Socialization Tactics and New Entrants' Adjustments in the Information Technology Context

Socialization plays a critical role in organizations as it is one of the most essential components of building and maintaining organizational culture. Research suggests that socialization influences individual role outcomes and team performances in organizations."Tactics of organizational socialization" refers to the ways in which the experiences of an individual in transition from one role to another are structured for him in the organization. (Van Maanen, 1978). The present investigation focuses on the socialization tactics and new entrants' adjustments in the information technology context. Role orientation, role conflict, role ambiguity, commitment to organization, intention to quit and job satisfaction was related to socialization tactics. 287 new entrants' having not more than 18 months of experience were surveyed from 10 IT companies in Bangalore. The six socialization tactics were operationally defined in terms of Van Maanen and Schein's (1979) discussion. The tools were standardized and found to be reliable and valid. The study found that sequential socialisation was the most common form of socialisation tactic experienced by most of the new entrants. Respondents reported a higher amount of role conflict in spite of being taken through institutionalised socialisation. The detailed findings and suggestions for further research have been discussed.