ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION - ITS CONTENT AND CONSEQUENCES

Content dimensions of the socialization domain were defined in order to determine relationships between learning particular features of a job/organization and the process and outcomes of socialization. Six socialization dimensions-performance proficiency, politics, language, people, organizational goals/values, and history-were supported by a factor analysis on data from 594 full-time professionals. The socialization process was then examined by comparing three groups of respondents who did not change jobs, changed jobs within the organization, or changed jobs and organizations. Results showed these groups had significantly different response patterns on all dimensions. Finally, relationships between socialization content and career outcomes showed the dimensions accounted for more variance in all criteria than typical tenure operationalizations of socialization. Furthermore, socialization changes were significantly related to changes in career outcomes for 1-, 2-, and 3-year time intervals.