A relational process of newcomer identity development: The role of proactive relationship-building behavior through respect

In organizational socialization literature, newcomers' identity development remains underexplored as a proximal or distal outcome. Little is known about why and how the relationship between a newcomer, and organizational members influences the creation of newcomer identity. Adopting an interactionist perspective, the paper offered a process model of how newcomers' proactive relationship-building behavior can generate respect for newcomers by insiders, particularly workgroup members leading to the development of workgroup and subsequently organizational identification. The underexplored concept of respect containing two components— particularized respect and generalized respect is utilized to analyze the mechanism of the relational process involving newcomers' social cognition towards identity development. The theory and propositions offered extend our understanding of this important area.