Abstract
Current scholarship views organizational socialization as a learning process that is primarily the responsibility of the newcomer. Yet, recent learning research recognizes the importance of the social interactions in the learning process. This study investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned job-related tasks and the social norms of the organization. From the perspective of social exchange theory, two major findings emerged from the data that indicated (a) relationship building was a primary driver of socialization and (b) the work group was the primary context for socialization. These findings challenge the current views of organizational socialization by accentuating the relational processes at the local level that mediate learning during socialization.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to members of the research team that supported this research, including Sheri Sheppard, Steve Barley, Karl Smith, Andrew Van de Ven, Baiyin Yang, and the members of the organization who participated in the study. Additional support came from the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, funded by NSF grant # ESI-0227558, and the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.
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Korte, R. (2011). Learning How Things Work Here: The Socialization of Newcomers in Organizations. In: Poell, R., van Woerkom, M. (eds) Supporting Workplace Learning. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9109-3_8
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