PRP: Artefact#6: Newbie Integration Development

The Effectivenes of an Organizational-level Orientation Training Program in the Socialisation of New Hires

"employees attending the orientation training were significantly more socialised on 3 of the 6 socialisation content dimensions(goals/values, history and people)"

"the people dimensuin of socialisation which was significantly related to the orientation attendance[...] having a better understanding of the history, traditions and values of the organisation may have helped new employees engage coworkers in discussion, join in on others conversations, and be more quickley accepted"


SOCIALIZATION TACTICS AND NEWCOMER INFORMATION ACQUISITION by
Alan M. Saks* and Blake E. Ashforth
"According to Miller and Jablin (1991) newcomers' acquisition of information might be strongly affected by the way the organization socializes newcomers. In fact, in a study on the antecedents of newcomers' communication behaviour, Mignerey, Rubin and Gorden (1995) found a direct positive link between institutionalized socialization tactics and information/feedback-seeking behaviour. Thus, newcomers' opportunities to acquire information during socialization might depend on socialization tactics. Therefore, if one of the major functions of socialization is to provide newcomers with information (Louis 1980) it is important to understand how this is most likely to happen."

"feedback and observation). According to Mignerey et al. (1995) institutionalized socialization tactics `provide a structure that enables newcomers to communicate more readily with coworkers and superiors. With such a structure in place, newcomers are better able to obtain information about the organization and reduce the uncertainty associated with assimilation into a new work environment' (p. 77). Thus, institutionalized socialization tactics are predicted to be related to more frequent information acquisition because they provide newcomers with formalized and structured opportunities to interact with insiders, whereas individualized socialization is more informal and reflects a relative absence of structure (Ashforth et al. 1996). With individualized socialization, newcomers may have little or no access to other newcomers and insiders, at least not through formal or structured mechanisms. On the other hand, newcomers who experience a collective (versus individual) socialization are likely to have more formalized opportunities to interact with other newcomers and to observe and acquire information from them. Serial (versus disjunctive) socialization can be expected to provide newcomers with more formal and structured opportunities to interact with and observe coworkers and supervisors who have experience in the newcomer's role (Ashforth and Saks 1996). Thus, because institutionalized socialization tactics involve more information-laden experiences (Allen and Meyer 1990; Jones 1986) provide newcomers with formal opportunities to work with and interact with insiders, and reflect a more structured programme of socialization (Ashforth et al. 1996; Mignerey et al. 1995)"