Understanding Organisational Socialisation

Introduction

Newcomers in organisations often experience uncertainty associated with new roles, tasks, and relationships, which are considered constitutionally stressful for individuals (Jackson et al., 1987). Responding to this phenomenon, along with the increasing mobility of employees, organisational socialisation, a process of reducing uncertainty-triggered stress so that newcomers can smoothly transition into their positions in the organisation, has become an important issue for companies (Bauer et al., 2007; Ellis et al., 2015). Regarding research studies, this essay will critically evaluate the development of our understanding of how socialisation helps newcomers to adjust themselves within organisations.

The Stage Models of Organisational Socialisation

First proposed by Feldman (1976), the stage models of organisational socialisation suggest that newcomers would undergo distinct stages when adjusting themselves to new positions. A review revealed that most stage models consist of three stages (Allen et al., 2017): (1) The anticipatory socialisation stage refers to the expectations the newcomers hold before entering the new organisation or role; (2) the encountering and accommodation stage involves learning and dealing with the discrepancies between expectations and realities; finally, (3) the role management stage suggests the complete integration of an individual to the new organisation or position (Feldman, 1976).

Despite the popularity of stage models, subsequent studies argued their generalizability to actual organisational settings (e.g., Fisher, 1986; Bauer et al., 1998). The major criticism of stage models was that they overemphasised the process of how newcomers adjust themselves, rather than focusing on ‘what’ they picked up that helps them overcome the uncertainties and discrepancies (Chao et al., 1994). Nonetheless, this early development of the understanding of organizational socialization served as a basis for the upcoming exploration of organizational tactics and helped shape the exploration of this realm in academic research (Allen et al., 2017).

Organisational Socialisation Tactics

Following the development of stage models, organisational tactics, the approaches that organisations utilise to assist the socialisation of newcomers (Jones, 1986), have been widely investigated. First introduced by Van Maanen and Schein (1979), the six sets of organisational tactics have been classified into three broad categories (Jones, 1986): Context tactics (i.e. sequential/random and fixed/variable tactics), content tactics (i.e., formal/informal and collective/single tactics), and social tactics (i.e., serial/disjunctive and investiture/divestiture tactics). Context tactics suggest whether newcomers are aware of the processes and stages of socialization they are going to undergo, while content tactics refer to whether newcomers are trained off the job (Bauer et al., 2007). Finally, social tactics feature organisations providing social support such as mentoring and granting positive feedback (Bauer et al., 2007).

To reduce uncertainty experienced in the early stage of organisational entry, organisational tactics were regarded to shape the type of information newcomers receive, while empirical evidence also supported the utilisation of the tactics (e.g., Saks et al., 2007). Nonetheless, researchers have argued that focusing too much on the structural side of socialisation might restrict our understanding of this concept (Saks & Gruman, 2012). Accordingly, Morrison (1993) called for the further exploration of the newcomers themselves, for individuals would also proactively engage and socialise themselves within the context.

Interactionist Perspective

With the gradual recognition of the effect of individual differences on socialisation, the interactionist perspective of socialisation has been proposed and discussed (Reichers, 1987). Not only striving to integrate both individual’s and organisation’s roles in socialisation, but the interactionist perspective also examines how individuals’ socialising tactics interact with that of organisations’ (Griffin et al., 2000).

Before exploring individual tactics, studies have found that individuals tend to engage in proactive behaviours when encountering ambiguous situations such as organisational entry (Wanberg & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2000). Aligning with this finding, studies have also suggested that a proactive personality is an important newcomer attribute that leads to better socialisation (e.g., Crant, 2000, Griffin et al., 2000). To illustrate, proactive behaviours were found associated with information seeking, a manner that helps employees better understand how the organisation operates (Bauer et al., 1998), through which individuals will be more confident in adjusting themselves within the organisation (Saks & Ashforth, 1997). In addition to information seeking, other individual tactics which help facilitate socialising were also identified and examined, including relationship building and positive framing (Ashford & Black, 1996).

Summary Interactionist Model of Organisational Socialisation

To explore how an individual’s proactivity interacts with organizational socialization tactics, which eventually contribute to a collective positive outcome, Bauer et al. (2007) proposed a summary interactionist model of organizational socialisation. In their study, they revealed that newcomer adjustment, a process through which newcomers’ uncertainty is reduced, mediates the effects of organisational and individual tactics (i.e. information seeking) on socialisation outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction and job performance; Bauer et al., 2007).

Previously, research often focused solely on the direct relationship between organisational tactics and newcomer adjustment (Saks & Ashforth, 1997). Responding to this limitation, Saks and Ashforth (1997) proposed a summary model showing that organisational socialisation tactics and information seeking served as antecedents of newcomer adjustment. Extending on their model, Bauer et al.’s (2007) model is a critical milestone for socialisation literature, for it not only integrated previous findings but incorporated the plausible distal outcomes into the model (Bauer & Erdogan, 2014). Influenced by both types of socialisation tactics, better newcomer adjustment implies a better understanding of the job demands (i.e., role clarity), greater confidence in one’s performance (i.e., self-efficacy), and feeling more socially connected to the group (i.e., social acceptance; Feldman, 1981; Bauer et al., 2007).

Regarding the implications, according to Bauer et al.’s (2007) meta-analysis, the model is generally supported, despite some insignificant relations between sub-facets (e.g., information seeking & social acceptance and role clarity & turnover intention). With the identification of different types of newcomer adjustment, organisations can work on specific aspects of adjustment to improve the socialisation process more effectively. For example, social tactics, the sub-category of organisational tactics, were found to have the strongest association with turnover intention (Saks et al., 2007), indicating that organisations are recommended to affirm the newcomers as insiders and set up role models or mentors to guide their adjusting process (Bauer et al., 2007).

Although the summary interactionist model of organisational socialisation is empirically supported, the lack of considering the newcomer stress appraisal process within the mechanism was a major concern (Ellis et al., 2015; Bauer & Erdogan, 2014). Recent studies have reiterated that the uncertainty for newcomers would inevitably result in stress (e.g., Ellis et al., 2015). While organisational socialisation is a process for reducing uncertainty, it is of significance to consider how individuals perceive and cope with stress in the socialising process.

Viewing Socialisation Through the Lenses of Stress

Responding to the need of considering the role of stress in organisational socialisation, recent studies have examined socialising process through a resource-based approach (e.g. Ellis et al., 2015; Cavanaugh et al., 2000). Demerouti et al. (2001) suggested that perceived stress results from the imbalance between demands (i.e., activities that require sustained efforts from individuals) and resources (i.e., aspects of the job that motivate employees’ growth or alleviate demands).

With organisational tactics and individual proactivity being identified as potential sources for newcomers, these sources are found to moderate newcomers’ stress appraisals when facing demands (Ellis et al., 2015). For example, demands may be perceived as a hindrance or opportunity by newcomers (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). If demand is considered as an opportunity, individuals will tend to engage in meeting the demand and seek resources; in contrast, if perceived as a hindrance, the specific demand will bring about mental or physical stress, urging individuals to conserve the resources (Ellis et al., 2015). Accordingly, the way an individual decides to conserve/seek relevant resources will affect their adjustment in the socialisation process and the subsequent adjustment-related outcomes (Bauer et al., 2021).

Acknowledging the impact of stress, a recent interactionist summary model of newcomer socialisation has incorporated hindrance and opportunity stressors as predictors of newcomer adjustment (Bauer & Erdogan, 2014).

Future Directions

Recently, it is revealed that providing newcomers with a positive impression upon onboarding is crucial (Boswell et al., 2009; Bauer et al., 2021). To illustrate, newcomers’ job satisfaction is found to peak at the initial phase of entry, followed by a decrease after the period (Boswell et al., 2009). Nonetheless, if a higher level of socialisation is implemented, although the decrease in satisfaction still exists, the level of newcomers’ job satisfaction is still notably higher than those with a lower level of socialisation (Boswell et al., 2009). Likewise, Bauer et al. (2021) suggested that having different resources (e.g., well-prepared workstation, provision of organisational knowledge, and establishment of relationships with managers) ready for the newcomers at the start could lead to positive early adjustment. Therefore, examining the impacts of the positive experiences in the early phase of socialisation may be a potential area for future research.

In addition, servant leadership, a moral form of leadership in which the goal of the leader is to serve and prioritise subordinates’ needs (Sendjaya et al., 2008), is found to moderate newcomers’ proactive behaviours and outcomes (Bauer et al., 2019). For individuals who have lower proactivity in seeking information, servant leaders could encourage those newcomers so that they would feel more confident in their roles and perceive themselves as a part of the organisation (Liden et al., 2014). By examining how different leadership styles influence socialisation, organisations could apply the findings to the selection of leaders who will be assigned to manage the newcomers and attain desirable outcomes for both newcomers and the organisation. Accordingly, with the promising findings of servant leadership’s effects on organisational socialisation, investigating the relationships of different forms of leadership and the variables within the socialisation mechanism is a direction worth further exploration.

Conclusion

By gaining more understanding of organisational socialisation, the process through which newcomers undergo learning and adjustment for better adaptation (Chao, 2012), appropriate organisational and individual tactics can be implemented to reduce the stress and uncertainty of newcomers upon arrival. With the development of relevant research, various mechanisms such as stage models and interactionist-perspective models have been proposed and refined, which collectively contribute to our knowledge in organizational socialisation and indicate further directions (i.e., stress-perspective and the effects of leadership style) for continued study.