Organizational Socialization

The experiences of joining and leaving organizations permeate most people’s lives in the 21st century. This book provides a framework for increasing our understanding of those experiences using a mixture of specific examples, scholarly findings, and theoretical concepts and models. Each chapter begins with a realistic scenario that illustrates its concepts and theories. Then the chapters explore the entire socialization process from anticipatory socialization, in which individuals choose occupations and organizations to join, to voluntarily or involuntarily exit from those same organizations. In between, chapters examine the process of entering organizations, learning their culture, developing personal relationships, and experiencing individual transitions, like promotions, and organizational transitions, like mergers and acquisitions, as part of the ongoing socialization process. It expands the study of socialization by considering socialization of organizational volunteers as well