Iterative Socialization: A Model of Individual Behavior and Information Acquisition Processes

Abstract The literature that has guided our thinking about an individual's organizational behavior for more than fifty years can still help us understand individual decision-making. There is a tendency to disregard studies done more than five years ago. The central concepts of 'old' research remain valuable despite that bias. It is from that 'old' literature that we still believe that the socialization process functions primarily as an induction to the organizational value structures and/or the internalization of norms, mores and behaviors of individuals. From such research came a better understanding of how individuals acquire and process information and, concomitantly, the decision making process. This paper both departs from and builds on these traditional approaches to socialization research. Here the focus is on the effects of a new model on information processing and acquisition. It posits a theoretical model of individuals' organizational behavior, empirically tested in part, that describes a change individual's experience. The change affects their cognitive approach to the acquisition and processing of information and therefore decision making. Iterative Socialization Defined This paper describes a model that suggests how the simple variable of time in an organizational position determines an individual's information acquisition and processing approach to decision making. The model integrates many of the concepts developed in the current models of information acquisition and processing. It extends those models and allows for the generation of additional theoretical constructs as well as practical applications directed at decision making. In the model to be explained, the variable, time in position, is not used interchangeably with the process of socialization per se. Instead it is the basis for the further development of a model of information acquisition and processing that is different from but integrative of those used currently. Time in position, used here as a discrete variable, provides a perspective not achievable with other models. Relieving the need to adhere only to one or the other of existing information acquisition or processing models or the tenets of socialization theory permits the construction of a model that is both explanatory and inclusive of present information processing models and socialization theory. The model put forth, however, may have its greatest applicability to the area of decisionmaking, and secondarily, a description of organizational behavior. One objective is to establish the utility of such a model. Another is the generation of further testable hypotheses to complete the last part of the model. A result is the definition of a theoretical model of information acquisition and processing that has broad practical application. In its simplest form the model show that an individual seeks less information, and therefore processes less information, the longer he or she occupies an organizational position. Conversely, the same individual, when moved to another position, either intra- or interorganizationally, seeks and acquires far more information than an individual who has occupied the same position for some period of time. Simply put, when an individual first enters an organizational position there is a personality construct that affects their cognitive processes. The construct is measurable and is the individuals' relative degree of dogmatism. Irrespective of the degree of dogmatism the individual registers upon entry into an organizational position, it has been shown statistically that there will be an increase or movement toward closed mindedness. While this may seem self-evident, the difficulty has been in distinguishing this behavior from essentially that behavior exhibited by individuals experiencing what can be called the normal socialization process. The focal point of any information acquisition and processing model must be the individual. …