Effect of Organizational Socialization of New Employees on Team Innovation Performance: A Cross-Level Model

PURPOSE: Based on the Social Information Processing Theory, a cross-level model was conducted to analyze the influence of new employees’ organizational socialization on team innovation performance via the mediating effect of employee voice behavior and the moderating effect of servant leadership. METHODS: Survey data were collected from 352 new employees and 88 leaders at two stages in major Chinese innovation companies. Samples were involved technology and development, production and operation, marketing and sales, and functional management departments. The software Mplus 7.0 and AMOS 22.0 were used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: The cross-level results indicated that organizational socialization directly enhances new employee voice behavior and, accordingly, promotes team innovation performance. Additionally, servant leadership plays a moderating role between organizational socialization and prohibitive voice behavior but has no moderating effect on the relationship between organizational socialization and promotive voice behavior. CONCLUSION: The results enrich the research on the influencing mechanism of organizational socialization on team innovation performance and provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for innovation enterprise leaders on how to promote team innovation performance.