A Study on the Organizational Socialization Process of Early Career Office Workers in Large Companies

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of early-career employees who joined large companies as office workers and to identify the process by which they are socialized into the organization to create a theoretical model. In order to explore the research question and achieve the research purpose, this study conducted in-depth interviews with 12 early-career employees with less than 5 years of experience as office workers in the top 1,000 domestic companies. The main findings are as follows: As a result of analyzing the experiences of early-career employees as they socialize and adapt to the organization, 133 concepts, 44 subcategories, and 20 categories were derived. The theory generated from this study explains the process and outcomes of early career employees' socialization into the organization, including the following: Early-career office workers were socialized into the organization through the stages of ‘exploring and anticipating, trying to integrate, facing difficulties, growing and changing at work, adjusting expectations and needs, and socializing in different ways.’ In addition, ‘identifying values and needs’ and ‘taking time for oneself’ occurred several times throughout the socialization process, and through these times of reflection and recovery, the study participants adjusted their expectations and needs and changed their socialization aspects