Not all roads lead to Rome: The moderating role of CSE in the effects of newcomer proactivity on LMX and supervisor mentoring

Although proactive behaviors, such as relationship building and sensemaking are widely promoted as key to newcomers’ successful organizational adjustment and socialization, our research challenges the prevailing one-size-fits-all view that broadly prescribes each proactive behavior as universally effective, irrespective of individual differences. Integrating the resource-based and interactionist perspectives on newcomer socialization, we propose a research model to examine the role of newcomers’ core self-evaluation (CSE) as a qualifier of the effects of newcomers’ proactive relationship building and proactive sensemaking behaviors on their leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships, with a subsequent implication for the career mentoring that these newcomers receive from their supervisors. We tested this model using data collected at four time points (before entry, two to four weeks post-entry, three months post-entry, and six months post-entry) from a sample of 195 newcomers engaged in training and working in blue collar jobs in France. Our results largely support our hypotheses, but also reveal unexpected findings that highlight the detrimental effect of proactive relationship building for lower-CSE newcomers and the negative effect of proactive sensemaking for higher-CSE newcomers. LMX relates positively to career mentoring that newcomers receive from their supervisor. Our research offers unique and timely theoretical and practical insights into the newcomer proactivity, LMX, and career mentoring literatures.