Influences on Newcomers' Adjustment Tactic Use

Onboarding Handbook: An Indispensable Tool for Onboarding Processes

Onboarding handbooks constitute a very important and powerful tool in the socialization and integration processes of recruits implemented by Human Resources. As companies compete to thrive in global markets, the attraction and retention of employees have been given much attention in recent years. One of the strategies developed by companies to achieve this goal are the so-called Onboarding Handbooks given to newcomers, serving as a means of facilitating workers’ integration into the everyday processes of the company. As a consolidated research area, many HR studies have been developed around these subjects, as these manuals have been proven to be important tools in the socialization process of the former candidate, now entering the organisational culture of a given enterprise. A literature review was developed according to the main variables of the study of Organisational Socialization processes, strategies, and methods, with special emphasis on the onboarding book. To find out if these manuals correspond to the relevant literature of HR, eight of the onboarding handbooks from several public and private organizations have been analysed following the proposed structure of onboarding handbooks presented in the literature review. In addition, purposeful sampling was followed and content analysis on the handbooks was developed. The paper’s contributions are twofold: (a) the authors suggest a complete and up-to-date structure for the contents of onboarding books to be applied by HR managers and (b) compare its structure to several manuals of different enterprises from various sectors of the Portuguese economy. Findings show that the onboarding book remains an important tool and facilitator of organisational integration. Although, the onboarding processes are changing, and even the format of the onboarding books can become different (digital or not), their contents are essential for the socialization of newcomers and a means to organisational culture dissemination as well as containing functional contents such as internal norms and regulations.

The impact of challenge and hindrance stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization: A moderated-mediation model

The importance of work stress on newcomers’ organizational socialization has been a topic of substantial interest. However, the impact mechanism of different stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization is still in the early stages of theory development. This study, based on the theory of the dual work stress model, explored how to challenge stressors and hindrance stressors impact newcomers’ organizational socialization via the mediation of job crafting. Based on the empirical data from 247 newcomers, we found that challenge stressors positively affected newcomers’ organizational socialization; on the contrary, hindrance stressors would result in negative influences. In addition, leader-member exchange enhanced the positive effect of challenge stressors on newcomers’ job crafting and further moderated the indirect influence of challenge stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization via job crafting. These findings provide a practical guide for organizations to apply stress management and promote newcomers’ socialization.

Recent immigrant newcomers’ socialization in the workplace

Purpose

Despite the increase of recent immigrant newcomers (RINs) into the workforce over the past few years, many employers still face the challenge of successfully integrating RINs into the workplace. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to propose customized socialization tactics for RINs and highlight the role of RINs’ adjustment strategies in order to facilitate their workplace adjustment.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on immigrants, socialization, and diversity literatures, the paper develops a conceptual model of the socialization process for RINs and advances propositions to be empirically tested.

Findings

The paper proposes that customized socialization tactics by organizations and adjustment strategies by RINs would facilitate RINs’ socialization process by increasing their social integration and role performance, the factors which would ultimately help in their workplace adjustment.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed customized socialization tactics add to the extant socialization literature by highlighting the crucial role firms can play in RINs’ socialization process. Additionally, the paper highlights an important role of RINs in their own socialization process.

Practical implications

Organizations need to employ new, different socialization tactics to help integrate RINs in the workplace. RINs may find the research outcomes useful in acknowledging their own role for successful workplace integration.

Originality/value

This paper presents a new way of looking at organizational socialization tactics for RINs while highlighting a role of RINs themselves, and concludes by discussing theoretical, practical, and societal implications for organizations employing RINs.

The neglected role of cultural intelligence in recent immigrant newcomers’ socialization

The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in contributing to the socialization of recent immigrant newcomers (RINs). Drawing on relevant literatures, a conceptual model is developed, highlighting the role of RINs’ CQ in helping them choose the appropriate adjustment strategies that in turn allow them to better perform their job and to socially integrate into their workplace. The article also examines the impact of the social context of the organization, namely the level of diversity, specifically focusing on how RINs may choose different adjustment strategies depending on the type of organizational context and according to the variance in their CQ. Thus, the article makes three important contributions. First, the article integrates CQ literature with immigrant and socialization literatures by exploring the process through which RINs’ CQ can enhance their role performance and social integration during socialization. Second, at the individual level, RINs may find the analysis useful in comprehending the role of CQ for understanding cultural nuances and developing relationships with their new work colleagues, and this may motivate them to further develop their CQ. Third, organizations may consider providing RINs—as well as other employees—with cross-cultural training incorporating CQ modules to enhance and improve their CQ and thereby optimize RINs’ organizational socialization.