New employees are often confused
about the expectations and requirements of their new positions and the
organization where they work. These uncertainties result in feelings of stress,
confusion, anxiety, awkwardness and uneasiness (Louis, 1980). Such feelings
create insecure inaction that begins to clear up the longer the employee is
employed. Yet managers can speed up the socialization process by developing
stronger communication networks and transference of information through a
proper socialization process.
One of the first things new
employees look for to clear up this confusion is a point of reference. This typically
is the person they are first introduced. Such points of reference are based
upon interpersonal communication and the information they can secure through the
work network. This point of reference is fostered from another employee,
organizational information, or their managers (Barge & Schlueter, 2004).
It is important for managers to
understand precisely what points of reference employees are being offered or
most likely to attach themselves. For example, if an employee receives one day
of training and then left to their work group to understand their environment
they will use available positive and negative information to make their
conclusions. It is the constant communication between managers and employees that
helps foster alternative points of reference that further more appropriate
impressions and final conclusions.
The totality of positive and negative impressions
can impact the success of the employee and cause low productivity and higher
turnover rates into the future. During the initial organizational entry period
both formal and informal messages combine to either reinforce engagement or
encourage disengagement from the organization (Altman, Visel & Brown, 1981).
Strong orientations and constant communication can develop higher levels of
engagement that allow the integration of the self with the organizational
expectations.
The very first months will create attitudes,
behavior, and knowledge that determine employee level engagement with company
expectations (Allen, 2006). After these first impressions are created it
becomes extremely difficult to change the course of thinking without higher
levels of intervention. Such impressions make their way throughout the employees’
method of thinking creating additional justifications why their assumptions are
true. Competing information is often ignored due to high levels of selection
attention that don’t fit with initial assumptions.
The initial signs of uncertainty most employees feel
when entering the workplace is the ideal time to open up communication lines
and socialize employees to positive workplace expectations. This is the time
when information seeking behavior increases (Berger and Calabrese, 1975). In
such a situation it is beneficial to offer the needed information in order to
both reduce this information seeking behavior as well as limit the cost of
initial lackluster performance throughout the socialization process.
Managers who engage their employees through positive
communication and expectation building have the capacity to create higher
levels of performance with less wasted time and disciplinary distractions that
impact the department long into the future. Proactive management should
consider the benefits of spending additional time at the beginning of the
socialization process to ensure that initial impressions are strong so that
future information is filtered and categorized appropriately by the employee. A
little extra effort in the beginning can create stronger group development in
the future once a general culture has been developed.
Allen, D. (2006). Do
organizational socialization tactics influence newcomer embeddedness
and turnover? Journal of Management, doi:
10.1177/0149206305280103.
Altman, I., Vinsel, A. &
Brown, B. (1981). Dialectic conceptions in social psychology: An
application to social penetration
and privacy regulation. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances
in experimental social psychology (Vol.
14, pp. 107-160). New York: Academic Press.
Barge, J. & Schlueter, D. (2004).
Memorable messages and newcomer socialization.
Western Journal of Communication, 68(3),
233-256.
Berger, C. & Calabrese, R.
(1975). Some explorations in initial interaction and beyond:
Toward a theory of interpersonal
communication. Human Communication Research,
1(2), 99-112.
Louis, M. (1980). Surprise and
sense making: What newcomers experience in entering
unfamiliar organizational settings. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 25(2), 226-251.
