<b>The Effect of Virtuality on Newcomer Socialization: A Person-Centered Investigation</b>
Creators: name: White, Jerod Cody
Publisher: name: Purdue University Graduate School
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 520104
subject: Industrial and organisational psychology (incl. human factors)

description: Organizational newcomers strive to adjust when they start new jobs, yet little is known about how remote and hybrid work structures influence this process. Previous research has adopted variable-centered approaches to explore the frequency with which newcomers engage in dozens of proactive behaviors in traditional, face-to-face work environments. The current study builds upon this work to capture the socialization process in modern work environments. Adopting a person-centered approach, this study 1.) identifies profiles of newcomers’ perceptions of their work environments, 2.) identifies profiles of newcomer proactive behaviors, 3.) examines the effect of virtuality on these two sets of profiles, and 4.) explores which behavior profiles are associated with the most favorable changes in adjustment.A sample of 464 organizational newcomers responded to a survey about their environment perceptions, the frequency with which they engaged in a variety of proactive behaviors, and their feelings of adjustment. Latent profile enumeration resulted in three environment profiles (Average Environment, Peer-Centric Environment, and Favorable Environment) and seven behavior profiles (Low Frequency Seeker, Moderate Frequency Seeker, High Frequency Seeker, Direct Solo Seekers, Typical Limit Testers, Social Limit Testers, and Balanced Limit Testers). While the hypothesized virtual environment and behavior profiles were not found, one environment profile (Average Environment) and two behavior profiles (Low Frequency Seekers; Direct Solo Seekers) were significantly and positively associated with virtuality. Further, newcomers in the Average Environment profile tended to be Low Frequency Seekers, while newcomers in the Favorable Environment profile tended to be Moderate or High Frequency Seekers. Additionally, the Direct Solo Seekers were more likely to perceive their environment as Favorable, relative to the Low Frequency Seekers.A total of 173 of the newcomers completed a follow-up survey about their feelings of adjustment. Significant differences across behavior profiles in changes in adjustment (while controlling for newcomer tenure) demonstrate the complex dynamics of the newcomer adjustment process. Specifically, the two highly virtual behavior profiles – Low Frequency Seekers and Direct Solo Seekers – showed different relationships with outcomes over time, suggesting that some behavioral repertoires are more effective than others for adjusting in virtual environments. Supplemental analyses further showed that the behavior profiles offered incremental validity over a main effects model of proactive behaviors in predicting feelings of social acceptance. Additionally, supplemental analyses demonstrated that jointly accounting for environment and behavior profiles can meaningfully explain differences in adjustment across newcomers. Collectively, this study shows the utility of using person-centered approaches for understanding how configurations of environment perceptions and proactive behaviors shape newcomers’ experiences in modern work environments.