Socialization and organizationaloutcomes of informationtechnology professionals

Ruth C. KingCollege of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign,

Illinois, USA

Weidong XiaCarlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,

Minnesota, USA

James Campbell QuickCollege of Business Administration, University of Texas at Arlington,

Arlington, Texas, USA, and

Vikram SethiRaj Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Abstract

Purpose – This study examined how six institutionalized socialization tactics affect a particular

occupation of knowledge workers – information technology (IT) professionals’ role adjustment (role

conflict and role ambiguity) and organizational attachment variables (job satisfaction, affective

commitment, continuance commitment and intention to quit).

Design/methodology/approach – The research model and hypotheses were tested using path

analysis techniques with survey data collected from 187 recently hired IT professionals.

Findings – The results showed that the six socialization tactics affected IT professionals differently.

Socialization tactics that recognize employees’ values and skills (investiture tactics) and that emphasize

the interpersonal and mentoring aspects (serial tactics) had the most significant effects on employees’

role adjustment and organizational attachment. The study also revealed complex mediating

relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables.

Originality/value – This study provides new insights about the differential effects of the various

socialization tactics on IT professionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. It also sheds

light on the complex mediating relationships among socialization tactics, role adjustment and

organizational attachment variables. Without considering the logical relationships between the

various variables, studies examining the direct effects of socialization on isolated organizational

outcome variables may overlook important linkages that are critical for explaining the inconsistent

results in past empirical studies.

Keywords Communication technologies, Employee turnover, Employee attitudes, Job satisfaction,

Socialization

Paper type Research paper

The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/1362-0436.htm

The authors would like to thank Bob Atkin, Chris Kemerer and two anonymous reviewers fortheir insightful comments on earlier versions of the paper, and Eileen N. Kwesiga for herassistance.

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Received October 2003Revised September 2004Accepted September 2004

Career Development InternationalVol. 10 No. 1, 2005pp. 26-51q Emerald Group Publishing Limited1362-0436DOI 10.1108/13620430510577619

IntroductionOrganizational socialization not only helps newcomers transition into effectiveorganizational insiders (Jones, 1986; Nelson and Quick, 1997) but also enablesorganizational members to share knowledge and learn new roles over time (Morrison,1993; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Taormina, 1997). The entrance process entails themastery of critical skills for effective performance as well as the understanding andadoption of the organizational values and norms that must accompany those activities(Fisher, 1986). The organizational knowledge sharing and transfer process calls uponexperienced individuals to help newcomers interpret events, learn tacit knowledge andmake appropriate adjustments to roles (Swap et al., 2001). The organization plays avital role in both the transition of the newcomers and the ensuing knowledge sharing oforganizational members. Researchers have studied the effectiveness of varioussocialization tactics on role adjustment variables such as role conflict and roleambiguity, and organizational attachment variables such as job satisfaction,commitment to the employer, and intention to quit jobs. However, empirical studieshave produced mixed results about which of the various socialization tacticsconstitutes the “best choice”, suggesting that there are no one-size-fit-all solutions(Fogarty, 2000). It appears that to be effective, organizations must understand whichsocialization tactics are most effective under what conditions.

In this paper, we examine the relationships among new information technology (IT)professionals’ experiences with their organizational socialization, their roleadjustments and their attachments to their organizations. IT professionals wereselected because they represent the growing number of knowledge workers thatdominate today’s workforce in the new knowledge economy. Knowledge workerspossess the intangible knowledge assets through which organizations compete in themarketplace. It is difficult for newcomers to learn and for existing members to sharetacit knowledge because it accumulates in organizations through dynamic,unstructured, and often subtle processes. (Swap et al., 2001). Increasingly it iswidely recognized that knowledge workers exhibit greater loyalty to their professionand colleagues than to their employing organizations (Capelli, 2000; Feldman, 2000).Many organizations are facing great challenges in managing employees who aretaking on such emerging career paths as the boundary-less careers (Arthur andRousseau, 1996; Baruch, 2004) – one where median employment tenure is just four anda half years and new job creation accounts for only one tenth of all career moves. Whenknowledge workers leave, organizations lose not only human capital, but alsoaccumulated knowledge assets, core capabilities that organizations depend on (Droegeand Hoobler, 2003).

Since the main charge of IT professionals in an organization is to apply informationtechnologies to solve business problems, they must master technical skills and at thesame time, possess adequate knowledge of the organization and business processes.They must be able to not only develop appropriate technical systems but also convincethe business users accept and use the systems. As such, IT professionals typically haveless structured job roles, are required to have interdisciplinary knowledge and skills,and work in cross-functional teams. In addition, as both business and technologyenvironments change constantly, IT professionals are under increasing pressure tocontinuously learn new skills, adjust to new roles, and work with uncertain problem

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solving and decision making conditions. As a result, the IS profession has had ahistorically high turnover rate (Jiang and Klein, 1999).

Traditionally, IT professional management has not been a major organizationalfocus and the retention mechanisms deployed by companies to attract or retain ITprofessionals have not been effective. No research has been reported that examins theeffects of socialization process on managing IT professionals. The research model andhypotheses tested in this paper cover two related aspects. First, we explore the directeffects of new IT professionals’ socialization experience on their role adjustment andorganizational attachment. This research aspect is exploratory in nature because weattempt to gain insights about the differential effects of the various socialization tacticson IT professionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. Second, weinvestigate the relationships among the role adjustment and organizational attachmentvariables. Previous studies have investigated the linkages of role adjustment variablesto organizational attachment variables (e.g. Baroudi, 1985; Goldstein and Rochart,1984; Guimaraes and Igbaria, 1992; Igbaria and Greenhaus, 1992; Igbaria et al., 1994).However, those relationships have not been tested as part of the outcomes of new ITprofessionals’ socialization experiences. These studies may overlook importantlinkages such as the mediated impact through role adjustment variables. Such findingsmay help explain past inconsistent results.

Organizational socializationOrganizational entry is a critical time for newcomers. A basic premise of organizationalsocialization practices is that the nature of a newcomer’s initial experiences isimperative to their adjustment to the new environment (Fogarty, 1992; Saks andAshforth, 1997). Experiences during this period help shape a newcomer’s views aboutthe organization, which may have long-lasting functional or dysfunctionalconsequences for their later attitudes and behaviors (Lee et al., 1992). Becausenewcomers may experience a reality shock or surprise (Louis, 1980) when they firstenter the organization, they respond by searching for information to reduce theiruncertainty and anxiety (Ashford and Cummings, 1983). During this entry period,newcomers reinterpret and revise the meaning of work as it pertains to a particularorganization as well as their roles as functioning organizational members (Hulin, 1991).A successful socialization process is one which transforms newcomers into establishedorganizational insiders (Nelson and Quick, 1997).

Organizations, by providing or withholding information in a particular way, canaffect the newcomer’s behavioral outcome (Morrison, 1993). In order to ease thetransition, organizations often employ socialization practices to help new hires learnthe desired values and behavioral norms. By confirming and disconfirming thenewcomers’ values and behaviors, organizations transform them from outsiders toinsiders (Schein, 1968; Van Maanen, 1976). Thus, organizational socialization involvesthe process in which new members undergo learning the ropes, being taught what isimportant and what is expected in the organization, acquiring appropriate rolebehaviors, and adjusting to the group’s norms and values (Feldman, 1989).

Social support systems in organizations play an instrumental role in the newcomer’sadjustment to the organization (Nelson and Quick, 1991). Supervisors and colleaguesare among the most important social supports for those in organizations (Baruch andWinkelmann-Gleed, 2002; Swap et al., 2001). In addition, formally or informally,

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experienced members can play sponsoring and mentoring roles in enhancing thenewcomer’s degree of organizational attachment (Ashforth and Saks, 1996; Higginsand Kram, 2001).

Socialization tacticsVan Maanen and Schein (1979) propose that different socialization tactics producedifferent results in newcomers’ adjustments to their new roles. They identify sixdimensions of socialization tactics, with each dimension consisting of a bipolarcontinuum: collective-individual, formal-informal, sequential-random, fixed-variable,serial-disjunctive, and investiture-divestiture.

Collective-individual tactics refer to the extent to which newcomers aretrained/socialized in a group or as an individual. With collective tactics, newrecruits undergo common learning experiences designed to convey specificinformation so that homogeneous responses to situations are produced. For instance,many firms group their newly hired IT professionals and provide them with collectivetraining during their initial entry. In contrast, individual tactics provide eachnewcomer with a unique set of learning experiences through designated socializationagents. New IT professionals who go through individual socialization processes willdevelop far more heterogeneous views than those who experience collectivesocialization processes.

Formal-informal tactics refer to the extent to which newcomers’ status is madeexplicit and the extent to which newcomers are segregated from other organizationalmembers in the socialization process. Formal tactics involve segregating newcomersfrom existing members while they learn the responsibilities of their new roles. Someorganizations design formal off-site training programs to familiarize newcomers withcompany policies and firm-specific knowledge. Under informal tactics, organizationsmake few efforts to segregate newcomers from the existing members. Learning takesplace on the job within regular work groups.

Sequential-random tactics are defined by the extent to which new recruits must passthrough a series of discrete steps to obtain full employee status. For instance, to qualifyfor a system analyst designation, some firms require their new IT employees gothrough several IT-related activities such as machine operations, maintenance andprogramming. Organizations provide specific information concerning the sequences ofactivities newcomers will go through to fulfill role expectations. Random tactics occurwhen the sequences of activities leading to the expected role behavior are unclear.

Fixed-variable tactics refer to the extent to which newcomers know in advancewhen their probationary status will end. While sequential-random tactics deal with theorder of events, fixed-variable tactics deal with the temporal nature of the events. Fixedtactics provide newcomers with a precise timetable associated with completing eachstage in the transition from one role to another. In contrast, variable tactics provide noconsistent time frame and few cues as to when to expect the next stage.

Serial-disjunctive tactics refer to whether newcomers have accessible andsupportive organizational members as role models and mentors. Serial tacticsinvolve senior organizational incumbents acting as role models or mentors for thenewcomers. Newcomers are generally expected to follow in footsteps of theirpredecessors. Under disjunctive tactics, newcomers are left alone to develop their owninterpretations of the situations. Under serial tactics, continuity and a sense of history

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are maintained whereas under disjunctive tactics newcomers develop their roles inisolation.

Investiture-divestiture tactics refer to the degree to which the socializationprograms reaffirm newcomers’ self-confidence; especially how newcomers’ priorknowledge and personal characteristics are valued by senior members. Organizationsuse investiture tactics to acknowledge and reinforce the characteristics that thenewcomers possess. They do not wish to change these recruits; rather, they want tocapitalize on the newcomers’ existing skills and knowledge. For instance, many ITprofessionals were hired because of their previous training and specific job experiencewith certain industry or customers. Under divestiture tactics, organizations explicitlyintend to have newcomers strip away existing behaviors and attitudes in order toinstill them with new ones desired by the organizations.

Together, these six dimensions express the choices that the organization may makein socializing its members. Although each dimension is labeled with two differentnames, it represents a bi-polar continuum of organizational socialization practices thatcan be implemented from one extreme to the other. To capture this continuum, Jones(1986) groups the six dimensions into two sets of tactics which he labeled as“institutionalized vs individualized” socialization. Institutionalized tactics, at one endof the continuum, represent the collective, formal, sequential, fixed, serial andinvestiture tactics. The individualized tactics, at the opposite end of the continuum,represent individual, informal, random, variable, disjunctive, and divestiture tactics.While the institutionalized tactics reflect a more structured program of socialization,the individualized tactics reflect a lack of structure (Ashforth et al., 1997). In otherwords, individualized tactics occur more by default than by design. Jones (1986)developed six 5-item scales to measure the extent to which an organization’ssocialization practice reflects the “structuredness” or the institutionalized end of thetactics.

A number of empirical studies have used Jones’ measurement to examine thedifferential effects of the various socialization tactics on organizational outcomevariables such as role conflict, role ambiguity, job satisfaction, organizationalcommitment, and intention to turnover (e.g. Ashforth and Saks, 1996; Baker andFeldman, 1990; Mignerey et al., 1995; Riordan et al., 2001; Fogarty, 2000). However, theempirical findings have been mixed in terms of the effects of the various socializationtactics on organizational outcomes, with regard to both the significance levels and thedirections of the effects. For example, while Jones (1986) and Ashforth and Saks (1996)find significant and positive relationships between the institutionalized tactics andemployee satisfaction and organizational commitment, Orpen (1995) reports theopposite finding – a strong negative relationship between institutionalizedsocialization tactics and employee satisfaction. Fullagar et al. (1995) find thatindividualized socialization tactics had positive impacts on organizational commitmentand that institutionalized tactics were ineffective at best. While most studies havefound favorable outcomes of investiture tactics (e.g. Ashforth and Saks, 1996 andBaker and Feldman, 1990), Fogarty (2000) reports that divestiture is the organizationalchoice more associated with favorable outcomes.

These inconsistent results suggest that the six dimensions of socialization may notproduce uniform and pervasive organizational outcomes across different industriesand professions (Fogarty, 2000). Examining the differential effects of the various

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socialization tactics in a relatively more homogeneous sample such as IT professionalsmay provide insights that help explain the inconsistent findings. In this paper, we takean exploratory approach to examine which effects of institutionalized (vsindividualized) socialization tactics are more consequential.

Research model and hypothesesThe research model and the hypothesized relationships tested in this study are shownin Figure 1. The research model incorporates two research foci described previously.The first focus is on the direct effects of socialization tactics on role adjustmentvariables (role conflict and role ambiguity) and organizational attachment variables(job satisfaction, commitment, and intention to quit). Given mixed past results, it is notclear which socialization tactics are more or less important in producing desiredorganizational outcomes. Since the grouping of individualized vs institutionalizedtactics represents a bi-polar continuum from informal/unstructured toformal/structured socialization practices, our research model and hypotheses utilizethe literature to propose relationships between the extent to which the socializationprocess reflects the institutionalized tactics and the organizational outcomes. Themagnitude and significance level of the effect of each tactic would indicate the relativeimportance of the six tactics in the context of the IT professionals. The second focus ison the logical ordering of the key organizational outcomes of socialization bydistinguishing the role adjustment variables from those of the organizationalattachment variables.

Role adjustment and organizational attachment variablesThe literature suggests that socialization leads to significant organizational outcomeswith regard to newcomers’ work-related attitudes and behaviors. Most commonlystudied organizational outcomes of the various socialization practices include roleconflict, role ambiguity, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention toquit (Feldman, 1989; Saks and Ashforth, 1997; Riordan et al., 2001). Organizationalcommitment has been further divided into affective commitment and continuancecommitment (Meyer et al., 1989).

A role is a set of expectations about behavior for a position in a social structure asdefined by the incumbent or by others who relate, or simply have notions, about it(Rizzo et al., 1970). Organizational “role taking” involves the incumbent (role receiver)practicing role behaviors expected by salient organizational agents (role sender) (Katzand Kahn, 1978). Incongruence or incompatibility between the roles sent and receivedmay cause the incumbent experience two types of stressors: role conflict and roleambiguity. Role conflict occurs when a position requires an individual to play a rolewhich conflicts with his or her value system or to play two roles that conflict with eachother (Van Sell et al., 1981). Role ambiguity is uncertainty about what actions a personshould take to fulfill a role (Kahn et al., 1964).

Organizational attachment refers to an individual’s psychological and behavioralinvolvement in a social group of which he or she is a member (Tsui et al., 1992).Composed of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to quit,organizational attachment is distinct from interpersonal attachment which is rooted inattachment behavior (Joplin et al., 1999). Job satisfaction is the extent to which anemployee expresses a positive affective orientation toward a job (Curry et al., 1986).

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Figure 1.Research model – effectsof socialization tactics

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Organizational commitment is defined as the extent to which an employee identifieswith and is involved in an organization (Curry et al., 1986; Mowday et al., 1982;Reichers, 1985). Although the literature has often viewed organizationalcommitment as a unidimensional construct, it has been suggested thatcommitment is a multidimensional construct. Meyer and colleagues (1989)segment organizational commitment into two types – affective and continuancecommitment. Affective commitment, most commonly used, refers to an employee’semotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization.Continuance commitment refers to involuntary commitment due to the costsassociated with leaving the organization. Intention to quit stems from the idea that ifan individual finds membership in a social unit to be unsatisfactory, he or she willmost likely desire to leave this membership (Tsui et al., 1992). Such intentions havebeen found to be a strong predictor of actual turnover behavior (Griffeth et al., 2000;Hom and Griffeth, 1995).

Socialization tactics and organizational outcomesAs discussed in the previous section, socialization tactics can be described andoperationalized by a bi-polar continuum from individualized tactics (individual,informal, variable, random, disjoint, and divestiture tactics) at the low end toinstitutionalized tactics at the high end (collective, formal, fixed, sequential, serial andinvestiture tactics). Institutionalized tactics tend to be formal and structured, reflectingthe organizational design of the socialization process. In contrast, individualized tacticstend to be informal and idiosyncratic, reflecting the lack of organizational design ofsocialization process (Ashforth et al., 1995). By setting up formal training contexts(collective and formal tactics), providing appropriate job and career advancementinformation (fixed and sequential tactics), and establishing supportive socialenvironments (serial and investiture tactics), institutionalized socialization practiceshelp employees not only learn explicit skills and rules that are essential for effective jobperformance but also understand implicit organizational history, language, values andpolitics that are critical for fitting into the organization (Chao et al., 1994; Jones, 1986;Swap et al., 2001; Taormina, 1998).

Institutionalized socialization tactics should facilitate newcomers’ role adjustment.Jones (1986) argues that institutionalized tactics provide a supporting context andessential information that reduce the uncertainty and anxiety inherent in entering anew organization or a new role. For example, formal orientation and training programshelp the newcomers learn what they need to know about the organization, how to starttheir new jobs or roles, and what the basic organization-specific skills that they mustmaster to be effective organizational members. Sequential and fixed tactics providenewcomers with explicit information about how and when an employee will advance inthe organization. Therefore, ambiguity and uncertainty about the new job/roleenvironments and about how the new job or role will fulfill the employee’s current andfuture career- and job-related needs are reduced.

Compared to individualized tactics, institutionalized socialization tactics tend toprovide a more supportive social and organizational environment which would helpnewcomers adjust their roles and enhance their organizational attachment. As anorganizational choice, institutionalized socialization tactics act as a signal to newcomers, letting them know that they are valued and important. For example,

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organizations demonstrate the value and importance of the newcomers by investing incollective and formal tactics that consist of extensive orientation and trainingprograms. In addition, the investiture tactics seek to “. . . ratify and document forrecruits the viability and usefulness of those characteristics they bring with them to theorganization” (Van Maanen and Schein, 1979, p. 124). Thus the investiture tacticssignal to the newcomers that they already possess the characteristics that are valuedby the organization. The more extensive institutionalized socialization the newcomersexperience, the more they will believe that they play an “. . . important, meaningful,effectual and worthwhile . . . ” role in the organization (Pierce et al., 1989, p. 625), andthe more they will be satisfied and committed to the organization.

The social supporting environment enabled by institutionalized tactics shouldalso facilitate role adjustment and enhance organizational attachment. Under thecollective and formal tactics, newcomers go through orientation and trainingtogether. Under serial tactics, experienced organizational members act as rolemodels, sponsors and mentors, helping newcomers or novices learn tacit skills andknowledge, interpret events, understand organizational values and norms, andnavigate in the political systems (Morrison, 1993; Swap et al., 2001; Taormina, 1998).The literature on mentoring has evolved to view mentoring on a continuum with thetraditional master-apprentice model envisioned by (Levinson et al., 1978) on oneextreme and more general organizational support and sponsorship on the other end(Higgins and Kram, 2001). Whether officially appointed or not, mentors serve asroles models and informal teachers for the newcomers. Mentoring providesnewcomers with both career-enhancing support (sponsorship, coaching, protection,exposure and visibility, and challenging work assignments) and psychologicalsupport (role modeling, acceptance-and-confirmation, counseling, and friendship)(Kram, 1983; Kram and Isabella, 1985). Empirical studies suggest that individualswho are mentored, adjust better to new roles, report higher levels of organizationalattachment, and are promoted more rapidly (Heimann and Pittenger, 1996; Nelsonand Quick, 1991; Ostroff and Kozlowski, 1992; Scandura, 1992; Wanous, 1992).Baruch and Winkelmann-Gleed (2002) reported that support from supervisors andcolleagues enhanced employee job satisfaction which then lead to strongercommitment.

A number of empirical studies support the general proposition thatinstitutionalized socialization tactics help employees adjust their new roles andenhance their organizational attachments. For example, Jones (1986) and Ashforthand Saks (1996) found that the six tactics associated with institutionalized tacticswere negatively associated with role ambiguity, role conflict, and intention to quitand positively associated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.Baker (1989) found that institutionalized socialization was negatively associatedwith intentions to quit, and positively associated with job satisfaction andorganizational commitment. Allen and Meyer (1990) and Baker (1992) reported apositive association between institutionalized socialization and organizationalcommitment. Baker and Feldman (1990) found that institutionalized socializationwas positively associated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.Mignerey et al. (1995) reported that institutionalized socialization was negativelyassociated with role ambiguity and positively associated with organizationalcommitment.

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The above discussion suggests the following hypotheses:

H1. The extent to which institutionalized (vs individualized) socialization tacticsare used have direct and negative effects on new IT professionals’ perceptionsof role ambiguity and role conflict.

H2. The extent to which institutionalized (vs individualized) socialization tacticsare used have direct and positive effects on new IT professionals’ jobsatisfaction.

H3. The extent to which institutionalized (vs individualized) socialization tacticsare used have direct and positive effects on new IT professionals’ affectivecommitment and continuance commitment.

H4. The extent to which institutionalized (vs individualized) socialization tacticsare used have direct and negative effects on new IT professionals’ intention toquit.

Relationships among role adjustment and organizational attachment variablesThe relationships among role conflict, role ambiguity, job satisfaction, organizationalcommitment, and intention to quit have been studied in both the organizationalbehavior and the information systems literature. Jackson and Schuler’s (1985)meta-analysis suggests that role conflict is negatively related to commitment andsatisfaction, and positively related to turnover intention. They also suggest that theeffects of role ambiguity and role conflict on commitment may be indirect rather thandirect, mediated by job satisfaction. If role ambiguity and/or role conflict are toointense, employees will seek alternative situations that are less discomforting. Glissonand Durick (1988) found that role ambiguity is a significant factor contributing tonegative organizational commitment. Their results suggest that clear role expectationsare likely to help ease the newcomers’ anxiety and increase their commitment to theorganization.

In two comprehensive meta-analyses of empirical studies on the antecedents andconsequences of turnover, Griffeth et al. (2000) and Hom and Griffeth (1995) foundstrong support of a negative relationship between organizational commitment andturnover. Baruch and Winkelmann-Gleed (2002) found that commitment wassignificantly and negatively associated with turnover. Lee et al. (1999) suggests alogical order through which various individual and organizational factors lead toturnover.

In the IS literature, a number of studies have examined the relationships between ITemployees’ role adjustment and organizational attachment variables (e.g. Baroudi,1985; Goldstein and Rockart, 1984; Goldstein, 1989; Guimaraes and Igbaria, 1992;Igbaria and Greenhaus, 1992; Igbaria et al., 1994; Igbaria and Siegel, 1992; Weiss, 1983).Baroudi (1985) found that role ambiguity and role conflict negatively affected ITpersonnel job satisfaction, organizational commitment, but positively affectedintention to quit. Igbaria and Greenhaus (1992) and Guimaraes and Igbaria (1992)report first, that role conflict and role ambiguity had positive and indirect effects onintention to quit through job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and second,the most immediate determinants of turnover intentions are job satisfaction and

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organizational commitment. To further understand these linkages, we propose thefollowing hypotheses:

H5. New IT professionals’ perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict havedirect and negative effects on their job satisfaction.

H6. New IT professionals’ perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict havedirect and negative effects on their affective and continuance commitment tothe organization.

H7. New IT professionals’ perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict havedirect and positive effects on their intention to quit.

H8. New IT professionals’ job satisfaction has direct and positive effects on theiraffective and continuance commitment to the organization.

H9. New IT professionals’ job satisfaction has a direct and negative effect on theirintention to quit.

H10. New IT professionals’ affective commitment and continuance commitmenthave direct and negative effects on their intention to quit.

Research methodsSample and procedureData were collected from a sample of 93 organizations in two major mid-west and threemajor east-coast metropolitan areas in the USA. Initially, 174 firms were randomlyselected from local business directories; 58 companies did not have firm-widesocialization practices and 23 companies declined to participate. As a result, 93 firmsparticipated in the study. In each of the participating firms, IT directors/managersdistributed questionnaires to their IT employees who had gone through socializationprocess in the last two years. Organizational tenure of more than two years wasconsidered too long for studying the effects of initial socialization practices (Feldman,1977; Katz, 1978). In order to avoid firm-specific effects such as firm size andfirm-specific response bias that might confute the results, a maximum of fivequestionnaires were distributed in each of the participating firms. Of 323questionnaires distributed, 265 responses were collected, resulting in an initialresponse rate of 82 percent. Five questionnaires were discarded due to incompleteresponses. An additional 73 responses were excluded from this study because, at thetime of the survey, those respondents had been with their organizations for more thantwo years. Therefore, 187 usable responses were included in the data analysis, a finalresponse rate of 55 percent. Demographic characteristics of the respondents arepresented in Table I.

MeasuresThree sets of variables were measured: socialization tactics; role adjustment (roleconflict and role ambiguity); and organizational attachment (job satisfaction, affectivecommitment, continuance commitment, and intention to quit). Since the variablesincluded in the study are mostly well-documented constructs in the literature,established measures with acknowledged psychometric properties were adopted. All

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items were measured using seven-point Likert scales ranging from 1, stronglydisagree, to 7, strongly agree.

Socialization tactics. Socialization tactics were operationalized using 30 items thatwere adapted from the 30-item scale developed by Jones (1986). The measure includesfive-item subscales for each of the six socialization tactics, with higher scores beingindicative of greater extents of institutionalized socialization tactics.Collective-individual tactics were operationalized by five items that assess the extentto which the new IT professionals were involved with other new recruits in commonsocialization activities. Formal-informal tactics were measured by five items thatassess the extent to which the new IT professionals went through a specificallydesigned socialization program that separated them from other organizationalmembers. Sequential-random tactics were operationalized by five items that assess theextent to which the new IT professionals were exposed explicitly to a clearly definedsequence of learning experiences and career ladders.

Fixed-variable tactics were operationalized by five items that assess the extent towhich the new IT professionals were shown that career progress through theorganization follows a fixed timetable of events. Serial-disjunctive tactics wereoperationalized by five items that assess the extent to which the new hires received

%

GenderMale 122 65.2Female 65 34.8Age 27.01 (mean)Tenure 1.69 (mean)EducationHigh school 2 1.1Some college 19 10.2College degree 110 58.8Some graduate study 36 19.2Graduate degree 20 10.7Department size1-5 36 19.36-10 28 15.011-20 24 12.821-30 23 12.3above 30 76 40.6BusinessInsurance 12 6.4Manufacturing 31 16.6Finance/banking 28 15.0Research/consulting 25 13.3Utilities 15 8.0Retail/service 22 11.8Health care 25 13.4Transportation 10 5.3Computer/communication 13 7.0Other 6 3.2

Table I.Demographic

characteristics of thesample (n ¼ 187)

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help, advice or mentoring from more senior organization incumbents.Investiture-divestiture tactics were operationalized by five items that assess theextent to which the new IT professionals experienced a supportive social environmentin which their value and skills were recognized and valued.

The reliability coefficients of the socialization scales as indicated by Cronbach’salpha ranged from 0.70 to 0.87.

Role adjustment. Role ambiguity and role conflict were measured using five and sixitems, respectively, adapted from the scales developed by Rizzo et al. (1970). Cronbach’salpha coefficients for role conflict and role ambiguity were 0.81 and 0.70, respectively.

Organizational attachment. Job satisfaction was measured by using six itemsadapted from Guimaraes and Igbaria (1992). These items assess the extent to which thenew hires were satisfied with their jobs, salaries, status, promotions, and careeropportunities. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for job satisfaction was 0.86.

Affective commitment and continuance commitment were operationalized by 16items adapted from the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Porter et al., 1974).Affective commitment was represented by items that assess the extent to whichindividuals felt emotionally attached or belonging to the organization. Continuancecommitment was measured by items that assess the extent to which individuals wouldfeel lost or experience negative consequences if they were to leave the organization.Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for affective and continuance commitment were 0.80 and0.86, respectively.

Intention to quit was measured by four items, based on Cammann et al. (1979) andSeashore et al. (1982), that assess an individual’s plans, intentions, and desires to leavethe organization. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.95.

ResultsSummary statistics and correlations among the variables are presented in Table II. Thenumbers in the parentheses on the diagonal indicate the inter-item reliability. In allcases, Cronbach’s alpha values are greater than interscale correlations, which indicatessatisfactory discriminant validity between the variables (Buchanan, 1974).

Path analysis technique using hierarchical regressions was used to estimate andtest the path model and hypotheses shown in Figure 1. To ensure that the assumptionsof path analysis were met and that the models being tested were correctly specified,scatter plots of the residuals were examined. Since the patterns of residuals wererandom and contained few outliers, path analysis was deemed to be appropriate.Results of the path analysis, including direct, indirect and total effects of theindependent variables on the corresponding dependent variables in the six hierarchicalregressions, are presented in Table III. Consistent with the research model andhypotheses shown in Figure 1, role conflict and role ambiguity were each a function ofthe six socialization tactics. Job satisfaction was a function of role ambiguity and roleconflict, in addition to the six socialization tactics. Similarly, affective commitment,continuance commitment and intention to turnover were each a function of thepreceding role adjustment and organizational attachment variables, in addition to thesix socialization tactics. Figure 2 illustrates the significant paths among the variables.

As shown in Table III, the research model explained significant amounts ofvariances in role adjustment and organizational attachment variables. Role conflictwas negatively influenced by the extent to which the socialization process reflects fixed

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0.59

***

(0.8

1)

SE

RIA

L4.

251.

490.

28**

*0.

41**

*0.

47**

*0.

49**

*(0

.78)

INV

ES

T5.

210.

940.

20**

0.29

***

0.38

***

0.35

***

0.49

***

(0.7

3)

CO

NF

LIC

T3.

711.

242

0.09

20.

19**

20.

36**

*2

0.40

***

20.

39**

*2

0.53

***

(0.8

1)

AM

BIG

5.48

0.58

20.

17*

20.

060.

082

0.04

20.

012

0.07

20.

07(0

.70)

AC

3.89

1.33

0.11

0.24

***

0.25

***

0.31

***

0.33

***

0.56

***

20.

44**

*0.

07(0

.80)

CC

3.98

1.28

20.

012

0.07

20.

122

0.10

20.

032

0.33

***

0.26

***

20.

062

0.24

***

(0.8

6)

SA

T4.

451.

180.

020.

080.

24**

*0.

21**

*0.

31**

*0.

55**

*2

0.50

***

0.15

*0.

62**

*2

0.29

***

(0.8

6)

QU

IT3.

231.

810.

090.

022

0.07

20.

092

0.24

***

20.

33**

*0.

48**

*0.

052

0.63

***

0.17

*2

0.60

***

(0.9

5)

Notes:

*p,

0.05

;**p

,0.

01;*

**p,

0.00

1;C

OL

LE

CT

–C

olle

ctiv

e,S

EQ

UE

NT

–S

equ

enti

al,I

NV

ES

T–

Inv

esti

ture

,CO

NF

LIC

T–

Rol

eco

nfl

ict,

AM

BIG

–R

ole

amb

igu

ity

,

AC

–A

ffec

tiv

eC

omm

itm

ent,

CC

–C

onti

nu

ance

Com

mit

men

t,S

AT

–S

atis

fact

ion

,Q

UIT

–In

ten

tion

toq

uit

Table II.Means, standard

deviations andcorrelations among the

variables

Socialization andorganizational

outcomes

39

Rol

e

con

flic

t

Rol

e

amb

igu

ity

Job

sati

sfac

tion

Aff

ecti

ve

com

mit

men

tC

onti

nu

ance

com

mit

men

tIn

ten

tion

toq

uit

Pre

dic

tors

Dir

ect

Dir

ect

Dir

ect

Ind

irec

tT

otal

Dir

ect

Ind

irec

tT

otal

Dir

ect

Ind

irec

tT

otal

Dir

ect

Ind

irec

tT

otal

Socialization

Col

lect

ive

0.09

20.

21**

20.

052

0.04

20.

092

0.02

20.

042

0.06

0.04

0.01

0.05

0.08

0.07

0.15

*

For

mal

0.05

20.

032

0.08

20.

022

0.10

0.12

20.

030.

092

0.03

0.01

20.

020.

100.

010.

11

Seq

uen

tial

20.

100.

20*

0.03

20.

102

0.07

20.

060.

022

0.04

20.

022

0.03

20.

50.

062

0.01

0.05

Fix

ed2

0.19

*2

0.10

20.

020.

040.

020.

090.

040.

130.

002

0.03

20.

030.

122

0.12

0.00

Ser

ial

20.

082

0.01

0.04

0.03

0.07

20.

032

0.05

0.02

0.19

*0.

000.

19*

20.

16*

20.

042

0.20

*

Inv

esti

ture

20.

42**

*0.

080.

41**

*0.

120.

53**

*0.

25**

0.26

**0.

51**

*2

0.29

**2

0.11

20.

40**

*2

0.20

*0.

102

0.30

***

Role

stressors

Rol

eco

nfl

ict

20.

27**

20.

082

0.11

20.

19*

0.09

0.06

0.15

0.27

***

0.18

*0.

45**

*

Rol

e

amb

igu

ity

0.10

20.

040.

070.

030.

012

0.03

20.

020.

11*

0.01

0.12

Job

sati

sfac

tion

0.45

***

20.

142

0.26

***

20.

24**

20.

50**

*

Com

mitment

Aff

ecti

ve

20.

53**

*

Con

tin

uan

ce0.

01

Ad

just

edR

20.

33**

*0.

06**

0.35

***

0.44

***

0.11

***

0.58

***

Notes:

*p,

.05;

**p,

0.01

;**

*p,

0.00

1

Table III.Direct, indirect, and totaleffects of predictors ondependent variables

CDI10,1

40

and investiture tactics (R2 ¼ 0:33;P , 0:001). Role ambiguity was negativelyinfluenced by the extent to which the socialization process reflects collective andsequential tactics (R2 ¼ 0:06;P , 0:05). Job satisfaction was positively influenced bythe extent to which the socialization process reflected investiture tactics and wasnegatively influenced by role conflict (R2 ¼ 0:35;P , 0:001). Affective commitmentwas positively influenced by both job satisfaction and the extent to which thesocialization process reflected investiture tactics (R2 ¼ 0:44;P , 0:001). Continuance

Figure 2.Path estimates

Socialization andorganizational

outcomes

41

commitment was positively influenced by the extent to which the socialization processreflects investiture and serial tactics (R2 ¼ 0:11;P , 0:001). Intention to quit wasnegatively influenced by role conflict and role ambiguity, and was positivelyinfluenced by job satisfaction, affective commitment and by the extent to which thesocialization process reflected investiture and serial tactics (R2 ¼ 0:58;P , 0:001).

H1 through H4 propose that the extents to which institutionalized socializationtactics are used have direct effects on new IT professionals’ role adjustment andorganizational attachment. Figure 2 and Table II reveal ten significant direct effectsfrom the six socialization constructs to the role adjustment and organizationalattachment variables. The results suggest that sequential tactics had direct positiveeffects and collective tactics had direct negative effects on role ambiguity. Bothinvestiture and fixed tactics had direct negative effects on role conflict. Thus H1 waspartially supported. When role ambiguity and role conflict were taken intoconsideration, only investiture tactics had direct positive effect on job satisfaction,partially supporting H2. When role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction wereconsidered, serial tactics had direct positive effects and investiture tactics had negativeeffects on continuance commitment, respectively; only investiture tactics had directpositive effects on affective commitment. Therefore, H3 was partially supported. Withthe other preceding role adjustment (role ambiguity and role conflict) andorganizational attachment (job satisfaction, continuance commitment and affectivecommitment) variables were factored in, serial and investiture tactics had direct andnegative effects on intention to quit, partially supporting H4. These findings suggestthat the various tactics had different effects and that, a mix of, rather than all, sixsocialization tactics affected IT professionals’ role adjustment and organizationalattachment. More specifically, the extent to which investiture tactics were used haddirect and significant effects on all role adjustment and organizational attachmentvariables except for role ambiguity. In addition, whether the socialization was fixed orvariable had no effect at all to any of the role adjustment and organizationalattachment variables.

H5 through H7 propose the logical relationships among the role adjustment andorganizational attachment variables. Figure 2 illustrates six significantinterrelationships among those variables. The results show that role conflict had adirect and negative effect on job satisfaction but role ambiguity did not, partiallysupporting H5. Neither role conflict nor role ambiguity had a direct effect on affectivecommitment or continuance commitment. Therefore, H6 was not supported. Both roleconflict and role ambiguity had a direct and positive effect on intention to quit,supporting H7.

H8 and H9 propose that job satisfaction has direct effects on organizationalcommitment and intention to quit. The results demonstrated that job satisfactionindeed had a direct and positive effect on affective commitment but had no direct effecton continuance commitment. H8 was partially supported. Job satisfaction had a directand negative effect on intention to quit, supporting H9. H10 proposes that affectivecommitment and continuance commitment have direct and negative effects onintention to quit. The results showed that affective commitment had a direct andnegative effect on intention to quit, but continuance commitment did not directly affectintention to quit. Therefore, H10 was partially supported.

CDI10,1

42

Discussion and implicationsIn this study, we examined how institutionalized socialization practices affect ITprofessionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. The results havebroader implications for understanding how socialization can be utilized for managingknowledge workers. To compete in the growing knowledge-based economy,organization increasingly depend on the most important resources that they possess– knowledge workers. Given the high turnover problem caused by the emergence ofboundary-less careers, organizations face increasing challenges of retaining knowledgeworkers. They must not only be able to recruit high quality professionals but also helpthem successfully transition into their new roles. In order to deal with those challenges,it is important to understand organizational mechanisms that influence newemployees’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. To the extent that thosespecific factors and organizational mechanisms can be controlled and utilized by theorganization, knowledge worker retention could be increased through appropriateadministrative actions designed to address the problem areas.

Fogarty (2000) contends that no industry or professional occupation will experiencethe uniform and pervasive effects of all socialization tactics on all organizationaloutcome variables. Our study represents an exploratory attempt to identify selecteffects of socialization tactics that would be more consequential for IT professionals.The results showed that various socialization tactics affected new IT professionalsdifferently, much more selective and idiosyncratic than the general propositionssuggested by the literature. Conversely, the research model we tested indicates thatorganizational outcomes of interest are not distinct and isolated but connected, and tosome extent, attributable to a meaningful set of socialization tactics and logicalmediating relationships among the role adjustment and organizational attachmentvariables. Therefore, organizations should avoid using one-size-fit-all approacheswhen applying socialization tactics to IT professionals in particular and knowledgeworkers in general.

A main finding of the study is that seven of the ten significant direct effects ofsocialization pertain to the value (investiture) and social (serial) dimensions.Specifically, investiture tactics had the most important influences on ITprofessionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment, accounting for half ofthe total socialization effects. Investiture tactics were associated with not only reducedrole conflict, greater job satisfaction and increased affective commitment but also lowerbehavioral intentions to quit. This finding is especially significant because, as shownin Table II and Figure 2, rather than linking the six socialization tactics directly to eachof the role adjustment and organizational attachments, we used hierarchicalregressions in which the logical order among the role adjustment and organizationalattachment variables was taken into consideration. This result is consistent with anumber of studies that reported favorable organizational outcomes associated withinvestiture tactics (e.g. Allen and Meyer, 1990; Ashforth and Saks, 1996; Baker andFeldman, 1990; Jones, 1986). IT professionals tend to bring with them strong individualskills and personal characteristics. As the organization recognizes and approves thoseskills and personal characteristics, the IT professionals will perceive greater fit withthe organization’s values and norms, and will tend to experience less role stress, higherjob satisfaction, higher organizational commitment, and will be less likely to leave theorganization.

Socialization andorganizational

outcomes

43

Serial tactics also had direct and negative effects on IT professionals’ behavioralintentions to quit. In addition, serial tactics were associated with enhanced continuancecommitment. Information systems literature suggests that the process of developingand implementing applications requires continuous interactions with individuals bothinternal and external to the information systems department, necessitating thecrossing of many organizational boundaries (Guimaraes and Igbaria, 1992). Therefore,IT professionals must work closely with various business units and staff functions toidentify business problems and opportunities that technologies can be used to eitherimprove organizational efficiency or enable business growth. Once specific businessproblems and opportunities are identified and systems development projects areapproved, IT professionals must interact with the business sponsors and users todetermine the business requirements, model the various business and data elements,translate them into technical specifications, and work with various external vendors tocreate software systems that will deliver the business solutions. To successfully carryout this complex process, IT professionals must depend on trust relationships andsupport mechanisms. In order to build such trust and supports, IT professionals willbenefit greatly from sponsorships and mentorings from experienced organizationalmembers, whether formally or informally. Such sponsorships and mentoring will helpnew employees learn unspoken organizational norms and politics, understand andnavigate in the complex web of relationships, and establish their own emotional andjob-related supporting networks. To the extent that the organization makes efforts toprovide such sponsorships and mentoring environments and helps the new ITprofessionals establish various relationships, the IT professionals will feel obligated tostay, therefore, will show greater continuance commitment and will be less likely toleave the organization.

Another significant finding of the study is that four institutionalized socializationtactics had direct and significant effects on role adjustment. Both investiture and fixedtactics seemed to reduce role conflict while collective tactics helped alleviate roleambiguity. On the other hand, sequential tactics increased role ambiguity. Indeveloping and implementing information systems, experience a great deal of jobboundary spanning activities interacting with other IT professionals, internal businesssponsors and users, and external business customers and technology vendors. Inaddition, IT activities in most companies are organized as projects with distinctlifecycles. When one project completes and another project starts, the IT professionalsmust deal with a new set of business contexts and problems and interact with a newgroup of internal and external constituencies. Exacerbating the situation, bothbusiness and technologies frequently change, demanding IT professionals toconstantly learn new skills and update business knowledge. It is also difficult togain and sustain consensus on job functions and systems requirements among ITprofessionals, supervisors, business sponsors and users, and external customers andvendors. As a result, the roles of IT professionals are ill-defined and frequently change,and expectations are often ambiguous.

The results of our study suggest that, by recognizing and taking advantages of newIT professionals’ skills, values and personal qualities, investiture tactics help them feelless uncertain about their roles and enable them to experience less role conflicts. Fixedsocialization tactics also helped reduced IT professionals’ perceptions of role conflictby providing them with specific timetable related to completing each stage in the

CDI10,1

44

transition from one role into another. When new IT professionals undergo a commonlearning experience at the outset through the collective tactics, they tend to developmore homogenous interpretations and responses to their new roles and environments.They would in turn, as indicated by our results, experience less role ambiguity.

Whether socialization is carried out formally or informally, did not have significantimpact on IT professionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. Oneexplanation of this result is that effective socialization is as much an informal sociallearning, mentoring and knowledge transfer process as a formal orientation andtraining process. In many cases, structured and formal practices may be less effectiveand efficient than unstructured and informal processes (Miller and Jablin, 1991). Whilethe formal orientation and training help new IT professionals learn specific knowledgeand procedures that have been documented, the informal learning process enablesthem to understand the complex knowledge about business relationships,organizational norms, values and politics that are difficult to document in the formaltraining programs and information systems. As such, while the formal orientation andtraining tend to be short-term events occurring at the entry time, the informal learningand knowledge transfer process occurs over a period of time passing the entry point.Organizations can structure their socialization practices to strengthen new ITprofessionals’ feelings and attitudes and help them to change from “outsiders” to“insiders” by providing mentoring programs to guide their professional developmentand organizational adjustment. In addition to mentors as central social supports for thetransformation of newcomers into established “insiders,” supervisors and colleaguescan play important roles by developing interdependent interpersonal attachments withnewcomers. These reciprocal and dynamic relationships are anchored in the mutualexchange of information, emotional support, evaluative feedback, and instrumentalsupport (Nelson and Quick, 1991). The results are not only newcomer health andwell-being (Joplin et al., 1999), but also organizational health and vitality.

The results also revealed logical relationships among role adjustment andorganizational attachment variables. Previous studies found that both role ambiguityand role conflict are negatively correlated with job satisfaction and organizationalcommitment, and positively correlated with intention to quit (Baroudi, 1985;Guimeraes and Igbaria, 1992; Igbaria and Siegel, 1992; Jones, 1986). The results ofthis suggest that IT professionals who experienced higher role conflict tend to havelower job satisfaction, and are more likely to quit, which is consistent with previousresearch findings. However, role ambiguity only had a direct and positive effect onintention to quit. One explanation could be that the IT professionals in this study wereyounger (average of 27 years) and relatively newer (average 1.69 years) in theirorganizations compared with those in other studies. For example, the average age andtenure of the IT employees in Baroudi’s (1985) study were 37 years and 4.3 years,respectively. For younger employees just beginning their careers, role ambiguity maynot immediately affect their job satisfaction and commitment. In addition, Rizzo et al.(1970) suggest that role conflict may be more dysfunctional than role ambiguity interms of affecting job satisfaction and commitment. Nevertheless, for IT professionals,both role conflict and role ambiguity had direct impact on their behavioral intentions toleave the organization. Since four of the six institutionalized socialization tactics haddirect effects on role adjustment which in turn had direct impact on organizational

Socialization andorganizational

outcomes

45

attachment variables, role adjustment variables seemed to act as the gateways thatlink the organization’s socialization practices to IT professionals’ behavioral outcomes.

Limitations and future researchSeveral limitations of this study need to be recognized. First, our study sampleconsisted of IT professionals who, at the time of the study, were still working for theiremployers. Our study example thus excluded a critical group of IT professionals whosesocialization experience was perhaps so lacking that they had quit before our studywas conducted. Most socialization studies have typically surveyed existing employees,thus excluding those respondents who are no longer employees. To overcome thiscommon research limitation, future research should gather information from not onlythe existing employees but also those who have left the employers.

The second limitation of this study is that we relied on self-reports for datagathering. Since respondents were recalling their socialization experience, there mightbe potential memory-related biases. Two research design approaches may beconsidered to overcome the potential problems with self-reported data gathering. Oneapproach is to use longitudinal research design to gather both the antecedent and theoutcome variables at different times. Another complementary approach is to gatherinformation from multiple sources.

Another potential limitation of the study is that the average tenure of the ITprofessionals in the sample was 1.69 years, in which case the participants might not beconsidered as “new.” While future research is needed to examine how employee tenureaffects the relationships between socialization tactics and organizational outcomes, itmay not be a significant issue for this study. Researchers have used a wide range ofemployee tenure in empirical studies of socialization. For example, in a recent study ofthe effects of socialization practices on new accounting auditors (Fogarty, 2000), theaverage tenure of the participants was 29 months, ranging from eight to 41 months.While a short tenure is appropriate for studying the immediate effects of socializationon newcomers’ entrance into the organization, some length of time may be needed tostudy the socialization effects on the knowledge learning and social assimilationaspects. Morrison (1993) argues that there are two tasks for organizationalsocialization: learning and social assimilation. Learning requires the newcomers toacquire information through both formal and informal channels about organizationalnorms, goals, history; job information and role information. On the other hand, socialassimilation require the newcomers to establish their social and political networks suchas sponsorships, mentoring and friendship relationships, whether or not formally setup by the organization. As we mentioned above, the formal orientation and trainingcan take place immediately after the newcomers start whereas the knowledge transferand social assimilation occur gradually. The results of this study indeed suggest thatthe value and social aspects of socialization have the most significant effects on new ITprofessionals’ role adjustment and organizational attachment. While the exact lengthof such period is difficult to decide, it has been suggested that organizational tenure ofmore than two years would be considered too long for studying socialization effects(Feldman, 1977; Katz, 1978). Accordingly, we used a maximum of two years as thecriterion for sample selection.

Future research should examine the validity and reliability of the measures ofsocialization tactics, role adjustment and organizational attachment variables. In this

CDI10,1

46

study, the measures of the role ambiguity showed a relatively low Cronbach’s alpha(0.70), although it was above the recommended minimum level. The relatively lowalpha might be due to the fact that the measures of role ambiguity were developed overmore than three decades ago (Rizzo et al., 1970), which may not reflect the changingroles of the knowledge workers. Another reason for the relatively low reliability couldbe that, due to the unstructured nature of the IS professional roles, the measures maynot have the appropriate domain coverage. Such items as authority, responsibility,expectations, clarity of job explanation may represent dimensions that are notinternally consistent for IT professionals. Since valid and reliable measures arepre-requisites of appropriate theory development and testing, it is important thatresearchers update and revalidate the measures of the relevant variables so thatchanges in both individual role and career characteristics and organizational contextare taken into consideration.

As characterized by the boundary-less careers, the nature of the employer-employeerelationship in the new knowledge-based economy has changed dramatically. Facingfrequent job changes of knowledge workers between employers, employers mustrethink how to make adjustments to their socialization practices and knowledgemanagement to help new employees make smooth job transitions and moreimportantly, to retain them. Future research is needed to examine the impact of theboundary-less careers on the organizational socialization from both the individualemployees’ and the employers’ points of view.

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Further reading

Mobley, W., Horner, S. and Hollingsworth, A. (1978), “An evaluation of the precursors of hospitalemployee turnover”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, pp. 408-14.

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