Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:24:30.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of work group context and information seeking in newcomer socialization: An interactionist perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2015

Wen-Chi Zou ,
Qing Tian  and
Jia Liu
Wen-Chi Zou
Affiliation:
School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China
Qing Tian*
Affiliation:
School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China
Jia Liu
Affiliation:
Department of General Education Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined how information seeking and proximal adjustment outcomes (role clarity and social integration) mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and distal adjustment outcome (affective organizational commitment) in work group context. The results of hierarchical linear modeling involving 212 newcomers and their 53 immediate supervisors revealed that information seeking mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and proximal adjustment outcomes. These in turn were positively related to distal adjustment outcome. Furthermore, work group structure was found to moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and newcomer information seeking.

Keywords

transformational leadershipnewcomerinformation seekingadjustmentwork group structure
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 159 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Allen, D. G. (2006). Do organizational socialization tactics influence newcomer embeddedness and turnover? Journal of Management, 32(2), 237–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1), 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, T. D., & Rush, M. C. (1998). The effects of organizational citizenship behavior on performance judgments: A field study and a laboratory experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2), 247–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, M. L., & Schminke, M. (2003). Work group structure as a moderator of the relationship between procedural justice, interactional justice, perceived organizational support, and supervisory trust. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 295–305.Google Scholar
Anderson, N., & Cooper-Thomas, H. D. C. (1996). Work group socialization. In M. A. West (Ed.), Handbook of work groups (pp. 423–450). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Antonakis, J., & Atwater, L. E. (2002). Leader distance: A review and proposed theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(6), 673–704.Google Scholar
Ashford, S. J., & Black, J. S. (1996). Proactivity during organizational entry: The role of desire for control. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(2), 199–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Saks, A. M., & Lee, R. T. (1998). Socialization and newcomer adjustment: The role of organizational context. Human Relations, 51(7), 897–926.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Sluss, D. M., & Harrison, S. H. (2007). Socialization in organizational contexts. In G. P. Hodgkinson, & J. K. Ford (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 22, pp. 1–70). Sussex, England: Wiley.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Sluss, D. M., & Saks, A. M. (2007). Socialization tactics, proactive behavior, and newcomer learning: Integrative socialization models. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70(3), 447–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B, Truxillo, D. M., & Tucker, J. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 707–721.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bauer, T. N., & Green, S. G. (1998). Testing the combined effects of newcomer information seeking and manager behavior on socialization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(1), 72–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, T. N., Morrison, E. W., & Callister, R. R. (1998). Socialization research: A review and directions for future research. In G. R. Ferris, & K. M. Rowland (Eds.), Research in personnel and human resource management (vol. 16, pp. 149–214). Greenwich, CT: JAI.Google Scholar
Bliese, P. D. (2000). Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. In K. J. Klein, & S. W. Kozlowski (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations (pp. 349–381). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.Google Scholar
Bono, J., & Judge, T. (2003). Self-concordance at work: Toward understanding the motivational effects of transformational leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), 554–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brislin, R. W. (1986). The wording and translation of research instruments. In W. Lonner, & J. Berry (Eds.), Field methods in cross-cultural research (pp. 137–164). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Chan, D., & Schmitt, N. (2000). Interindividual differences in intraindividual changes in proactivity during organizational entry: A latent growth modeling approach to understanding newcomer adaptation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(2), 190–210.Google Scholar
Chen, G., & Bliese, P. D. (2002). The role of different levels of leadership in predicting self- and collective efficacy: Evidence for discontinuity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 549–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, X. P., & Farh, J. L. (1999). The effectiveness of transactional and transformational leader behaviors in Chinese organizations: Evidence from Taiwan. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL. August, 1999.Google Scholar
Cooper-Thomas, H. D., & Anderson, N. (2006). Organizational socialization: A new theoretical model and recommendations for future research and HRM practices in organizations. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(5), 492–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper-Thomas, H. D., Anderson, N., & Cash, M. L. (2012). Investigating organizational socialization: A fresh look at newcomer adjustment strategies. Personnel Review, 41(1), 41–55.Google Scholar
Den Hartog, D. N., & Belschak, F. D. (2012). When does transformational leadership enhance employee proactive behavior? The role of autonomy and role breadth self-efficacy. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 194–202.Google Scholar
Donaldson, L. (1996). The normal science of structural contingency theory. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 57–76). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Francesco, A. M., & Chen, Z. X. (2004). Collectivism in action: Its moderating effects on the relationship between organizational commitment and employee performance in China. Group and Organization Management, 29(4), 425–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, S. G., Anderson, S. E., & Shivers, S. L. (1996). Demographic and organizational influences on leader–member exchange and related work attitudes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 66(2), 203–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, A. E. C., Colella, A., & Goparaju, S. (2000). Newcomer and organizational socialization tactics: An interactionist perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 10(4), 453–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruman, J. A., Saks, A. M., & Zweig, D. I. (2006). Organizational socialization tactics and newcomer proactive behaviors: An integrative study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 90–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, A. F., Preacher, K. J., & Myers, T. A. (2011). Mediation and the estimation of indirect effects in political communication research. In E. P. Bucy, & R. Lance Holbert (Eds.), Sourcebook for political communication research: Methods, measures, and analytical techniques (pp. 434–465). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755–768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., Livingston, B. A., & Liao, H. (2011). Perceived similarity, proactive adjustment, and organizational socialization. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78(2), 225–236.Google Scholar
Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., & Wanberg, C. R. (2003). Unwrapping the organizational entry process: Disentangling multiple antecedents and their pathways. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 779–794.Google Scholar
Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003). The two faces of transformational leadership empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 246–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., & Bolger, N. (1998). Data analysis in social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 233–265). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Kim, T. Y., Cable, D. M., & Kim, S. P. (2005). Socialization tactics, employee proactivity, and person-organization fit. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(2), 232–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirkman, B. L., Chen, G., Farh, J. L., Chen, Z. X., & Lowe, K. B. (2009). Individual power distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 744–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Bell, B. S. (2003). Work groups and teams in organizations. In W. C. Borman, D. R. Ilgen, & R. J. Klimoski (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 333–375). London: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Hattrup, K. (1992). A disagreement about within-group agreement: Disentangling issues of consistency versus consensus. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(2), 161–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Klein, K. J. (2000). A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes. In K. J. Klein, & S. W. J. Kozlowski (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations: Foundations, extensions, and new directions (pp. 3–90). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
LeBreton, J. M., & Senter, J. L. (2008). Answers to 20 questions about interrater reliability and interrater agreement. Organizational Research Methods, 11(4), 815–852.Google Scholar
Li, N., Harris, T. B., Boswell, W. R., & Xie, Z. T. (2011). The role of organizational insiders’ developmental feedback and proactive personality on newcomers’ performance: An interactionist perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(6), 1317–1327.Google Scholar
Little, T. D., Cunningham, W. A., Shahar, G., & Widaman, K. F. (2002). To parcel or not to parcel? Exploring the question, weighing the merits. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 151–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madzar, S. (2001). Subordinates’ information inquiry: Exploring the effect of perceived leadership style and individual differences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74(2), 221–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreland, R. L., Levine, J. M., & McMinn, J. G. (2001). Self-categorization and work group socialization. In M. Hogg, & D. Terry (Eds.), Social identity processes in organizational contexts (pp. 87–100). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Morrison, E. W. (1993a). Longitudinal study of the effects of information seeking on newcomer socialization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(2), 173–183.Google Scholar
Morrison, E. W. (1993b). Newcomer information seeking: Exploring types, modes, sources, and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 36(3), 557–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, E. W. (2002a). Newcomers’ relationships: The role of social network ties during socialization. Academy of Management Journal, 45(6), 1149–1160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, E. W. (2002b). Information seeking within organizations. Human Communication Research, 28(2), 229–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, E. W., & Vancouver, J. B. (2000). Within-person analysis of information seeking: The effects of perceived costs and benefits. Journal of Management, 26(1), 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Napier, B. J., & Ferris, G. R. (1993). Distance in organizations. Human Resource Management Review, 3(4), 321–357.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 1(2), 107–142.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Bommer, W. H. (1996). Transformational leader behavior and substitutes for leadership as determinants of employee satisfaction, commitment and trust, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Management, 22(2), 259–298.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. C., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.Google Scholar
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Reichers, A. E. (1987). An interactionist perspective on newcomer socialization rates. Academy of Management Review, 12(2), 278–287.Google Scholar
Saks, A. M., Gruman, J. A., & Cooper-Thomas, H. D. (2011). The neglected role of proactive behavior and outcomes in newcomer socialization. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), 36–46.Google Scholar
Saks, A. M., Uggerslev, K. L., & Fassina, N. E. (2007). Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A meta-analytic review and test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70(3), 413–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slevin, D. P., & Covin, J. G. (1997). Strategy formation patterns, performance, and the significance of context. Journal of Management, 23(2), 189–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, J. W., Tsui, A. S., & Law, K. S. (2009). Unpacking employee responses to organizational exchange mechanisms: The role of social and economic exchange perceptions. Journal of Management, 35(1), 56–93.Google Scholar
Sun, L. Y., & Pan, W. (2011). Market orientation, intrapreneurship behavior, and organizational performance: Test of a structural contingency model. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 18(2), 274–285.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J., & Schein, E. H. (1979). Toward a theory of organizational socialization. In B. M. Staw (Ed.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 209–264). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Walter, F., & Bruch, H. (2010). Structural impacts on the occurrence and effectiveness of transformational leadership: An empirical study at the organizational level of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(5), 765–782.Google Scholar
Wanberg, C. R., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2000). Predictors and outcomes of proactivity in the socialization process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 373–385.Google Scholar
Wang, H., Law, K. S, Hackett, R. D., Wang, D. X., & Chen, Z. X. (2005). Leader-member exchange as a mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 420–432.Google Scholar
Wang, X. H. F., & Howell, J. M. (2010). Exploring the dual-level effects of transformational leadership on followers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1134–1144.Google Scholar