EXPRESS: Onboarding Salespeople: Socialization Approaches

The effective training of salespeople is crucial to a firm’s success; there is arguably no more critical type of training than a salesperson’s onboarding. In this study, the authors leverage a natural field experiment in which a firm’s newly hired salespeople can undergo onboarding through either a decentralized program or a centralized program to examine the relative impact of each program. Drawing on organizational socialization theory, the authors consider whether an onboarding program that incorporates both individualized and institutionalized socialization tactics (the decentralized program) can develop salespeople into higher performers by encouraging them to take a more innovative and adaptive approach to different facets of the sales role. The findings reveal that salespeople who underwent the decentralized program achieved approximately 23.5% higher sales performance than those who underwent the centralized program. The performance benefits of the decentralized program were amplified for salespeople whose managers had a narrower span of control. In addition, these performance benefits were appreciable for those salespeople transitioning from another job but negligible for those transitioning from school. A scenario-based experiment enriches the field experiment’s findings by showing evidence of the theorized mechanism underlying the sales performance benefits observed: the fostering of an innovative role orientation.

Why do hotel interns stay in the hospitality and tourism industry? An interactionist perspective of organizational socialization

Purpose Promoting interns’ organizational socialization has become an urgent concern for the hotel industry. Building on career construction theory, this study aims to use a time-lagged design to investigate the interrelationships among perceived organizational support (POS), psychological capital and organizational socialization and their consequent effects on interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach Panel data were obtained in three waves from hotel interns from 21 upscale hotels located in 13 cities in China with a time lag of 10 weeks (N = 369). The structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Findings POS has a significantly positive effect on interns' psychological capital. Additionally, both POS and psychological capital contribute to the intention to stay in the hotel industry through the mediation of organizational socialization. Practical implications Hotels should communicate with interns more explicitly, provide assistance programs to alleviate uncertainty and reward interns on their excellent service performance to improve POS. Moreover, setting up psychological capital programs and empowering interns to be involved in task development is beneficial for enhancing psychological capital. Hotels should also consider mentoring as a socialization approach. Further, career planning and counseling programs should be provided for interns’ long-term hospitality career development. Originality/value A time-lagged research method is adopted to provide a new approach to improve interns’ intention to stay in the hotel industry from the interactionist perspective. This study enriches research about psychological capital, POS and organizational socialization.

Assimilation, Integration or Inclusion? A Dialectical Perspective on the Organizational Socialization of Migrants

Given the increasing importance of migrations around the world, and the challenges that migrants face in entering the labor market, the process of socialization of migrants into organizations deserves more attention from management scholars. Indeed, societal discourses promoting equality and diversity often appear to be in contradiction with the unequal power relations migrants experience on entering the workforce. Drawing on a dialectic perspective and a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology, we show how the practices engaged in by organizations to socialize migrant employees are deeply embedded in and influenced by macro-social contexts that may place migrants at a disadvantage, giving rise to emerging tensions. We examine a range of contingencies that can mitigate the inequalities that migrants experience, and we reveal a variety of dynamic dialectical pathways surrounding migrant socialization practices through which they may be reproduced or transformed depending on the mutual relationships between situated conditions, emerging tensions and human praxes.

On a Continuum of Roles: Women as Key Socialization Actors of Other Women in Al-Shabaab

In current research the role of women in terrorist organizations has remained largely underexposed. This article responds to the call to draw attention to the active women's role in terrorist organizations by uncovering how women in terrorist organizations, specifically Al-Shabaab, socialize with other women who enter or change roles within the organization. This has been done through a literature review, which integrates the insights drawn from papers on the role of women in terrorist organizations with current knowledge on organizational socialization. The research shows that women are active in a wide array of roles and that they should not only be viewed as passive victims. Furthermore, women already familiar with the terrorist organization are especially important for the socialization of female newcomers and their role in maintaining the terrorist organization should not be ignored. The article also sheds light on how the theory of organizational socialization could be improved. As the results provide a better understanding on how socialization might differ depending on the degree of autonomy the newcomer has and what insights it might provide for other criminal organizations.

A Black-Box yet To Be Opened: Multi-level Processes During Migrants’ Organizational Socialization

Migrants entering a new country also search for belonging. Through employment, migrants work in organizations and experience socialization in these new contexts. Thereby, organizations offer migrants a wide range of possibilities for identification and are thus places to regain a sense of belonging. We rely on prior research showing what migrants experience during the process of organizational socialization to organizational identification, more specifically through (a) sense-making which (b) provides self-esteem and self-enhancement, and (c) reduces uncertainty. Furthermore, we also investigate the interplay of various in-groups (multiple cultures) and levels (micro, meso, macro) that migrants identify with. Consequently, we follow a cross-level approach to identity in and beyond organizations and combine migration, organizational, and intercultural research. Based on a qualitative interview study in Germany, we highlight how positive organizational identification results not only in companies’ workforce retention but also in migrants’ increased societal identification. Moreover, we emphasize the important role German colleagues play in the socialization process across various levels. They serve as socialization agents being individual interaction partners and team members, but also representatives of professional cultures and of the German society. In sum, our research yields important theoretical and practical implications. We provide interesting avenues for future research to uncover the complex interrelationships in more detail, open up the black-box of organizational socialization, and rely on interdisciplinarity in a complementary way. Human Resources Management could consider identification as a multi-layered opportunity, recognize the potentials of migrants’ identification, and thus strive for the sustainable development of their competencies.

Organizational Socialization and Its Influence on Organizational Virtuousness by Intermediating Spiritual Capital

The aim of the current research is to test the relationship of organizational socialization influence as an influential variable in Organizational Virtuousness as an affected variable, through spiritual capital as an intermediate variable in the headquarters of the General Military Industries Company in all its departments and divisions , In view of the importance of the three variables to society, the company and its members, and based on the role that the variables (organizational socialization and spiritual capital) represent in raising the level of organizational Virtuousness of the company, and on the importance of the subject of research in public sector organizations, and its influential role in society , The researcher adopted the analytical descriptive method based on the survey of the sample's views in completing the research, by collecting data from the 119 research samples, based on the 48- paragraph resolution as the main tool for collecting data, and based on (Excel 2010, AMOS v.25, SPSS v.25) as well as the use of descriptive statistical methods ,The research concluded that the most prominent conclusion reached is the existence of organizational socialization influence in organizational Virtuousness, directly, indirectly through the intermediate variable, spiritual capital, and through partial mediation.

Job Value and Organizational Socialization of the Youth of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: The Mediation of Career Exploration?

This paper took the social exchange and social cognitive perspectives to examine the effects between job values and organizational socialization and how to play a mediation in career exploration and moderating effect in demographic characteristics. The research collected 700 valid samples of the youth of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for statistical analysis and then subjected them to job value scale, career exploration, and organizational socialization scale. With structural equation model and correlation analysis, it verified that the proposed scale had demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, a theoretical model of a good overall fit. In the final part, this paper used hierarchical regression analysis and path analysis. The results indicated that career exploration plays a mediation role between job value and organizational socialization, demographic characteristics are moderating effect between job value and career exploration, and demographic characteristics make a moderating effect between career exploration and organizational socialization, but demographic characteristics are not moderated on work value and organizational socialization.