Search results

The purpose of this paper is to promote the notion that an orientation plan and socialization to the culture of the organization are crucial components for the retention of library employees.

A review of selected literature was conducted from both within and outside librarianship to determine the relationship orientation and socialization have to retention.

Employee orientation is a multi‐stage process utilizing both formal and informal activities that help assist the employee to become part of the culture of any organization, including the library. A human resources program that includes well‐planned processes for recruitment, selection, orientation, socialization and retention will help a library be more competitive as librarians retire. Paying attention to these processes is increasingly important as we enter the period in which the baby boomer generation is moving toward retirement.

As baby‐boomer librarians retire, libraries should strive to maintain retention by improving current orientation practices and assisting with socialization to the organizational culture. The orientation process and retention can be improved by the use of checklists, the support of the immediate supervisor, and appointing a mentor.

The paper provides considerations that may assist planning approaches for libraries considering future staffing in a shrinking employment market.

Formal orientation programs play a potentially important role in newcomer adjustment, yet research aimed at understanding and improving the effects of these interventions has stagnated in recent years. The purpose of this chapter is to facilitate a redirection of researchers’ attention to such programs, and to suggest ways to integrate this body of research with recent developments in socialization and training literatures.

A work orientation represents a person’s beliefs about the meaning of work – the function work plays in the person’s life and the constellation of values and assumptions the person holds about the work domain. Research has suggested that adults tend to favor one of three primary work orientations: job, career, or calling. Empirical studies have shown that adults with different primary work orientations tend to experience different work and career outcomes; however, scholars have not analyzed how or why an individual first develops a work orientation. In this study, we take a first step toward investigating the origins of adults’ work orientations.

We propose hypotheses drawing on extant literature on the development of work values and occupational inheritance. We test hypotheses using a retrospective research design and survey methodology, with a sample of working adults.

Work orientations are developed through socialization processes with parents during adolescence. There are different patterns of development across the three work orientation categories: stronger calling orientations are developed when both parents possess strong calling orientations; stronger career orientations develop in accordance with fathers’ career orientations; and job orientations are related more to the nature of the adolescent’s relationship with parents than with parents’ own work orientations.

This research provides the first empirical study of the origin and development of work orientations.

This research offers insight into ways generations are connected through the perceived meaning of their work, even as the nature of work changes. We encourage future scholars to use this as a starting point for research on the development of work orientations, and to continue exploring these questions using additional methods, particularly longitudinal study designs.

The purpose of this study was to examine three different socialization tactics (social, context, and content) used by Lebanese commercial banks. A survey instrument was distributed to 115 newcomer employees. It was found that Lebanese commercial banks socialize their new employees to be effective members.

From the start, organizational socialization has been all about learning. In fact, most definitions of organizational socialization are very explicit about this and the general notion that socialization involves learning “the ropes” of a particular organizational role (Fisher, 1986). Socialization has been described as a sense-making and learning process in which newcomers acquire a variety of types of information and knowledge to become effective members of the organization (Klein & Weaver, 2000).

This study aims to contribute to the enrichment of the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Data on cross-cultural adjustment from expatriate employees in five banks that collectively accounted for over 80 per cent of Nigerian banks with subsidiaries in other African were systematically selected for the investigation. This data was collected quantitatively via a survey instrument. Independent sample t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were deployed in analyzing the data.

The study found that cross-cultural adjustment varied significantly across the different categories of gender, age, marital status, previous expatriate training, previous expatriate experience, and duration of expatriation. The study concludes that in order to attain higher levels of adjustment African banks and other organizations should provide a more comprehensive cross-cultural training program that mirrors the needs of employees following a detailed needs analysis. Also, the training must be sequential and not a one-off approach.

The literature though still nascent is largely focused on expatriate preparation and adjustment for expatriates moving from Western-to-western contexts and very little exists in the literature on how multinationals from Non-Western contexts like Africa prepare their staff for expatriation and its consequent impact on their adjustment. This study aims to enrich the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Although work engagement has become an important topic in management, relatively little attention has been given to newcomers’ work engagement in the socialization literature. The purpose of this paper is to explain how newcomers’ work engagement can fluctuate during the first year of organizational entry and the role of organizational socialization in developing and maintaining high levels of newcomers’ work engagement.

A review of the socialization literature indicates that uncertainty reduction theory has been the basis of research on socialization tactics and newcomer information-seeking both of which function by providing newcomers with information to reduce uncertainty. Socialization resources theory is used to develop a new pathway to newcomer socialization which focuses on providing newcomers with resources during the first year of organizational entry and socialization.

The uncertainty reduction pathway to newcomer socialization is narrow and limited because it primarily focuses on minimizing and reducing the negative effects of job demands rather than on providing newcomers with resources that are necessary to facilitate work engagement and socialization.

Organizations can use newcomers’ work engagement maintenance curves to map and track fluctuations in newcomers’ work engagement during the first year of organizational entry and they can conduct an audit of socialization resources to determine what resources are required to develop and maintain high levels of newcomers’ work engagement.

This paper describes newcomer work engagement maintenance curves and explains how socialization resources can be used to develop and maintain high levels of newcomers’ work engagement. A model of a new pathway to newcomer socialization is developed in which socialization resources, personal resources, and job demands influence newcomers’ work engagement and socialization outcomes.

This study aims to examine the antecedents of employee brand commitment (BC) and brand citizenship behaviours (BCB). In doing so, it also aims to propose a model which includes organisational socialisation, relationship orientation and employee receptiveness to explain the relationships between these three antecedents and BC and BCB.

A quantitative research methodology was adopted which resulted in the development of a self‐administered online survey instrument. As the population of interest was employees working in a service industry, a purposive sampling technique was adopted. Using a national database of service employees, a random sample of 2,000 e‐mail addresses was generated and respondents were invited to participate in the online survey. This resulted in the completion of 371 online surveys, representing a response rate of 19 per cent.

The findings revealed a significant positive effect between organisational socialisation and BCB, but not with BC. On the other hand, relationship orientation was found to have a significant positive effect on BC, but not BCB. Employee receptiveness was the only antecedent to have a strong positive effect on both BC and BCB.

Given the findings, it appears that individual employee factors are extremely important in understanding how employees feel about and behave in relation to their employer's brand. Just as the external market literature reports numerous links between individual factors (i.e. personality, values, motivation, etc.) of consumers and consumption‐related behaviour, the internal market literature will significantly benefit by adopting a similar line of enquiry in relation to employees. The acquisition of such knowledge will not only assist organisations in selecting “brand‐oriented” employees, but will also help them identify, develop and nurture future brand champions.

This study provides insight to managers that covet organisational success through the adoption of internal brand management practices. In particular, it empirically validates the significance of the receptivity of employees in enhancing not only their commitment to the brand but the exhibition of “pro” brand behaviours as well. Without employees that are first receptive to organisational dialogue, the intentions of internal brand management initiatives are unlikely to be realised.

This study provides empirical evidence of the antecedents of employee brand commitment and subsequent brand behaviour. In doing so, it highlights the need to understand the pre‐existing individual factors that employees bring to the employment exchange table, given that they significantly influence the way in which employees feel about and behave in relation to their employer's brand.

In the last twenty years, the women’s movement has resulted in a greater representation of women in once male-dominated venues, such as the job force and higher education. Women currently represent nearly 43% of those in the United States labor market, and it is expected that four in every five women ages 25–54 will be employed by the year 2000 (Hoyt, 1988; U.S. Department of Labor, 1995). Despite women’s increasing participation in the world of work, they continue to choose occupations that represent the stereotypically feminine range of occupations, meaning less pay and less status (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987). For example, women are still underrepresented in engineering, architecture, and the physical sciences (Eccles, 1994; U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, 1995). These gender-based occupational patterns are also evidenced in college enrollment; women continue to comprise the majority in academic majors that are considered traditionally feminine, such as early childhood, elementary, and secondary education, library science, nursing, and home economics, whereas men are the predominant majors in physics, chemistry, architecture, and engineering (Bartholomew & Schnorr, 1994; National Science Foundation, 1990).

The purpose of this paper is to find industry wise differences in relationship between onboarding experience (OE) and turnover intention (TI). An attempt has been made to find the intervening role of psychological variables such as locus of control and self-efficacy.

An online questionnaire was administered to 596 newcomers in five industrial sectors: fast-moving consumer goods, information technology (IT), pharmaceuticals, automobile manufacturing, and hospitality. The questionnaire measured the constructs of locus of control, self-efficacy, perceived OE, and TI.

Inverse relationship was found between perceived OE and TI. There is a significant positive relationship between motivation-based self-efficacy and TI which is mediated through OE. Affective self-efficacy moderates the impact of OE on TI, such that for individuals with low efficacy the inverse relationship between OE and TI is strong, but for individuals with high self-efficacy the relationship between the two variables is direct. The OE in automobile manufacturing industries is significantly higher than other industries. TI is significantly higher in IT and hospitality industries. Exploratory factor analysis of the instrument on OE led to extraction of four factors. Based on socialization resource theory, they were termed as orientation, socialization, task characteristics and leadership. Aspects of socialization and leadership are most significant factors in determining TI across industrial sectors, whereas in case of the hospitality and automobile manufacturing sector it was found that better the task characteristics higher is the chance of TI.

There are limited studies linking various aspects of OE with TI across industries, especially in the Indian context. So, this will be the unique contribution of this research.