Engineering the Engineers: Socialization Tactics and New Engineer Adjustment in Organizations

Newly recruited engineers entering organizations often experience anxiety and uncertainty with regard to their roles, tasks, and career prospects in the organization. Successful adjustment of these newcomers to the role and organization has implications for performance, retention, and turnover of valuable knowledge workers. Organizations use several tactics to facilitate the new engineer's adjustment to the role and organization. This study investigated the socialization of 135 new engineers using the theoretical framework of organizational socialization tactics. The moderating effects of gender on new engineer adjustment are also examined since engineering is often described as a male-dominated profession. Results show that organizational socialization tactics strongly influence newcomer role clarity, workgroup integration, and task mastery. These proximal outcomes, in turn, lead to increased satisfaction and organizational commitment. Gender-specific differences are also found with regard to the impact of tactics on outcomes. Gender-moderated the effects of investiture, serial, and fixed tactics on role clarity and work group integration. Implications of the results for practice and theory are discussed.