This study examines an integrative mediation model, in which person-organization fit (PO fit) mediates the effects of global self-esteem (GSE) on choice intention (CI) and overall job satisfaction (OJS), respectively. Intern newcomers who just finalized their placement in hospitality and tourism organizations responded to self-completed questionnaires. They were 336 senior undergraduates from two institutes of higher learning in China's Hainan Island. Structural equation modeling results indicated that PO fit mediates the relationship between GSE and CI fully, and between GSE and OJS partially. The study's findings as well as its implications are discussed within the context of newcomers’ organizational socialization, in general, and human resource development practices in the hospitality and tourism organizations, in particular.
Globally, attracting and retaining high-quality employees has been an on-going problem for hospitality and tourism organizations (e.g., Richardson, 2009, Teng, 2008, Song and Chathoth, 2008, Chuang et al., 2007, Lam and Ching, 2007 and Zhang Qiu and Wu, 2004). One important way to alleviate the problem is to maximize intern newcomers’ positive socialization experiences in their placement organizations. In addition, intern newcomers’ positive experiences are likely to bring about their positive attitude towards hospitality and tourism professions, which in turn may result in their behavioral intention and/or actual behavior of choosing to work within the industry, including the placement organizations (e.g., Teng, 2008, Chuang et al., 2007, Song et al., 2007 and Kusluvan and Kusluvan, 2000).
1.1. Rationale for research
According to Louis (1980), organizational socialization is a process by which individuals learn the value, norms, and required behaviors that allow them to participate as members of organizations. It is important because it not only ensures the continuity of organizations’ central values, but also provides a newcomer with an “interpretive schema” or “cognitive map” for responding to his or her new work environment and atmosphere ( Falcione and Wilson, 1988 and Jones, 1986). Moreover, newcomers adjust quickly in the early stage of their organizational socialization, with early adjustment having lasting influences and quantifiable outcomes ( Chen and Klimoski, 2003 and Bauer and Green, 1994). Neglecting to socialize newcomers has been shown to have substantially negative impacts with newcomers frequently being plagued with hindrance stressors, which in turn are associated with poor work attitudes (e.g., job dissatisfaction) and negative behaviors such as turnover ( Katz, 1985, Wanous and Colella, 1989 and Cooper-Thomas and Anderson, 2006). Given its importance, it is not surprising that to date this “on-boarding” issue has attracted the attention of many scholars who have used different approaches to address it.
One approach to studying organizational socialization – known as situationist approach – focuses on factors in the organization, e.g., socialization tactics (Jones, 1986) in shaping newcomers experiences in the organizational context (e.g., Gruman et al., 2006). This approach regards newcomers as passive and reactive agents. In contrast, in an alternative approach – theindividual difference approach – the same newcomers are viewed as active agents in the socialization process ( Morrison, 1993a and Morrison, 1993b). Despite the progress made in the past decades, the socialization literature has often been criticized as overemphasizing the situationist approach, somewhat ignoring the individual difference approach, and rarely examining newcomers’ psychological and social variables (e.g., person-organization fit) that might mediate the relationship of antecedents (e.g., global self-esteem) and outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction) ( Saks and Ashforth, 1997, Ashforth et al., 2007b, Bauer et al., 2007 and Kowtha, 2008).
1.2. Research objectives
The purpose of this study is to propose and test a mediation model, in which a newcomer's global self-esteem (GSE) affects his or her respective choice intention (CI) and overall job satisfaction (OJS) via his or her person-organization fit (PO fit) perception. Specifically, the research objectives are twofold: (1) to explore PO fit's potential mediating role in the relationship between an intern newcomer's GSE and his or her OJS as perceived in the respective placement organization; and (2) to explore PO fit's potential mediating role in the relationship between an intern newcomer's GSE and his or her CI. In so doing, this study adopts the individual difference approach in testing a causal model comprising the foregoing constructs. Through this, the present study aims to contribute to the literature by delving into the PO fit and its roles in mediating the relationships between global self-esteem and its two respective socialization outcomes: Choice intention and overall job satisfaction. In the section that follows, key constructs contained in the model are described and theoretical and empirical works in these areas are reviewed, following which research hypotheses are developed for the present study.
In exploring the problem of socializing intern newcomers in the tourism and hospitality organizations in China, the authors suggest that organizations’ success in socializing such newcomers should be measured by interns’ proximal outcome of perceived person-organization fit and distal outcomes of overall satisfaction and pronounced choice intention. More importantly, it is contended that the effect of global self-esteem on each of the two distal outcomes is mediated by the proximal outcome of person-organization fit perception. Empirical findings of the present study support the arguments, extending the literature of organizational socialization in several ways. For the sake of generalizability, future studies should incorporate more divergent samples using self-esteem measures and with cross-cultural and longitudinal data. In a nutshell, a mediation model was successfully validated, in which subjective person-organization fit mediates the influence of global self-esteem on respective choice intention fully, and on overall job satisfaction partially.
