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Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations

Author

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  • Doyle , Gabriel
  • Srivastava, Sameer B.
  • Goldberg, Amir
  • Frank, Michael C.

Abstract

Cultural fit is widely believed to affect the success of individuals and the groups to which they belong. Yet it remains an elusive, poorly measured construct. Recent research draws on computational linguistics to measure cultural fit but overlooks asymmetries in cultural adaptation. By contrast, we develop a directed, dynamic measure of cultural fit based on linguistic alignment, which estimates the influence of one person’s word use on another’s and distinguishes between two enculturation mechanisms: internalization and selfregulation. We use this measure to trace employees’ enculturation trajectories over a large, multi-year corpus of corporate emails and find that patterns of alignment in the first six months of employment are predictive of individuals downstream outcomes, especially involuntary exit. Further predictive analyses suggest referential alignment plays an overlooked role in linguistic alignment.

Suggested Citation

  • Doyle , Gabriel & Srivastava, Sameer B. & Goldberg, Amir & Frank, Michael C., 2017. "Alignment at Work: Using Language to Distinguish the Internalization and Self-Regulation Components of Cultural Fit in Organizations," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt3z83b0x0, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt3z83b0x0
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    Cited by:

    1. Anjali M. Bhatt & Amir Goldberg & Sameer B. Srivastava, 2022. "A Language-Based Method for Assessing Symbolic Boundary Maintenance between Social Groups," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 51(4), pages 1681-1720, November.
    2. Gaižauskienė Laura & Tunčikienė Živilė, 2018. "Organizational Level Factors of Knowledge Worker-Workplace Fit: Identifying the Key Drivers," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 167-178, December.
    3. Kim, Dennie & Funk, Russell & Zaheer, Aks, 2020. "Structure in Context: A Morphological View of Whole Network Performance," SocArXiv x6q7g, Center for Open Science.
    4. Michelle Gander, 2019. "Let the right one in: A Bourdieusian analysis of gender inequality in universities’ senior management," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 107-123, March.

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