The moderating role of socialisation efforts in newcomer adjustment

The literature on organisations' newcomer adjustment remains divided along a number of fronts. This seems a critical oversight of newcomer adjustment research because of overlaps in predictions involving constructs. Moreover, researchers bemoan the frequent use of broad work attitudes, such as organisational commitment and job satisfaction as outcomes. Newcomers are primarily interested in resolving questions of how to act and how well they match the new environment; the current research examines the interaction of multiple antecedents to understand the tandem process of newcomer adjustment as related to immediate outcomes of newcomer adjustment. A three-wave longitudinal study of 439 newcomers in seven organisations examined the interaction between newcomers' personality traits and socialisation influence (formal training, leaders and co-workers) as antecedents of proximal adjustment indicators. The results suggest that leader socialisation moderates conscientiousness as it relates to political knowledge of the organisation and group integration and that co-workers moderate extroversion as related to task performance.