Social antecedents of the role stress and career-enhancing strategies of newcomers to organizations: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Newcomers experience uncertainty and stress following entry into an organization. Two features of socialization are important for reducing their stress: socialization tactics and relations with superiors and co-workers. The present study tests a structural equation model, including, first, the effects over time of initial institutional socialization tactics and, second, the association between social relations at the workplace on newcomers’ role stress and career-enhancing strategies, two years later, among a large (N=661) international sample of job and organization stayers. Using LISREL 8.3 the results indicate a good fit between the model and data on several fit indices. Institutional socialization tactics had a significant association with newcomers’ relations with both their superiors and co-workers, and a significant negative association with their role conflict. Newcomers’ relations with superiors had a negative relationship with their role ambiguity, and a positive relationship with two kinds of career-enhancing strategies that they use to aid in their adaptation to their work situation. The relations of newcomers with co-workers were positively related to role conflict and negatively related to role ambiguity. Co-worker relations were also positively related to immediate career-enhancing strategies. Role conflict was positively related to immediate and negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies, while role ambiguity was negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies. The results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical importance.

Keywords:

• Work socialization
• Role stress
• Organizational entry
• Newcomers
• Career strategies

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The Work Socialization of Youth (WOSY) International Research Team is composed of the following researchers: P. Coetsier and R. Claes (Univ. Gent, Belgium), A. Lancry and H. Touzard (Univ. Paris, France), J. Feij (Univ. Amsterdam, The Netherlands), I. Harpaz (Univ. Haifa, Israel), G. Sarchielli and M. Depolo (Univ. Trent and Bologna, Italy), J. Correira Jesuino (Univ. Lisbon, Portugal), M. Banks and B. Parkinson (Univ. Sheffield, UK), A. Ruíz Quintanilla (Technical Univ. Berlin, Germany), W. Whitely (Univ. Oklahoma, USA) and J. M. Peiró (Univ. Valencia, Spain).