Newcomer Adjustment: Examining the Role of Managers\u27 Perception of Newcomer Proactive Behavior During Organizational Socialization

Separate streams of organizational socialization research have recognized the importance of (a) newcomer proactivity and (b) manager support in facilitating newcomer adjustment. However, extant research has largely focused on the newcomers\u27 experience, leaving the perspectives of managers during socialization relatively unexplored-a theoretical gap that has implications both for newcomer adjustment and manager-newcomer interactions that may serve as a basis for future relationship development. Drawing from the interlocked employee behavior argument of Weick (1979), we propose that managers\u27 perception of newcomers\u27 proactive behaviors are associated with concordant manager behaviors, which, in turn, support newcomer adjustment. Further, we investigate a cognitive mechanism-managers\u27 evaluation of newcomers\u27 commitment to adjust-which we expect underlies the proposed relationship between newcomers\u27 proactive behaviors and managers\u27 supportive behaviors. Using a time-lagged, 4-phase data collection of a sample of new software engineers in India and their managers, we were able to test our hypothesized model as well as rule out alternative explanations via multilevel structural equation modeling. Results broadly supported our model even after controlling for manager-newcomer social exchange relationship, proactive personalities of both newcomers and managers, and potential effects of coworker information providing. The implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed

HUMAN CAPITAL ACQUISITION AND ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION: A TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE

Newcomers contribute to organizational innovation by bringing in new knowledge and ideas, on the one hand, and by collaborating and exchanging with incumbents, on the other. We propose that an organization's ability to use these contributions is influenced by hiring rate, hiring rate change, and hiring rate dispersion, which affect both the flow of new ideas into the organization and the level of collaboration between newcomers and incumbents. Using four years of data from a large, multi-industry sample, we find that hiring rate and hiring rate dispersion increase organizational innovation. We also find that increases in hiring rates from year to year are positively related to innovation for organizations with more collaborative work practices, while the relationship between hiring rate dispersion and innovation is less positive when organizations have more collaborative work practices. This study highlights how temporal patterns of hiring influence human capital acquisition and development

Leader Humor as an Interpersonal Resource: Integrating Three Theoretical Perspectives

We integrate theoretical perspectives on humor to test the processes through which leader humor (LH) facilitates subordinate organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). In doing so, we argue that humor is a key interpersonal resource for leaders and derive our comprehensive model with logic from three individual-resource-related theories-social exchange theory, conservation of resources theory, and broaden-and-build theory. Leader-triggered positive emotion and subsequent social exchange, operationalized as leader-member exchange (LMX), functioned as key sequential mechanisms mediating the relationship between LH and subordinate OCBs. LH induced positive emotion in subordinates, which fostered high-quality LMX and, in turn, OCBs. Contrary to expectations, the stress relief explanation of LH was not supported. This research contributes to knowledge of humor in organizations, and particularly LH, as it is the first to establish a link between LH and OCBs and also represents the first integration and concurrent examination of three functions of humor. We additionally offer empirical contributions to the humor literature by providing a comprehensive test of prior conceptual arguments regarding mechanisms of LH and validating a measure of LH that can be used in future research. For LMX research, we draw attention to LH as an overlooked but important socioemotional resource for social exchange