Why and when family-supportive supervisor behaviours influence newcomer organizational socialisation

Abstract

This study examines why and when family-supportive supervisor behaviour (FSSB) influences newcomer organizational socialisation. Specifically, we draw from the social information processing perspective to suggest that FSSB promotes newcomer proactive behaviours and organizational socialisation. We argue that newcomer gender and family motivation moderate the positive effect of FSSB on newcomer proactive behaviours and propose a moderated mediation model and hypothesise that the indirect effect of FSSB on newcomer organizational socialisation via newcomer proactive behaviours is contingent on newcomer gender and family motivation. A time-lagged study of 202 newcomer–supervisor dyads supports all our hypotheses. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results.