| Past research on organizational socialization has focused on outcomes such as task mastery, role clarity, role orientation, job satisfaction, organization commitment and turnover, but has neglected the study of the internalization of organizational beliefs and values. Organizational enculturation, a sub-domain of organizational socialization, can be broadly defined as the learning of the culture of the organization. However, organizational enculturation is not just the acquisition of cultural knowledge, it includes the process in which one embraces (or not embraces) the core organizational beliefs and values as part of his/her self-concept. Existing theories are fragmented and not comprehensive, and few empirical studies exist.; The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a framework for organizational enculturation research and to present a study that investigated some key elements and the relationships among them. Specifically, a two-wave longitudinal field study, employing the survey methodology, examined perceptions, beliefs and values change over a period of eight weeks for 718 newcomers (conscripts) in the Singapore Armed Forces which has a strong and homogeneous culture that emphasizes collectivism.; The results showed that the newcomers' perceptions of the organizational culture did become more similar to those of the insiders (their superiors) between week 1 and week 8. No overall change was found for the collectivistic beliefs and values (collectivism) that relate to the newcomers' self-concept. Their collectivism scores were relatively stable (β = .69) over the two data collection points. However, changes in collectivism that occurred at the individual level between week 1 and week 8 were systematically and positively related to some of the hypothesized constructs. Newcomers who reported having positive experiences and superiors who engaged in proorganizational (collectivism) culture behavior (the latter being moderated by the superiors' charismatic leadership behavior) showed an increase in their collectivism after controlling for their initial level. The study also showed that having self-concept related beliefs and values that were congruent with the organizational culture was directly related to perceptions of person-organization fit and indirectly related to organizational commitment, low stress and task performance. Finally, the implications of the study, its limitations and future directions were discussed. |
