Abstract:
The recent studies found that newcomers’self-initiated activates are the significant
predictor of newcomers' adjustment and organizational socialization. Also,
organizational socialization scholars propose that newcomers' self-initiated activates
may be more critical than the traditional approach to organizational socialization.
Therefore, there is a need to identify whether the traditional approach (support
practices) or newcomers' self-initiated activates (proactive behaviour) play a
significant role in the socialization process. Therefore this study aims to identify the
relative importance of support practices and newcomers' proactive behaviour during
the socialization. This study also investigates the role of support practices in
newcomers' engagement in proactive behaviour and the influence of proactive
behaviour on the relationship between support practices and newcomers'
socialization. The study was conducted with 104 newcomers from diverse business
organizations. PLS-SEM was employed to assess the proposed model. The results
indicated that the higher the level of organizational support and co-worker support
higher the level of newcomers' engagement in proactive behaviour and the higher the
level of proactive engagement and co-worker support the higher the level of
newcomers' socialization. Further, this study found that newcomers' engagement in
proactive behaviour mediates the relationship between newcomers' perceived support
practices and socialization. The findings of this study deepen the understanding of the
socialization process and help the management and the newcomers recognize their
role in the successful socialization process.
