Role Transitions

Role Entry

Regardless of how difficult the transition may be, role entry typically involves a period of mutual adjustment between the individual and the group. As Richard Moreland and John Levine have put it, newcomers tend to enter as quasi-members and become full members with “all of the privileges and responsibilities associated with group membership”only when they are socialized and accepted by the group. Accordingly, the group tends to exert a large impact on the individual. Because it is hard for the individual to anticipate the demands and nuances of the new role and the group(s) within which it is embedded, entry often fosters surprise and uncertainty, which motivate the new member to learn about the situation.

Elizabeth Morrison has stated that learning focuses on technical information about how to perform tasks, referent information about role expectations, social information about other people and one's relationships with them, appraisal information about how one is evaluated, normative information about the group's nature, and political information about the distribution and use of power and status. Because newcomers are naïve and lack credibility, they are predisposed to adapt to the situation in order to fit in. Thus, individuals tend to be most amenable to personal change when they first enter a new situation. To that end, groups may actively socialize newcomers through some mix of mentors, initiation rites, training, “on the job” trial and error, and observation of senior members.

...