Is Organizational Socialization Moving Towards Digital Socialization? - A Perspective

Abstract

In an Organizational context, sharing knowledge builds innovation sparked through socialization. It is a necessity in a VUCA world, supported by the availability of digital technology aids; individual networks to socialize and gain visibility/acceptance in organizations. More so in project-based organizations, the concern for most organizations is to capture the learning of individuals/teams, stay competitive, and codify knowledge in a digital format. Socialization content is thus individually focused but concentrates on what is learned during socialization. Chao et al. (1994) proposed six key learning dimensions that characterize the socialization process. The socialization literature has been criticized for being primarily descriptive; lacking empirical testing; methodologically weak and inadequate; theoretically and conceptually fragmented to the point that it is poorly understood (Feldman, 1976; Fisher, 1986) having the least amount of research (Wanous & Colella, 1989) and socialization for the knowledge society (Karpov, 2016). The pandemic, however, has brought the issue to the center stage of organizations, with both the organizations and the employees across the world experimenting with ideas to continue the socialization efforts through digital means. India and Indian IT organizations is no exception to this fact. This study is an attempt to examine knowledge acquisition and organizational socialization in the Indian IT Industry. Six organizational socialization content areas proposed by Chao et al. (1994) were studied among 393 employees in 6 metro cities, which are IT hubs in India. Employees believed in continuous learning using digital means, were career savvy and profession-oriented. Organizations demonstrated their willingness to encourage and support their socialization, knowledge acquisition, and sharing, thus paving the way for digital socialization. Digital socialization is seen as an emerging phenomenon in organizational socialization. Similarly, the six socialization content areas correlated positively with language followed by organizational goals and values for socialization in the Indian context, thus leading to the concept of digital socialization where new digital content, new digital processes, and tools emerge out of the digital interactions.