Becoming a Resilient Newcomer
Newcomer resilience: Supervisory Influence via Learning and Identification
New employees enter organizations full of hope, promise, and desire to be successful –
not only adjusting to but contributing within the organization. In short, newcomers desire to
adjust quickly while performing effectively (Ashforth, Sluss, & Harrison, 2007). Also,
newcomers strive to make a smooth and continuously upward adjustment (cf. Firth, Chen,
Kirkman, & Kim, 2014). However, newcomers rarely experience such a positive adjustment
trajectory for two major reasons. First, the newcomer process is a form of “identity crisis” in
which the newcomer will likely feel a sense of apprehension and stress – all for the simple fact
that their work identity is in transition; they are neither “here nor there” (Ellis et al., 2014).
Second, scholars have found the socialization process to be quite “lumpy” – with significant ups
and downs in both the newcomer’s ability to adjust and capacity to perform (Ashforth et al.,
2007). With the heightened uncertainty that comes inherent in the newcomer adjustment process,
it is no surprise that newcomers would perceive any failure – no matter how small – as traumatic
in terms of either “fitting in” (i.e. adjustment) or “producing” (i.e. performance). Interestingly,
these failures may have significant long term impact on the newcomer’s future ability to adjust –
especially if the newcomers lack resilience (cf. Sluss & Thompson, 2012).
Given the impact of and assumed frequency with which newcomers experience
adjustment failures during organizational entry, it is surprising that scholars have not explored
how newcomers build resilience while experiencing adjustment difficulties. In this study, we
investigate how newcomers build resilience (i.e. the capacity to maintain “positive adjustment in
the face of challenging conditions” [Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003: 95) during initial entry. We
particularly focus on how the newcomer’s relationship with their immediate supervisor may
create identity-based resources resulting in resilience.
Becoming a Resilient Newcomer
THEORY
Resilience, as a construct, has been investigated quite robustly within both developmental
clinical psychology as well as educational psychology. Over time, scholars have moved from
exploring the risk and protective factors to focusing on the “protective processes” that build a
cadre of internal and external resources allowing the individual to bounce back from a
challenging condition or problem in a way that creates learning for responding to future
challenges (Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000). Of these “protective processes,” supportive social
relationships have been found to provide a significant path to providing a wide range of these
internal and external resources (Fletcher & Sakar, 2013). In short, supportive relationships build
a relational identity in which learning and adaptation – and, thus, resilience – is encouraged and
built (cf. Sluss & Ashforth, 2007).
Indeed, newcomer socialization research has found that the newcomer’s relationship with
his/her supervisor is key for providing a context for learning and social support resulting in
increased adjustment (e.g. Sluss & Thompson, 2012; Sluss, Ployhart, Cobb, & Ashforth, 2012).
Following these leads, we argue that supervisors that enact supportive leadership behaviors
provide a context that will engender both the newcomer’s ability to see challenging conditions as
learning opportunities (i.e. prime a learning goal orientation; VandeWalle, Cron, & Slocum,
2001) as well as provide a basis for which the newcomer to place value on the supervisory
relationship such that it becomes self-defining and self-expanding (i.e. relational identification;
Sluss & Ashforth, 2007). These two important states – learning goal orientation (i.e. “I can learn
from this challenge….”) and relational identification (i.e. “Bouncing back is what I do as part of
this relationship”) – provide internal and external identity-based resources important for the
newcomer to feel able and capable to respond with resilience. As such, we hypothesize the
Becoming a Resilient Newcomer
following:
H1: The newcomer’s (state-based) newcomer learning goal orientation will partially
mediate the association between supportive leadership behaviors (by the newcomer’s
supervisor) and the newcomer’s (state-based) resilience.
H2: The newcomer’s identification with the supervisory relationship will partially
mediate the association between supportive leadership behaviors (by the newcomer’s
supervisor) and the newcomer’s (state-based) resilience.
METHOD
Our study is part of a larger data collection effort among U.S. Navy recruits during
“Basic Training.” Our sample will include data from approximately 800 recruits (i.e. 10 divisions
with 80 recruits each). We are administering surveys at four time points over the eight week
Basic Training period. Basic Training provides a strong context to test how supervisor’s (in our
case, the “Recruit Division Commander’s”) leadership behaviors influence the recruit’s
resilience. By design, basic training is a stressful, challenging, and traumatic experience for the
recruits, making it an ideal context to investigate resilience. In addition, many recruits have left
behind “civilian life” such that successfully finishing basic training is important for their identity.
Procedure and measures. We measure supportive leadership behaviors (Shamir, Zakay,
Brainin, & Popper, 2000), as a level 2 variable during time 1 and time 2 (week one and three).
As level 1 variables, we measure learning goal orientation (VandeWalle, et al., 2001) and
relational identification (Sluss et al., 2012) during time 3 (week five) while measuring newcomer
resilience (state-based measure; Smith, Dalen, Wiggins, Tooley, & Bernard, 2008) during time 4
(week eight). We controlled for both the state-based resilience and the trait-based resilience
(Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007) at time 1. Our initial results from partial data collection
demonstrate positive relationships among supportive leadership, learning goal orientation,
relational identification, and newcomer resilience. Data collection ends in August 2015. We will
then test our hypotheses using multi-level mediation analysis (e.g. Preacher, 2011).
Becoming a Resilient Newcomer
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