A flourish literature examined the newcomer perspective when joining a new working context using a stress theory as the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR; Hobfol, 1989), but neglected the work group point of view. From the social psychology perspective, during socialization, the newcomer tries to adjust to the group, but also the oldtimers (i. e. the more "expert" members) have to adjust to the new member. Empirical findings demonstrated that acceptance can be related to newcomer's characteristics and group characteristics, but no studies were conducted considering personality characteristics of the oldtimers. The purpose of this project is to investigate the relationship between group acceptance of a new member and a personality characteristic as ego-resiliency of the oldtimers using the COR Theory. The research will be composed of three studies aimed at demonstrating that: (1) higher levels of ego-resiliency of oldtimers results in higher acceptance; (2) ego-resilient olditimers show higher acceptance levels even in relation with less desirable newcomers compered to ego-brittles; (3) ego-resilient oldtimers accept less desiderable newcomers even when performance is high (i. e. a group condition that usually leads to worst acceptance levels) compared to ego-brittles. The participants will be Italian workers and data will be collected through questionnaires and analyzed using correlations and moderation analysis. If the hypotheses will be confirmed, the project will contribute to expand the literature on group acceptance, ego-resiliency, and COR Theory, offering also new directions for organizations efforts aimed at sustaining socialization of new hires.
As far as we know, the relationship between oldtimers' ego-resiliency and acceptance of a new member was not investigated before. If the hypotheses will be confirmed from empirical data, the results will represent an expansion of the literature on group acceptance during socialization, on EG, and on the COR Theory. First, the literature on group acceptance mostly considered the acceptance in relation with newcomer¿s characteristics and group characteristics. However, no one examined the relation between oldtimers¿ personality and acceptance (for a review on group acceptance see Rink et al., 2013). Second, the literature on ego-resiliency as a personality trait, is focused primarily on the individual adjustment in children and adolescents (Hofer, Eisenberg, & Reiser, 2010). It was not examined before the role that ego-resiliency could have in socialization in work groups. Lastly, the COR theory is widely used in the organizational setting (Hobfoll, 2011; Xanthopoulou et al., 2007), and was applied in socialization studies for describing the newcomer adjustment but not in relation with oldtimers¿ acceptance (Rink et al, 2013).
The research results can have practical implications for organizational efforts (e.g. recruitment, orientation) directed to take advantage of the personal resources of the employees and improve socialization of new hires. In fact, if the data confirm the initial hypotheses, ego-resiliency could represent an important personality characteristic to take into account when approaching the socialization process. Organization should consider not only the newcomer¿s characteristics but also the oldtimers¿ characteristics of the group in which the new member will be inserted in order to guarantee a better socialization. The focus of this research project is interdisciplinary because fills the existing gaps in the organizational psychology literature using social psychology findings. The research present also an intersectoriality nature, because of the involvement of the organizational setting, that could benefit from the findings at first hand.