The Socialization Stress in Establishment Process

In the last byte, we discussed about psychological contracts. In today's byte we discuss about the stress that comes along with the initial socialization during the establishment phase. We also leverage on the discussion on socialization we had earlier - link here.

During the anticipatory socialization phase, the new comer to the organization is seeking information from various sources about the job and organization - ambiguity is one of the major sources of stress during this phase; this could be resolved by providing access to accurate information. It is during this phase that the psychological contract mentioned earlier is formed (so both the parties involved should approach it with good intentions of living up to their end of the agreement).
 

The anticipatory phase creates expectations in the mind of the newcomer, and during the encounter phase these expectations are put to a reality check.  The demands of the job in terms of role, task, interpersonal relationships and physical settings become apparent. It is possible that when the expectations aren't validated to be true - the newcomer experiences a shock.
 

An approach that a few organizations take in this scenario is to allow the new comer to adapt - say two, three months for them to reach certain level of independence. If the adaptation to the settings hasn't been possible for the newcomer they would begin receiving negative feedback from their coworkers.
 

In the last two phases of the socialization process, the newcomer begins to master the job demands and gains control over the job.