The current study aimed at examining a moderated mediation model based on the theoretical framework of organizational socialization. In particular, the mediating effect of organizational career growth (OCG) in the relationship between organizational socialization learning and work outcomes (job satisfaction and performance) was assessed through a multigroup approach on an overall sample of 474 Italian employees. Specifically, structural equation modeling through the bootstrap method was used to test the mediation hypotheses on three dichotomous moderating variables: gender (men/women), parenthood (parents/not parents), and tenure (newcomers/expert employees). Results showed a moderated mediation effect (total mediation) of OCG in the relationship between organizational socialization learning and performance and a mediation effect of OCG in the relationship between organizational socialization learning and job satisfaction. Results are discussed on the light of the original contribution provided, as well as limitations, suggestions for further research and practical implications.
ArthurM. B. (1994). The boundaryless career: a new perspective for organizational inquiry. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 295–306.
4.
AshfordS. J.BlackJ. S. (1996). Proactivity during organizational entry: A role of desire for control. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 199–214.
5.
BaruchY.RosensteinE. (1992). Human resource management in Israeli firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 3, 477–495.
6.
BauerT. N.BodnerT.ErdoganB.TruxilloD. M.TuckerJ. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 707–721.
7.
BauerT. N.ErdoganB. (2011). Organizational socialization: The effective onboarding of new employees. In ZedeckS (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology: Vol. 3. Maintaining, expanding, and contracting the organization (pp. 51–64). Washington, DC: American Psychology Association.
8.
BauerT. NErdoganB. (2012). Organizational socialization outcomes: Now and into the future. In WanbergC. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of organizational socialization (pp. 97–112). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
9.
BentlerP. M. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238–246.
10.
BretzR. D.JrJudgeT. A. (1994). Person–organization fit and the theory of work adjustment: Implications for satisfaction, tenure, and career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 44, 32–54.
11.
CasaricoA.ProfetaP. (2010). Donne in attesa. L’Italia delle disparità di genere. Milano, Italy: Egea.
12.
ChangE.ChinH.YeJ. (2014). Organizational work-family culture and working mothers' affective commitment: How career expectations matter. Human Resource Management, 53, 683–700.
13.
ChenJ.HouZ.LiX.LovelaceK.LiuY.WangZ. (2016). The role of career growth in Chinese new employees’ turnover process. Journal of Career Development, 43, 11–25.
14.
Cooper-ThomasH. D.van VianenA.AndersonN. (2004). Changes in person-organization fit: The impact of socialization tactics on perceived and actual P-O fit. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1, 52–78.
15.
DriesN.PepermansR. (2008). Real high-potential careers: An empirical study into the perspectives of organizations and high potentials. Personnel Reviews, 37, 85–108.
16.
FeldmanD. C. (1977). The role of initiations activities in socialization. Human Relations, 30, 977–990.
17.
GongY.ChangS. (2008). Institutional antecedents and performance consequences of employment security and career advancement practices: Evidence from the people’s republic of China. Human Resource Management, 47, 33–48.
18.
GriffinM. A.NealA.ParkerS. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behaviour in uncertain and interdependent context. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 327–347.
19.
HalbeslebenJ. R. B.WheelerA. R.BuckleyM. R. (2008). Clarifying the relationship between organizational commitment and job performance. In KieferK. H., (Ed.), Applied psychology research trends (pp. 35–58). New York, NY: Nova Science.
20.
HallD. T. (1976). Careers in organizations. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
21.
HallD. T. (2002). Protean careers in and out of organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
22.
HarrisC. (1988). A comparison of employee attitudes toward two performance appraisal systems. Public Personnel Management, 17, 443–456.
23.
HaueterJ.Hoff MacanT.WinterJ. (2003). Measurement of newcomer socialization: Construct validation of a multidimensional scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 20–39.
24.
HerzbergF. (1966). Work and the nature of man. Cleveland, OH: World.
25.
HerzbergF.MausnerB.SnydermanB. B. (1993). The motivation to work. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
26.
HooperD.CoughlanJ.MullenM. R. (2008). Structural equation modelling: Guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6, 53–60.
27.
HorwitzF. M.HengC. T.QuaziH. A. (2003). Finders, keepers? Attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. Human Resource Management Journal, 13, 23–44.
28.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55.
29.
IBM SPSS. (2011). IBM SPSS Statisticc for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
30.
JansN. A. (1989). Organizational commitment, career factors and career/life stage. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 10, 247–266.
31.
JonesG. (1983). Psychological orientation and the process of organizational socialization: An interactionist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 8, 464–474.
32.
JudgeT. A.LockeE. A.DurnhamC. C.KrugerA. N. (1998) Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core self-evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 17–34.
33.
Kammeyer-MuellerJ. D.WanbergC. R. (2003). Unwrapping the organizational entry process: Disentangling multiple antecedents and their pathways to adjustment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 779–794.
34.
KaravardarG. (2014). Organizational career growth and turnover intention: An application in audit firms in Turkey. International Business Research, 7, 67–76.
35.
KleinH. J.HeuserA. E. (2008). The learning of socialization content: A framework for researching orientating practices. In MartocchioJ., (Ed.), Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 27, 279–336.
36.
KlineR. B. (1998). Principles and practices of structural equation modelling. New York, NY: Guilford.
37.
LitanoM.MajorD. (2016). Facilitating a whole-life approach to career development: The role of organizational leadership. Journal of Career Development, 43, 52–65.
38.
LouisM. R. (1980). Surprise and sense-making: What newcomers experience in entering unfamiliar organizational settings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, 226–251.
39.
MacKinnonD. P.LockwoodC. M.HoffmanJ. M.WestS. G.SheetsV. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7, 83–104.
40.
MacKinnonD. P.LockwoodC. M.WilliamsJ. (2004) Confidence limits for the indirect effect distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 99–128.
41.
McElroyJ. C.WengQ. (2016). The connections between career and organizations in the new career era. Journal of Career Development, 43, 3–10.
42.
McDonaldR. P.MarshH. W. (1990). Choosing a multivariate model: Noncentrality and goodness of fit. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 247–255.
43.
MorelandR. L.LevineJ. M. (2001). Socialization in organizations and work groups. In TurnerM. E., (Ed.), Groups at work: Theory and research (pp.69–112). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
44.
MorrisonE. W. (1993). Longitudinal study of the effects of information seeking on newcomer socialization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 173–183.
45.
NgT. W. H.EbyL. T.SoresenK. L.FeldmanD. C. (2005). Predictors of objective and subjective career success: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 58, 367–408.
46.
NicholsonN. (1987). Work role transitions. In WarrP. (Ed.), Psychology at work (pp.160–177). Harmondsworth, London: Penguin.
47.
PodsakoffP. M.MackenzieS. B.LeeJ. Y.PodsakoffN. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioural research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–893.
48.
PreacherK. J.HayesA. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–889.
49.
SaksA.AshforthB. (1997). Organization socialization: Making sense of the past and the present as a prologue for the future. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 51, 234–279.
50.
SaksA.UggerslevK.FassinaN. (2007). Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A meta-analytic review and test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 413–446.
51.
SaracenoC. (2003). La conciliazione di responsabilità familiari e attività lavorative in Italia: paradossi ed equilibri imperfetti. Polis, 2, 199–228.
52.
SchumackerR. E.LomaxR. G. (2004). A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
53.
SpagnoliP. (2016). Person–organization fit and organizational identification: A longitudinal study during the entry process. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 43, 265–284.
54.
SpagnoliP.LiviS.FarneseM. (2017). How do newcomers and expert employees conceive organizational socialization? Measurement invariance and construct validity of the NSQ scale in Italy. Unpublished manuscript.
55.
SpagnoliP.WengQ. (2017). Factorial validity, cross-cultural equivalence, and latent means examination of the organizational career growth scale in Italy and China. Unpublished manuscript.
56.
SteigerJ. H. (2007). Understanding the limitations of global fit assessment in structural equation modeling. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 893–898.
57.
SwansonJ. L.SchneiderM. (2013). Minnesota theory of work adjustment. In BrownS. D.LentR. W. (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (2nd Ed., pp. 3–23). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
58.
van MaanenJ.ScheinE. H. (1979). Toward a theory of organizational socialization. In StawB.M. (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 209–264). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
59.
WanbergC. R. (2012) The Oxford handbook of organizational socialization. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
60.
WangQ.WengQ.McElroyJ. C.AshkanasyN. M.LievensF. (2014). Organizational career growth and subsequent voice behavior: The role of affective commitment and gender. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 84, 431–441.
61.
WengQ. X.HuB. (2009). The structure of career growth and its impact on employees’ turnover intention. Industrial Engineering and Management, 14, 14–21.
62.
WengQ. X.McElroyJ. C. (2012). Organizational career growth, affective occupational commitment and turnover intentions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 256–265.
63.
WengQ. X.McElroyJ. C.MorrowP. C.LiuR. (2010). The relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77, 391–400.
