying the impact of supervisor training on different areas of organizational socialization domains and inspiring increased interest on supervisor training as an effective program for organizational socialization are logical outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The concept of socialization is used in broad areas of research, such as education, military and engineering. However, it was reviewed here vis-à-vis human resource development (HRD). Therefore, the focus was on the notion of organizational socialization, which is appropriate for employee training development. The concept of organizational socialization in this paper, therefore, was delimited, as it failed to include all meanings of socialization. This paper sought to review all studies related to organizational socialization. However, some research was not considered and, thus, not discussed in this paper. This was because of time and resource constraints. The author sorted previous studies by personal standards and, thus, may have inadvertently included non-germane or excluded relevant citations.
Practical implications
Supervisory training for organizational socialization can be proposed as a potential area for leading to an effective organizational socialization program. So HRD professionals should study further about the topic and develop such programs. Increased attention on supervisor training for organizational socialization may increase the number and quality of supervisor training programs. Such studies would augment HRD professionals’ knowledge about organizational socialization and eventually enhance performance in organizations.
Social implications
This paper can expand the area in which social learning theory can be applied. According to Bandura and Walters (1977), the social learning theory posits that learning new behaviors can usually be acquired by observing and imitating others. This implies that newcomers emulate other organizational members to adapt to the organization and their assigned roles. In this process, supervisors can play a key role through showing them the appropriate behaviors, supporting their learning and providing appropriate feedback. Presumably, then, new employees may perform better if supervisors receive training on crucial socialization efforts.
Originality/value
Significantly, socialization agents are uniquely situated to greatly impact the organizational socialization process of newcomers. Among the socialization agents, supervisors garner enormous influence on newcomers’ organizational socialization. However, relatively few studies investigated the training of supervisors for organizational socialization.
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Ruth C. King, Weidong Xia, James Campbell Quick and Vikram Sethi
This study examined how six institutionalized socialization tactics affect a particular occupation of knowledge workers – information technology (IT) professionals' role…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined how six institutionalized socialization tactics affect a particular occupation of knowledge workers – information technology (IT) professionals' role adjustment (role conflict and role ambiguity) and organizational attachment variables (job satisfaction, affective commitment, continuance commitment and intention to quit).
Design/methodology/approach
The research model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis techniques with survey data collected from 187 recently hired IT professionals.
Findings
The results showed that the six socialization tactics affected IT professionals differently. Socialization tactics that recognize employees' values and skills (investiture tactics) and that emphasize the interpersonal and mentoring aspects (serial tactics) had the most significant effects on employees' role adjustment and organizational attachment. The study also revealed complex mediating relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights about the differential effects of the various socialization tactics on IT professionals' role adjustment and organizational attachment. It also sheds light on the complex mediating relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables. Without considering the logical relationships between the various variables, studies examining the direct effects of socialization on isolated organizational outcome variables may overlook important linkages that are critical for explaining the inconsistent results in past empirical studies.
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Tará Lopez and Amy McMillan‐Capehart
The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the importance of organizational culture and organizational socialization as controls for business‐to‐business salespeople.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the importance of organizational culture and organizational socialization as controls for business‐to‐business salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
Organization theory suggests that social forms of control can be an effective influence on salesperson activities and behaviors. Based on organization theory, the paper presents a typology of social control combinations and offers propositions to guide future research.
Findings
It is suggested that different combinations of organizational culture and socialization moderate the relationship between person‐organization fit and relevant outcomes such that, under various social control environments, creativity is greater, salesperson performance is higher, and salespeople are less likely to leave the firm and will experience greater job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The primary limitation is that it is conceptual in nature. Despite this, arguments presented herein support that socialization activities set the stage for salespeople's attitudes, behaviors, and performance, while organizational culture can reinforce or undermine the firm's socialization efforts. This provides the necessary foundation for future empirical research applying organizational theory to salesperson control.
Practical implications
Salespeople remain the driving force for revenue generation for many business‐to‐business firms. Sales managers are challenged with the task of directing salespeople to meet organizational objectives. However, based on organizational theory, traditional control methods may be less effective because of the unique characteristics of the business‐to‐business sales position. The research suggests that the organizational culture and the socialization tactics used by the sales manager can be tools that sales managers can use to control and direct the activities of salespeople.
Originality/value
Previous research has focused predominantly on outcome‐ and behavior‐based controls for business‐to‐business salespeople and has largely overlooked the potential influence of social controls such as organizational culture and organizational socialization. This research fills that gap.
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Sarah B. Lueke and Daniel J. Svyantek
The socialization process of expatriates into their host country organizational culture has been largely ignored in the expatriate literature. This paper reviews the expatriate…
Abstract
The socialization process of expatriates into their host country organizational culture has been largely ignored in the expatriate literature. This paper reviews the expatriate literature for the best employee and organizational results. For the most part, socialization tactics of the organization and information seeking of the individual have been overlooked as factors in the success of expatriates. We propose that combining knowledge gained through research in these two areas is essential in gaining a theoretical understanding of expatriate turnover. The Attraction‐Selection‐Attrition (ASA) model of how organizational culture is transmitted across organizational members is discussed. This model is used to demonstrate how the socialization of expatriates can benefit both the organization and the individual.
Gregory A. Cranmer, Zachary W. Goldman and Jeffery D. Houghton
The purpose of this paper is to explore newcomers as active participants within their own socialization, through the influence of self-leadership on proactivity and subsequently…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore newcomers as active participants within their own socialization, through the influence of self-leadership on proactivity and subsequently organizational socialization and organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected from 193 organizational newcomers (i.e. individuals within their first year at an organization) working in a variety of industries were examined within three serial mediation models in PROCESS.
Findings
The results of these analyses suggest that self-leadership influences organizational newcomers’ adjustment and subsequent commitment by assisting them in seeking organizational resources.
Research limitations/implications
This study answers calls to explore both the mediating mechanisms through which self-leadership processes influence organizational outcomes and the complex relationships between human workplace interactions and the proximal and distal outcomes of socialization.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that organizational stakeholders should enhance the self-leadership abilities of newcomer, thereby easing the socialization burden on organizations.
Originality/value
This paper offers a novel framework (i.e. self-leadership) for understanding newcomer socialization and provides an encompassing model that recognizes individual capacities, communicative behaviors, adjustment and subsequent organizational attitudes.
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This study examines how newcomers use colleagues as role models in organizational socialization, taking a multiple level approach to organizational socialization as individual…
Abstract
This study examines how newcomers use colleagues as role models in organizational socialization, taking a multiple level approach to organizational socialization as individual, social and cultural learning processes. The newcomers' most important personal characteristics are expectations, experience, self‐confidence and competitive instinct. These personal characteristics were affected by early experience during the first four to six weeks in their new job. The study shows not only the correlation between early experience and personal characteristics, but also reveals a strong correlation between early experience and organizational socialization outcome. Newcomers rely on role models, and as a result of interaction and observation they acquire different qualifications from several role models. The term “multiple contingent role models” is introduced to explain how newcomers use role models.
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