12.07.2021New article how newcomers’ self-presentation affects socialization outcomes

Drawing from social influence theory, the current study examines how and when newcomers’ self-presentation, in the form of ingratiation and self-promotion, facilitates their socialization success (indicated by affective commitment, job performance, and promotability) by shaping their supervisors’ relational and work-based socialization efforts. Data from a time-lagged field study of 355 newcomer-supervisor dyads provided support for the proposed model. In particular, we found that ingratiation was positively related to supervisor relational socialization effort, which in turn was positively related to newcomer affective commitment. These findings illustrate how newcomers can achieve desirable socialization outcomes by enacting social influence on organizational insiders with self-presentation, extending the literatures on both self-presentation and newcomer socialization.

Gross, C., Debus, M. E., Liu, Y., Wang, M., & Kleinmann, M. (2021). I am nice and capable! How and when newcomers’ self-presentation to their supervisors affects socialization outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(7), 1067–1079. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000817

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