Empirical Study On The Newcomer Information Seeking Behavior And Psychological Contract In The Organizational Socialization Process

Organization socialization is the process in which employees are seasoned with the new work or new roles, organization environment and organization culture. Therefore, the organization socialization as the process of obtaining role takes place in different organizational environment, which is not only important to newcomers, but also to the old, even to the senior. Meanwhile, for the enterprise, the well evolvement of the organization socialization for employee is the key to the continuing of the organization culture. Because three key factors play important roles in the process of the founding and maintaining of organization culture: the selecting process, the acting of the top managers, and the organization socialization. In the present increasing complex outer-enterprise environment, organization culture plays persistent and important role. Paying attention to the every step of founding and maintaining organization culture will favor putting enterprise cultural management into effect.In the near ten years, the study on the organization socialization begins to spring up. The new study trend believes the newcomers play active role in the process of organization socialization, and they look for the work- related information by information seeking behavior. Information holds the balance in organization socializing for employees.Meanwhile, Rousseau put forward that"early socialization"is the sensitive time for the forming of the psychological contract, and at this time psychological contract is being perfected. The psychological contract in the organization is the mental tie between employees and organization, and the important factors influencing the behavior and attitude of employees.Psychological contract is a series of faith for the mutual obligation between the employees and the organization, but these obligations are based on the consciousness of employees themselves, are built on the subjective understanding to the promises, and are not certain to be undertaken by the organization. Psychological contract is the consciousness that employees to the organization, which forms based on the acquired information. With the entering of newcomers and socializing of organization, a great deal of information about organization, task and work is perceived, assimilated, and conformed by employees, and come into being the apperceiving of employees. So the information that the newcomers get in the process of the organization socializing is very important to the forming of the psychological contract Therefore, in the course of employees'organization socializing in our corporate, the behavior of newcomers, the measure of enterprise, and the change of employees'psychological contract are all deserved to be discussed and studied very much.The foreign study on the organization socialization has made a great development in near ten years after the rising of the study on the organization culture, which includes organization socialization phase mode, the definition to the organization socialization, the degree of organization socializing and its measurement, and the result of organization socialization and so on.While the domestic study on the organization socialization is still in the initial stages. For examples, someone puts forward: Qian Yin bought forward that four factors of organization socialization structure, mark relativity between the Chinese enterprise organization socialization and the behavior outcomes, unmark influence of populace statistics variable on the organization socialization; Tan Yanli advanced that Organization socialization tactics play active roles in forecasting the grasping the task and definituding the roles, employees'organization socialization tactics can actively forecast the work accommodation. Therefore, the study on the employee information seeking and the evolvement of their psychological contract under our country culture needs to be explored more. While Roussea also believed the study on the psychological contract in the past ten years, emphasized particularly on the problems after the forming of psychological contract and their response variables, but lacked attention to its forming process. In 2003, Turnley put forward the forming process of psychological contract needs to be probed more in future. Accordingly, this dissertation confines in the process of organization socialization, takes newcomers as the study object, starts with the various information that newcomers meet with at entering the enterprise, to explore the change of the organization socialization tactics of enterprise, newcomers information seeking, and psychological contract of employees by applying questionnaire. Here newcomers are all kinds of employees just engaged, who are strange to the enterprise environment. Because organization socialization involves two subjects -organization and employee, this thesis will develop from two aspects such as: One is from the organization to study the factors influencing organization socialization tactics and organization socialization outcomes; the other is from the individual employee to analyze the change of their information seeking and psychological contract in the process of organization socialization.By empirical analysis, the main conclusions are such as:1. In the face of the newcomers entering, our enterprises take corresponding organization socialization tactics according to different zones, and industries that they are attach to, and different time when newcomers join. All the dimensionalities for the degree of organization socialization are evidently positive correlation with all the dimensionalities for the degree of employees devoting themselves to the work. As a whole, the degree of organization socialization in our enterprises is higher, but the degrees of socialization for the employees'organizing, task, and job are different, and employee engagement is not higher. There are more factors influencing the organization socialization and the employee engagement in employee organization socialization, these are some consistent: personnel's more efficiency, public information seeking tactics taken by employees, and the fixed socialization tactics adopted by organization all can enhance the degree of organization socialization and employee engagement.2. In our country culture newcomers of enterprise also tend to seek information initiatively, but this tendency is not different due to different duration of work time or work experience. Newcomers prefer to take public tactics and espial tactics, which are very important to information seeking, to look for the various information in enterprise. Meanwhile, newcomers'self-efficiency and internal/external locus of control impose great affect on the employees'information seeking. The more self-efficiency of employee and internal/external locus of control, the more newcomers tend to take public tactics and espial tactics to look for various information.3. The every dimensionality for the anticipation, enforcement, and breach to the psychological contract changes with the work duration of employee. Organization socialization tactics and the employee information seeking have different correlation with the anticipation, enforcement, and breach to the psychological contract. Employees'information seeking gives different influence on the every dimensionality for the anticipation of psychological contract. The fixed tactics of organization and the organization information seek by employees give important affect on the enforcement to the psychological contract. Not the behavior of employees'information seeking but the fixed tactics and the program tactics make strong impact on the breach to the psychological contract.This dissertation mainly explores the information seeking and the psychological contract in the process of organization socialization, and gives such two aspects of innovation as:1. Newcomers'organization socialization in our country culture is analyzed, and organizational socialization tactics, the information seeking in the process of the organization socialization is studied roundly. Moreover, at base of these, the evolvement and influencing factors of the individual psychological contract while employees entering the organization are also addressed. Innovation views as follow: Our enterprises take corresponding organization socialization tactics according to different time when newcomers join; After reviewed employee experinecs, this article regarded work time as united inclues and verified dynamic changes of employee information seeking behaviors in the organizational socialization process; Meanwhile, validated that employee psychological contract is also dynamic forming process on which influenced much two information carrying mode. One is organizational socialization tactics; another is employee personal information seeking behavior.2. This dissertation tries to figure out the influence that Chinese peculiar culture inflicts on the employees'information seeking and psychological contract in the process of newcomers'organization socialization under the Chinese culture, which reflects the difference between the eastern and the western culture.The main innovation conclusion is as follow: In the context of Chinese culture, newcomer inclined to voluntary information seeking behavior which is accordant to the foreign researchs, but this active reaction is not marked much; information seeking tactics is observed, opened, third, tested, indirected tactics according to adoptive frequency from higher to lower. Among these, observed and opened tactics influenced much to the degree of organization socialization and employee engagement which is discrepancy to the foreign research.; Foreign researchers advanced pcychological contract dynamic changing on the organization socialization process that is verified by this article.In 2005, De Vos et, al. suggested that work control and contract related information seeking behavior is a little influences to the psychological contract forming. But this article made conclusion that employee information seeking behavior had much important influences to each dimensionality of psychological contract anticipation and practice; Moreover, fixed organizational socialization tactics had critical influences to pcychological contract, but this tactics is not used often in Chinese corporations.This is particularity in the organization socialization in Chinese culture. Thus, this article has innovation views on the consideration aspects of organization socialization process in different culture.At last, based on our study, we propose that we should strengthen to apply the organizational socialization tactics, manage psychological contract all the way, pay more attention to the roles which employees'information seeking and their individual characteristic play on the organization socialization in the course of organization socialization.