| Organizational socialization (OS) has been a highly researched and debated subject matter by scholars in a variety of disciplines. While prior conceptualizations have explored newcomers' socialization into organizations, they obscure the communicative, interactive, and exclusionary nature of the process. This qualitative dissertation of the sorority and Greek system at the University of Utah questions and builds upon several key assumptions in extant socialization literature in order to reconceptualize the OS process from a perspective that emphasizes communication and interaction. Standpoint feminism and structuration theory are drawn on for theoretical sensitivity so that a grounded theory of OS can eventually be developed.; This study provides a variety of implications for future research and reconceptualization of the OS process. First, informal interactions between newcomers and members are crucial to newcomers' successful socialization and result in a variety of outcomes (e.g., feelings of inclusion, relational development) that benefit newcomers. Further, the location of informal interaction is important as it provides opportunities for relational and personal development. Second, newcomers and members manage complex systems of rules, rewards, and punishments, which are important yet underemphasized in existing literature. Continued exploration of rule-resource sets is warranted as these structures affect socializing discourse and activity. Specifically, discourse related to rule-resource sets develops notions of appropriateness, which constrain newcomer and member agency. Third, data in this study portray exclusion as the invisible partner to socialization as a number of discursive formations, actions, and organizational practices include some Greek members and simultaneously exclude others. Exclusionary socialization results in the development of complex relational systems in organizations, which implicate the political nature of the socialization process. Finally, this dissertation explores the link between organizational and societal socialization as it explores members' expectations of benefits derived from membership. Such discourse reveals and justifies increased access to social and material resources that result from membership and perpetuate the privileged position of Greek organizations and members in society. |
