Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector
<p>This article-based dissertation explores how public organizations and managers together socialize new recruits into the civil service. In three papers, I synthesize the state of our knowledge on practices by which organizations socialize recruits in both the academic literature and practice...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1811141055990464512 |
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| author | Hein, A |
| author2 | Williams, M |
| author_facet | Williams, M Hein, A |
| author_sort | Hein, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This article-based dissertation explores how public organizations and managers together socialize new recruits into the civil service. In three papers, I synthesize the state of our knowledge on practices by which organizations socialize recruits in both the academic literature and practice, develop a theory of task-based socialization of recruits by their managers, and empirically test this theory.</p>
<p>In Paper 1, I synthesize the state of our knowledge on practices by which organizations socialize recruits (such as orientation and training) by a novel combination of a systematic review of the literature and a review of practice in the public sector. I first review the extant literature on organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization in public administration and allied fields using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Along with findings from the systematic review, I also provide a narrative review of the literature, highlighting its main findings and outstanding gaps. Next, I supplement this systematic review of the literature with a review of practice in the public sector using secondary survey data and country case-studies by OCED’s Directorate for Public Governance. I find that organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization are under-studied in public administration in contrast to a substantial body of evidence on how private firms socialize recruits in allied fields such as organizational behavior. In practice, recruit socialization is a minor concern of civil services preoccupied with the continuous upgrading of competencies, leadership for change management, and technological adaptation. Finally, whereas the academic literature approaches recruit socialization from the perspective of socialization practices, i.e., its antecedents and explores recruits’ intra-organizational learning and the role of organizational insiders in socialization process, civil services approach it from the perspective of competencies, i.e., outcomes and prioritize recruits’ learning of technical skills and external stakeholders while largely neglecting the role of organizational insiders in socialization process. Hence, Paper 2 and 3 explore this last point - specifically, how direct supervisors socialize recruits into the civil service.</p>
<p>In Paper 2, I explore how direct supervisors socialize recruits in teams by taking an inductive, qualitative approach using grounded theory and interviews with public officials from Nigeria’s and Ghana’s civil services. I conducted 80 in-person, individual interviews with new recruits, their supervisors, and HR personnel across nine organizations under Nigeria’s and Ghana’s core civil services following grounded theory recommendations. In contrast to the extant literature which focuses on the direct communication of organizational values, I find that supervisors rely more on task assignments, guidance, and feedback in socializing recruits than directly communicating values. This task-based socialization by supervisors reportedly influences recruits’ learning, identities, work attitudes, performance, early career advancements, and acculturation. I therefore propose a theory of task-based socialization.</p>
<p>In Paper 3, I test the theory of task-based socialization proposed in Paper 2 using two original, large-N surveys with 371 new recruits into Nigeria’s and Ghana’s civil services. The survey includes a battery of innovative measures for supervisory socialization practices and an embedded vignette experiment. First, I find variation in both how supervisors assign tasks and give guidance and feedback, i.e., what I refer to as task-based socialization and how supervisors directly communicate organizational mission, objectives and goals, and performance expectations, i.e., what I refer to as values-based socialization. In contrast to the literature’s focus on direct values communication, I find that overall supervisors rely more heavily on task-based socialization than values-based socialization of recruits. Next, using observational data, I show that task-based socialization by supervisors in recruits’ first years is positively correlated with the key measures of recruits’ outcomes such as work attitudes and early career advancements, whereas values-based socialization is inconsistently correlated with these outcomes across different measures. Finally, improving upon these correlational findings and teasing out causality in them, I demonstrate that task-based socialization by supervisors is again positively associated with the key measures of recruits’ outcomes using data from a vignette experiment. In contrast, values-based socialization alone does not matter to recruits unless task-based socialization is also provided in tandem.</p>
<p>Together, these three articles contribute to the public administration literature on the socialization of new recruits into public organizations. Paper 1 contributes to the literature by providing the first synthesis of the state of our knowledge on organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization in both the academic literature and practice. Paper 2 contributes to its theoretical advancement by proposing a theory of task-based socialization. Paper 3 contributes to its evidence base by demonstrating task-based socialization as a primary channel of socializing recruits into the civil service.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:31:48Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:5f7d065c-cecc-4aa8-8efd-c889379f473c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:31:48Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:5f7d065c-cecc-4aa8-8efd-c889379f473c2024-08-29T14:52:11ZEssays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sectorThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:5f7d065c-cecc-4aa8-8efd-c889379f473cOrganizational behaviorCivil service--Personnel managementPublic administrationEnglishHyrax Deposit2023Hein, AWilliams, M<p>This article-based dissertation explores how public organizations and managers together socialize new recruits into the civil service. In three papers, I synthesize the state of our knowledge on practices by which organizations socialize recruits in both the academic literature and practice, develop a theory of task-based socialization of recruits by their managers, and empirically test this theory.</p> <p>In Paper 1, I synthesize the state of our knowledge on practices by which organizations socialize recruits (such as orientation and training) by a novel combination of a systematic review of the literature and a review of practice in the public sector. I first review the extant literature on organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization in public administration and allied fields using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Along with findings from the systematic review, I also provide a narrative review of the literature, highlighting its main findings and outstanding gaps. Next, I supplement this systematic review of the literature with a review of practice in the public sector using secondary survey data and country case-studies by OCED’s Directorate for Public Governance. I find that organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization are under-studied in public administration in contrast to a substantial body of evidence on how private firms socialize recruits in allied fields such as organizational behavior. In practice, recruit socialization is a minor concern of civil services preoccupied with the continuous upgrading of competencies, leadership for change management, and technological adaptation. Finally, whereas the academic literature approaches recruit socialization from the perspective of socialization practices, i.e., its antecedents and explores recruits’ intra-organizational learning and the role of organizational insiders in socialization process, civil services approach it from the perspective of competencies, i.e., outcomes and prioritize recruits’ learning of technical skills and external stakeholders while largely neglecting the role of organizational insiders in socialization process. Hence, Paper 2 and 3 explore this last point - specifically, how direct supervisors socialize recruits into the civil service.</p> <p>In Paper 2, I explore how direct supervisors socialize recruits in teams by taking an inductive, qualitative approach using grounded theory and interviews with public officials from Nigeria’s and Ghana’s civil services. I conducted 80 in-person, individual interviews with new recruits, their supervisors, and HR personnel across nine organizations under Nigeria’s and Ghana’s core civil services following grounded theory recommendations. In contrast to the extant literature which focuses on the direct communication of organizational values, I find that supervisors rely more on task assignments, guidance, and feedback in socializing recruits than directly communicating values. This task-based socialization by supervisors reportedly influences recruits’ learning, identities, work attitudes, performance, early career advancements, and acculturation. I therefore propose a theory of task-based socialization.</p> <p>In Paper 3, I test the theory of task-based socialization proposed in Paper 2 using two original, large-N surveys with 371 new recruits into Nigeria’s and Ghana’s civil services. The survey includes a battery of innovative measures for supervisory socialization practices and an embedded vignette experiment. First, I find variation in both how supervisors assign tasks and give guidance and feedback, i.e., what I refer to as task-based socialization and how supervisors directly communicate organizational mission, objectives and goals, and performance expectations, i.e., what I refer to as values-based socialization. In contrast to the literature’s focus on direct values communication, I find that overall supervisors rely more heavily on task-based socialization than values-based socialization of recruits. Next, using observational data, I show that task-based socialization by supervisors in recruits’ first years is positively correlated with the key measures of recruits’ outcomes such as work attitudes and early career advancements, whereas values-based socialization is inconsistently correlated with these outcomes across different measures. Finally, improving upon these correlational findings and teasing out causality in them, I demonstrate that task-based socialization by supervisors is again positively associated with the key measures of recruits’ outcomes using data from a vignette experiment. In contrast, values-based socialization alone does not matter to recruits unless task-based socialization is also provided in tandem.</p> <p>Together, these three articles contribute to the public administration literature on the socialization of new recruits into public organizations. Paper 1 contributes to the literature by providing the first synthesis of the state of our knowledge on organizational practices with respect to recruit socialization in both the academic literature and practice. Paper 2 contributes to its theoretical advancement by proposing a theory of task-based socialization. Paper 3 contributes to its evidence base by demonstrating task-based socialization as a primary channel of socializing recruits into the civil service.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Organizational behavior Civil service--Personnel management Public administration Hein, A Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title | Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title_full | Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title_fullStr | Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title_full_unstemmed | Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title_short | Essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| title_sort | essays on the organizational socialization of new recruits in the public sector |
| topic | Organizational behavior Civil service--Personnel management Public administration |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heina essaysontheorganizationalsocializationofnewrecruitsinthepublicsector |