2006 Awards for Excellence

Citation

(2006), "2006 Awards for Excellence", Career Development International, Vol. 11 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2006.13711eaa.001

2006 Awards for Excellence

2006 Awards for Excellence

Career Development International Outstanding Paper

"Socialization and organizational outcomes of information technology professionals"

Ruth C. KingUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USAWeidong XiaUniversity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USAJames Campbell QuickUniversity of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USAVikram SethiWright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA

AbstractPurpose - 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 attitudes, Employee turnover, Job satisfaction, Socialization

www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/13620430510577619

CDIVolume 10 Number 1, 2005, pp.26-51Editor: Yehuda Baruch