A Relational View of Organizational Socialization: Newcomers' Experiences of Learning on the Job. Refereed Paper

An important episode in workplace learning is the socialization of newly hired people into the organization quickly and effectively. Typically, the organization sciences literature conceptualizes the socialization of new employees as a learning process whereby the newcomer is responsible for learning to fit into the organization. Not only must newcomers learn the tasks of their jobs, they must also learn the procedures of the work group, the expectations of managers, and the culture of the organization. This perspective seems to underestimate the social influences of coworkers and managers. Social exchange theories (e.g., leader-member exchange) identify the quality of the relationships between supervisors and subordinates in organizations as a foundational dimension moderating the quality of other interactions, such as learning and working. This paper explains the findings of a recent study of organizational socialization from a relational perspective describing compelling evidence that relationship building is a primary driver of the socialization process in organizations. Results of this qualitative, case study explore and explain the socialization process experienced by new engineers recently hired into a large, global manufacturing company based in the U.S. There were two primary findings: (a) relationship building was a primary driver of the socialization process and (b) the work group was the primary context for socialization. These findings indicated that the quality of relationships formed between the newcomer and his or her coworkers and managers mediated the quality of learning and integration into the organization. Furthermore, the quality of the socialization process experienced by newcomers varied by work group—from high to low. These findings provided the evidence used to elaborate current views of socialization into a relational view of socialization, along with implications for Human Resource Development.