Socialization tactics: Antecedents for goal interdependence and newcomer adjustment and retention

Individual characteristics on multicultural team performance: does the role played by leaders and team members matter?

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of individual characteristics of cultural sensitivity, adaptability, cohesion, and cultural diversity on the multicultural team performance. Also, we analyzed the moderating effect of being a team member or a team leader on the relationships mentioned above. To test out hipotheses, data were collected from 415 members of multicultural teams specifically, from 304 team members and 111 leaders. The findings provided evidence to support a positive relationship between cultural sensitivity, adaptability, cohesion, and team performance. Cultural diversity did not show a significant impact on team performance. The study also showed that the leaders and members had different perceptions about the factors that influence team performance. For instance, team members consider that cohesion influences team performance, while leaders consider adaptability as the key factor to achieve performance. Main implications from findings are discussed.

Effect of Organizational Socialization of New Employees on Team Innovation Performance: A Cross-Level Model

Purpose

Based on the Social Information Processing Theory, a cross-level model was conducted to analyze the influence of new employees’ organizational socialization on team innovation performance via the mediating effect of employee voice behavior and the moderating effect of servant leadership.

Methods

Survey data were collected from 352 new employees and 88 leaders at two stages in major Chinese innovation companies. Samples were involved technology and development, production and operation, marketing and sales, and functional management departments. The software Mplus 7.0 and AMOS 22.0 were used to test the hypotheses.

Results

The cross-level results indicated that organizational socialization directly enhances new employee voice behavior and, accordingly, promotes team innovation performance. Additionally, servant leadership plays a moderating role between organizational socialization and prohibitive voice behavior but has no moderating effect on the relationship between organizational socialization and promotive voice behavior.

Conclusion

The results enrich the research on the influencing mechanism of organizational socialization on team innovation performance and provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for innovation enterprise leaders on how to promote team innovation performance.

The Moderating Effect of Acculturation Strategies on the Relationship Between Newcomer Adjustment and Employee Behavior

Acculturation begins when people find themselves in a cultural setting other than theirs, and to demonstrate acceptable behaviors, one of two strategies is adopted: adapting to the new environment or retain one's own culture. On the basis of these two, four strategies have been proposed. The current article examined the moderation effect of two of these acculturation strategies, integration and separation, on the relationship between newcomer adjustment, and work-related anxiety and turnover intentions. The study was in two folds, the first explored the moderation effect among new employees in general, notwithstanding their immediate past working experience; and the second part separated the sample based on two criteria: those prior to their current role were working in another firm (work-to-work employees) and those who just come directly from school (school-to-work employees). The sample was made up of 250 employees who had spent not less than 6 months and not more than 12 months in their current role, drawn from the private banking and insurance firms in Ghana. The PROCESS analysis of the data revealed that integration moderated the relationship between newcomer adjustment and work-related anxiety and turnover intentions among all samples. Separation moderated the relationships in all cases, but for the relationship between newcomer adjustment and turnover intentions in study 1 and among school-to-work employees. The evidence from this article points to the fact that the acculturation strategy that newcomers adopt has an effect on the relationship between their level of adjustment and some organizational outcomes; however, a slight difference exists if their immediate past engagement is considered.

Ethical leadership and newcomer adjustment: examining a moderated mediation model

Purpose

Substantial research has examined the pivotal role of ethical leadership in generating employee outcomes. To date, though, little is known about the relationship between ethical leadership and newcomers' adjustment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this gap by examining the effect of ethical leadership on newcomers' adjustment. In doing so, the authors highlighted positive emotions of newcomers as a mediating mechanism that explains the aforementioned association.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were drawn from a two-wave sample of 271 newcomers. The hypotheses were tested by using hierarchical regression analyses and Hayes' PROCESS macro.

Findings

The results demonstrated that ethical leadership affects employees' positive emotions which, in turn, positively relates to newcomers' adjustment. Additionally, newcomers' social comparison orientation moderated the effect of ethical leadership on newcomers' positive emotions.

Research limitations/implications

The research uses a correlational research design, making it difficult to derive causal inferences from the data. Moreover, the data we obtained on the variables were all based on employees' self-reports, which might inflate the relationship between some of the variables.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study that illustrates the role of ethical leadership in enhancing both newcomers’ positive emotions and adjustment.

Understanding the Consequences of Newcomer Integration Processes: The Sport Team Socialization Tactics Questionnaire

The ways in which newcomers are integrated into sport teams may have broad consequences for the athletes entering the group, as well as for the existing team members. Drawing from organizational socialization theory, the current research developed a questionnaire to assess athletes' perceptions of how newcomers are socialized into their group. Across four studies, think-aloud interviews (N = 8), an expert panel review (N = 6), cross-sectional tests of the factor structure (N_{Study 2} = 197; N_{Study 3} = 460), and a two-wave correlational design (N_{Study 4} = 194) were used to evaluate the construct validity and the internal consistency of the Sport Team Socialization Tactics Questionnaire (STSTQ). Collectively, these efforts identified a three-factor structure underlying the STSTQ and provided preliminary evidence for its validity. The STSTQ enables researchers to systematically examine the individual- and group-level consequences associated with the socialization tactics implemented in sport teams.

Facilitators and barriers to the assimilation of function-specific executives into senior management roles

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that might contribute to the ease with which marketing executives in UK charities who have been promoted to senior general management positions adjust to the occupancy of these roles.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 37 individuals with functional marketing backgrounds currently holding top general management positions in large fundraising charities were interviewed using a frame-worked occupational autobiographic narrative approach. The research was informed by aspects of newcomer adjustment theory, notably uncertainty reduction theory.

Findings

– Social and personal considerations were much more important determinants of the ease of assimilation into top management positions in charities than were technical job-related matters. Role ambiguity constituted the main barrier to smooth adjustment. Mentoring, planned induction programmes, the nature of a person’s past work experience and the individual’s social status critically affected how readily a marketer fitted into a top management role. Disparate sets of factors influenced different elements of managerial newcomer adjustment (role clarity, self-efficacy, and social acceptance).

Research limitations/implications

– As the participants in the study needed to satisfy certain narrowly defined criteria and to work in a single sector (large fundraising charities) the sample was necessarily small. It was not possible to explore the effects on operational performance of varying degrees of ease of newcomer adjustment.

Practical implications

– Individuals promoted to top management posts in charities should try psychologically to break with the past and should not be afraid of projecting a strong functional professional identity to their new peers. These recommendations can be expected to apply to organisations in general which, like large charities, need senior management mentoring and induction programmes to assist recently promoted individuals from function-specific backgrounds; job descriptions for top management posts that are clear and embody realistic expectations; and “shadowing” and training activities for newly appointed senior managers with function-specific backgrounds.

Originality/value

– The study is the first to apply newcomer adjustment theory to the assimilation of functional managers into more senior general management. It examines a broader range of potential variables affecting managerial newcomer adjustment than has previously been considered. Relevant issues are examined in the context of an important sector: fundraising charities.