Newcomer safety: What is the role of organizational support and self-determination theory?
Category: Research Poster
Author(s): Emmalee Diederichs, Victoria Santana
Presenter(s): Emmalee Diederichs
Mentors(s): Rosalyn Stoa
When new employees (i.e., newcomers) enter an organization, they are likely to experience poor well-being, including stressors, anxiety, confusion, and awkwardness (Slaughter & Zickar, 2006) in addition to being at an increased risk of injury and illness (Bena et al., 2013). Newcomers assimilate into their roles and the organization's culture through socialization (Bauer & Erdogan, 2011). Socialization can be structured (institutionalized) or autonomous (individualized) (Jones, 1986), with structured tactics linked to reduced uncertainty, greater efficacy, and job satisfaction. Historically, research has stressed the importance of socializing newcomers into safety practices. For instance, 40% of all workplace injuries involve employees with less than a year on the job (BLS, 2021). However, the specific impact of socialization on workplace safety outcomes remains underexplored. This research utilizes self-determination theory to explain the relationship between newcomer socialization and adjustment. Furthermore, this study examines organizational support as a moderator between socialization and need satisfaction. Our findings demonstrate that perceived organizational support positively predicted safety voice, perceived safety knowledge, and perceived knowledge of safety policies. POS was only a significant moderator for the relationship between institutionalized socialization and perceived knowledge of safety policies. Additionally, need satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between institutionalized socialization and safety voice and perceived safety knowledge but not perceived knowledge of safety policies. Thus, organizational support benefits newcomers’ perceived knowledge and attitudes toward safety. Managers should prioritize creating structured onboarding procedures that build newcomer autonomy, competence, and relatedness to increase safety knowledge and attitudes.