(Mis)Interpretations of Organizational Socialization: The Expectations and Experiences of Newcomers and Managers

Abstract

Every year, new graduates enter the workplace with great expectations for their careers. For many, the transition from school to work is challenging as they learn to fit into their new roles and organizational settings. Often, they find this experience to be not what they expected and experience feelings of frustration, uncertainty, or disappointment in their new jobs. This article reports on the socialization experiences of 41 newly hired engineers and 15 of their managers in three different organizations. Using an inductive, qualitative approach to collecting and analyzing in‐depth interviews, the findings indicated that socialization processes, designed to help newcomers learn about and integrate into new jobs, are more ambiguous and difficult than many newcomers and managers expected. We found that the best intentions of some managers and newcomers were misinterpreted and thus fell short of expectations. The findings indicate how the misinterpretations of newcomers and managers negatively affected the quality of learning, performance, and satisfaction during socialization. The implications of these misinterpretations point to crucial gaps in the educational preparation of graduates for the workplace and shortcomings in the socialization or onboarding of new hires in organizations.

Pathways through organizational socialization: A longitudinal qualitative study based on the psychological contract

“…Whilst research has shown that socialization does not proceed linearly (e.g., Boswell et al, 2005), we add to the literature describing potential 'issues' (e.g., Korte et al, 2015) or 'shocks' (e.g., Holtom et al, 2017) that may occur. Whilst research has shown that socialization does not proceed linearly (e.g., Boswell et al, 2005), we add to the literature describing potential 'issues' (e.g., Korte et al, 2015) or 'shocks' (e.g., Holtom et al, 2017) that may occur.…”

“…Examples include conflict with co-workers (Nifadkar & Bauer, 2016), acceptance of newcomers by insiders (Korte & Lin, 2013;Moreland & Levine, 2002), critical incidents that communicate cultural norms (Gundry & Rousseau, 1994), and early support or undermining (Kammeyer-Mueller, Wanberg, Rubenstein, & Song, 2013). Unmet (Wanous, Poland, Premack, & Davis, 1992) and misinterpreted (Korte, Brunhaver, & Sheppard, 2015) expectations have been shown to hinder adjustment.…”

Time‐based differences in the effects of positive and negative affectivity on perceived supervisor support and organizational commitment among newcomers

“…Moreover, this process is likely more pronounced in our sample as it was composed of individuals in an early career stage. Indeed, a recent study of newly hired engineers (i.e., highly educated employees, as in our sample) found the transition from school to work to fall short of expectations and to engender feelings of frustration and disappointment (Korte et al, ). Interestingly, new hires' expectations diverged particularly from managers' own expectations in terms of “the amount of managerial guidance afforded to newcomers” (p. 199).…”

“…Moreover, they were entering their first jobs. This, combined with the fact that they were highly skilled, may have contributed to raise their expectations and the risk of subsequent disappointment (Korte et al, ). Thus, our findings need replication using less qualified and later‐career samples of employees.…”

Impact of Unmet Expectations on Manager's Job Burnout: Examination of the mediating role of Overcommitment

“…Unmet expectations lead to various negative outcomes such as job burnout and turnover intention. The relationship between unmet expectations and job burnout may be construed from the angle of expectancy theory, discrepancy theory as well as psychological contracts violations, which are based on the social exchange theory with reciprocity [16] [17]. Based on these findings, unmet expectations have been a key psychological variable in the above mentioned theories [18].…”