Understanding socialization practice: factors fostering and hindering its evolution

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate on organizational socialization by exploring the constitutive aspects of socialization practice. By taking a practice stance, the paper explores how the constitutive aspects shape the evolution of the socialization practice and of the overall organizational functioning. The aim is to address a clear gap in the literature as it does not have fully investigated socialization as an evolving practice in the web of other organizational practices. Design/methodology/approach – The research relies on a case study analysis, which focuses on a multinational consulting firm. The paper focuses on the evolution of two main practices within the company one of which is socialization and the second is knowledge management. Findings – The main result emerging from the field study is that the evolution of the socialization practice as well as its alignment with other organizational practices is affected by a set of constitutive aspects. The analysis of these elements allows to disarticulate the nature of a practice and to clarify how it evolves. The paper is particularly interesting as during the analysis, the case study firm experienced an external shock. This latter resulted to be a relevant cornerstone for understanding the evolution and alignment of the socialization practice and of the organizational functioning as a whole. Research limitations/implications – The research presents two clear limitations. First, the results might be very case‐specific. Further analysis should be done to increase consistency and validity of the findings. Second, the qualitative methodology needs further improvement as the practice based analysis of socialization is still at its infancy and thus is not well assessed. Practical implications – Findings indicate that socialization practice might be somehow rigid over time and unable to match the evolving organizational setting. The case study further shows that while the procedures which are embedded in a practice might not change apparently, their content might be substantially affected by external facts. Originality/value – Starting from the recognition that the evolution of the socialization practice has not received enough attention, this paper sheds new light on how a set of constitutive aspects may facilitate/hinder such evolution.