THE INFLUENCE OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS ON GRADUATES’ ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION

Abstract

Although young graduates’ integration is a relevant
issue for organizations, little empirical research has
studied it in terms of organizational socialization.
This research analyses the effects of the quality of the
relationships between young newcomers and their
peers (TMX), supervisor (LMX) and organization
(POS) on their mastery of socialization contents. This
work is based on a longitudinal empirical study with
two data collections. The respondents are 209 graduates from business and engineering French
“grandes écoles” who are entering in their first job.
Our results emphasize that leaders, colleagues and
organizations have specific influences on young newcomers’ socialization. TMX is positively associated
with cognitive contents of socialization: task mastery,
knowledge of organizational history and language.
The integration with organizational members and the
understanding of internal politics are both linked to
TMX and LMX. Finally, the adhesion to organizational goals and values is positively linked the quality of
graduates’ relationships with their supervisor (LMX)
and to perceived organizational support (POS).