A Review and Critique of Van Maanen and Schein’s “Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization” and Implications for Human Resource Development

Abstract

As organizations struggle to meet the demands of a changing economy, they also struggle to maintain their core essences, or cultures, which have facilitated their successes to date. Over time, organizations must incorporate new members into this journey. It is this process of incorporation, or socialization, of new members into the organization that is the topic of this discussion. This article reviews the theory of organizational socialization as presented by Van Maanen and Schein in their 1979 article “Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization, ” critiquing its stage of theoretical development using Robert Dubin’s eight-stage theory-building research methodology. The diverseness of thought on subsequent theoretical works and the fragmentation of subsequent empirical works that build on Van Maanen and Schein indicate that there is an immediate opportunity for the field of human resource development to refine this theory. © 2002, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.