Organizational Socialization

Organizational socialization describes the process of welcoming and accustoming an employee to the work environment and given organizational role both from the newcomer’s perspective and from the organizational perspective. It is a dynamic process of mutual influence as the newcomer learns and adjust to the new environment while being able to personalize the role which is given. The socialization happens gradually, but it is of great importance to make a conscious effort from the start to attain the best results.

Multiple great benefits are achieved when the socialization is successful, such as better communication, organizational loyalty, increasing productivity and high employee satisfaction. Whereas unsuccessful socialization can lead to inefficient work, dissatisfaction, and resignations.

Organizational socialization begins with the recruitment process where both parties seek information about each other to see if they could be a match, when it comes to values and expectations. The second step is the assimilation of the newcomer, where they adapt and adopt organizational values, norms, and behaviors. To do so, the support and knowledge sharing of coworkers, supervisors and possibly mentors are necessary. In the third stage, the newcomer has adapted and moves from an outsider to being an insider. Further socialization can be relevant if the organizational role of the employee changes.

Why Organizational Socialization is important

Organizational socialization is defined as a dynamic process by which people learn and adjust to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, expectations and behaviors needed to assume a new or changed organizational role. This process results in the employee going from an outsider to an insider. Successful socialization involves mutual influence, meaning the employee adopts organizational values and interest while being able to influence the organization through personal qualities. Consequently, both organizational and individual needs are met.

Organizational assimilation is essential for the integration of a newcomer. The concept entails the newcomer intentionally, as well as, unintentionally is socialized by the organization. They must modify their work procedures to both reach the expectations of the employer and its own, by seeking information about the work place and adapting their behavior towards the behavior of their coworkers. Several different members of the organization influences this process and are pivotal for it to be succesful, ranging from the managers to the peers of the newcomer. Additionally can supervisors and mentors be an effective ressource to use.

The organizational socialization is often divided in three stages with varying names. The first step being the recruitment process where both the organization and the newcomer collects information about one another. The second step entails the newcomer adjusting to the new work environment, and the third stage is reached when the newcomer has adapted to the given organizational role .

Benefits of organizational socialization

Effective and succesful organizational socialization results in considerable benefits for both the employer and the employee. Better communication and coordination can be obtained within the team, it can reduce stress and uncertainties, heighten the organizational commitment and lead to satisfaction and a positive feeling of self worth. Consequently, increasing the productivity and innovation of the employees, leading to making it possible to efficiently achieve organizational and team goals and secure the employees longevity in the organization.

Furthermore, the team obtain a greater cohesiveness and long-term stability by being socialized. Trust between team members is achieved based on shared tasks and projects, making way for better knowledge sharing and improved individual decision performance.

The relation between Organizational Socialisation and Project, Program and Portfolio management

Organizational socialization is an important concept within all levels of management, whether it is within a project, program, or portfolio, as it is pivotal to achieve successful results and positive experiences. It applies to new employees, as well as, existing employees changing role within the organization, department or team.

As it is a dynamic process, it is present during the whole life cycle of a project/program/portfolio. However, it is especially relevant to give focus in the beginning of a new project/program/portfolio, particularly if new members have been added to the associated teams, to establish constructive communication and quality in the decision making. If newcomers are introduces while the project/program/portfolio is running, it also calls for a conscious effort in integrating the newcomer by socialization.

Application

Various means can be used to achieve successful socialization. Which means to utilize depends greatly on the stage of the socialization. Generally, there is three steps of the socialization, excluding the exit of an employee. The stages are mentioned with varying names in the litterature, and the stages stated in this article are named as seen fit rather than according to the litterature.

Stage 1: Recruitment

Figure 1: Steps of Organizational Socialisation

This stage happens pre-arrival of the newcomer to the organization and is the process of the candidate joining a organization. The newcomer searches for a fitting organization to join by collecting available information about the organizations. The newcomer is trying to find places and jobs that fit their expectations, but it can be hard to distinguish the different work places by the superficial official information to be found. If the newcomer has connections within a potential organization, it can be an opportunity to get an insight to the work environment.

Simultaneously, the organization is pursuing candidates to match their needs. This can be handled by either the manager of the team/department needing a new employee or by an internal party like a human ressource department, as well as, an external party such as a recruitment agency. It is most beneficial if the responsible have some both technical and organizational knowledge, to ensure the applications are correctly handled.

Contact between the candidates and the organization is possible through various channels, such as advertising on the organizational webside, through social media and job-sides and orchestrating network events. When the contact has been established, the organization must collect information about the candidates and select the most fitting prospect. This can be done by either a tournament model of selection or a contest model

The first model is the most traditional one and entails the candidate being presented with different tasks and after each round candidates are eliminated based on their performance. In the second model, the elimination happens at the final stage and is based on the overall performance, giving a higher probability of reaching the final cut. The latter might demand more training of the final candidates, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage as it can allow for more diverse hiring.

Stage 2: Assimilation

Stage two begins when the newcomer starts in the new position and encounters the work environment for the first time. This stage consist of the newcomer learining and adapting to the expected behavior through exchange activities and gathering technical, social and normative information. By this, they find their situational idendity and work roles.

To achieve this, the first few days are especially influential. A orientation program is essential, but is is important to avoid it being bureaucratic, impersonal and irrelevant. The focus should rather be on giving fitting, but meaningful assignments and being connected to selected insiders to help them navigate in the new environment. Such insiders can be coworkers of equal rank, supervisors or mentors, ideally in combination.

Coworkers

The coworkers of equal rank is a great source of informal informations and offers the opportunity of friendly communication. The newcomer can decode and adopt norms and values from the coworkers and mirror their behavior. The newcomer are mostly in contact with the coworkers compared to other insiders and they are therefore essential, especially concerning the unconscious socialization.

Supervisors

Supervisors are coworkers of higher rank or with greater experience than the newcomer and therefore often imply hierarchical roles between the supervisor and the newcomer. The supervisor has the responsibility of passing on formal information and organizational expectations, as well as, delegates tasks and delivers feedback. The newcomer has the opportunity to negotiate expectations and tasks with the supervisor, which minimize the risk of dissatisfaction with the job.

Mentors

A mentor offers to be a role model for the newcomer and gives both formal and informal support to the newcomer. They can contribute with advice and coaching, making the socialization more efficient. Formal mentoring consist of the mentor passing on knowledge and skills to the lesser experienced newcomer, resulting in the newcomer developing new competences. Informal mentoring entails "inside" information about organizational politics and social interaction being offered to the newcomer.

Stage 3: Settling

At stage three, the newcomer has adapted to the workplace and given organizational role and experiences all the benefits of successful organizational socialization. The newcomer is now an insider. Over time, a resocialization can be needed if organizational changes occur or the organizational role of the employee is changed, to prevent dissatisfaction from the employee.

Limitations

The socialization of minorities within the specific work environment often demands more extensive and specialized orientation programs to prevent them from feeling excluded and isolated.

The technological innovation of communication tools has allowed for virtual team work to expand. The Covid-19 pandemic have further incited the use of these, making it highly relevant to expand the organizational socialization to also cover strategies within virtual socialization. This offers new challenges that few studies have adressed.

Most studies of the concept are revolving around graduates entering the job market or specific professionals changing jobs. It is assumed that the same tendencies are seen in the processes of changing role within an organization, but very little empirical evidence exists about this and therefore the specific knowledge is limited.

Annotated bibliography

what-when-how, Managing Relationships in Virtual Team Socialization: An information site which offers knowledge about fundamental aspects of Organizational Socialization as well as insight to how to manage organizational socialization for virtual teams.

M. Handzic, Managing Knowledge through Experimentation and Socialisation: A study that examines the difference in individual knowledge and decision performance when experimenting versus socializing is possible.

D. C. Feldman, Risky Business: The Socialisation of Managers in the 21st Century: A study of the organizational socialization in a workfield with a declining number of new intrants, but also with a more diverse workforce.