Impact of employment on newcomer's values: Role of supervisor's transformational leadership

Abstract

We explore changes in newcomers’ values from the day they join their first job, over time. In an engineering company (N = 244), after one month of classroom training, newcomers showed an increase in self-enhancement values and a reduction in self-transcendence values. In a bank (N = 59), after 18 months on-the-job experience, newcomers’ values showed a reduction in self-transcendence. In an automobile company (N = 64), the supervisor's transformational leadership enhanced self-transcendence values and reduced self-enhancement values of newcomers. We also found that transformational leadership of the newcomer's supervisor was positively related to enhancement of the newcomer–supervisor value congruence.