The newcomer understanding and integration scale: Psychometric evidence across six samples

Cooper-Thomas, Helena D.; Stadler, Matthias; Park, Jee Hae; Chen, Jenny; Au, Al K. C.; Tan, Kenny W. T.; Paterson, Nicole J.; Tansley, Shevaun

Abstract

Models of organizational socialization situate newcomer understanding and social integration as critical proximal outcomes, yet researchers have identified both theoretical and psychometric weaknesses in existing survey measures. Drawing on prior research, we provide an aggregated critique of four previous measures of socialization content; propose a conceptualization of socialization content along three core domains, of role, relationships, and organization; and, leveraging the items from the four previous measures, use an iterative item assessment process to retain the best items in each of the three domains. We evaluate the psychometric properties of the revised measure, named the Newcomer Understanding and Integration Scale (NUIS), including evidence for reliability and convergent, discriminant, criterion-related, and incremental validity, using data from 1818 newcomers across six samples in four countries. While the NUIS performs well, some limitations are noted. We outline a range of practical applications for the scale.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 6, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 14, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Business and Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0889-3268
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-353X
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 435-454
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09636-9
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7382157