Socialization

Conceptual Overview

The notion of socialization, applied to organizations, had its larger development in the area of applied social-psychological studies, known as the psychology of work. Within this area, diverse conceptions of socialization were covered, from the classic to contemporary positions, according to the passive or active role assigned to the subject within the process. In the classic notion, the contribution of the individual and his or her personal capacity to modify the partner-structural context are ignored or relegated, and socialization is compared to the learning of specific requirements of the dominant culture. In the intermediate perspectives, it is recognized that the process is about social influence, and the personal changes caused by learning are considered; also the presence of elements of a spontaneous nature, which intervene in the assimilation of cognitive elements and were not planned by the organization, are also noted.

Contemporary positions consider the person as an active agent, responsible for his or her attitudes and labor behaviors, and neglect the partner-structural aspects of the situation. According to this view, socialization is defined in terms of strategies that the new member uses to anticipate and adapt to the labor context. These theoretical approaches draw on different views of socialization in the organization: They shift from taking a unidirectional position in which only the organization acts on the member, to an intermediate position that adopts the theory of social role transition, to a model of labor socialization that contemplates the active participation of the newcomers in the process, making them responsible for their own organizational socialization. The latter consider socialization of newcomers as a general dynamic process, which results from the reciprocal interactions between thoughts (e.g., cognition, perception of selfeffectiveness, and expectations of results), other factors of a personal nature, and performance, as well as the circumstances of the organizational climate or culture that the person enters. Reciprocity in these relations implies neither symmetry in the components of the model nor that they act simultaneously. In this perspective, the new member is a partial agent of his or her socialization because the individual is active, reflexive, creative, and innovative, and the process of socialization depends on a series of fundamental individual capacities. The person, as a new employee, takes responsibility for his or her actions and the consequences generated during socialization, by anticipating and learning by means of observation, self-regulation, and reflection.

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