Toward a theory of continuous socialization for organizational renewal.

摘要

Organizational literature suggests that for sustained competitive success in the business environment of the 21st century, organizations need to have the processes and systems in place for continuous learning and adaptation. Any process or system, then, which appears to hinder agility, should come under scrutiny as to its use. There has been significant development of organizational socialization theory that appears to maintain the organization's way of life, its values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices. However, there appears to be little to no significant theory development on organizational socialization to aid organizations in their task of continuous renewal. Given this perceived gap in organizational socialization theory development, the purposes of this study are: (1) to further explore the validity of the argument that the current framework for organizational socialization hinders agility by perpetuating an existing organizational culture, and (2) to develop an alternative theory for organizational socialization that attempts to meet the agility needs of organizations given this more dynamic business environment.;Robert Dubin's quantitative theory building research method, utilizing a theory-then-research approach, was used in the development of this theory of Continuous Socialization for Organizational Renewal. The first major output of this study is a fully conceptualized theoretical model of continuous socialization. This includes the identification of theoretical units, laws of interaction, system states, and boundaries of the theory. The units of the theory, or the primary components of the theoretical model are: socializing strategies, negotiated meaning, mobilized knowledge, internalized learning, and externalized performance. The second major output is the operationalization of that model. This includes the development of propositions, or truth statements, concerning the operation of the model, empirical indicators of key terms, and potential hypotheses to test the theory. The study also outlines a potential research agenda to begin to test how the theory of Continuous Socialization for Organizational Renewal mirrors the real world. With testing and continuous refinement, a theory of continuous socialization has the potential to support organizational efforts of sustained success through renewal.