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Generalizing Newcomer's Relational And Organizational Identifications: Processes And Prototypicality

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The Academy of Management Journal

Published online on

Abstract

Recent theory proposes that relational identification generalizes to organizational identification through affective, cognitive, and behavioral mediating mechanisms. The generalization process is strengthened when the relational other is prototypical, that is, seen as promoting the core values of the organization. We investigate these propositions via two field studies. First, we find, via temporally-lagged data from 186 newcomers to the telemarketing industry, that relational identification with the supervisor generalizes to organizational identification through affective (i.e., affect transfer), cognitive (i.e., social influence), and behavioral (i.e., behavioral sensemaking) mediating mechanisms. Second, we find, via temporally-lagged data from 1101 newcomers to the U.S. Army, that the newcomer's relational identification with the supervisor generalizes to the newcomer's organizational identification, but only when the supervisor is perceived to be prototypical. Our combined findings suggest that: (1) multiple identifications are more integrative than exclusive; (2) one's organizational membership may be more personalized and relational than previously assumed in extant research.