Abstract

The first 90 days of employment have received more and more attention concerning how an individual employee (“individual”) can succeed within the work environment. Watkins (2013) centers the responsibility on the individual to engage in understanding, embracing, and shifting toward buying into an organizational culture. However, what role does an organization play in successfully transitioning an individual into their culture? The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a new employee training program on perceptions of role clarity, organizational culture, organizational goals and values, and perceived value congruence.

A quantitative approach was utilized to analyze responses to a 28-item questionnaire developed from existing measures within the literature. A confirmatory factor analysis was completed to determine the validity of the relationships. A hierarchal regression was completed to determine the impact of each variable on perceived value congruence.

The relationships between the independent variables and perceived values congruence were found to be statistically significant. Organizational goals and values were found to be most impactful with a strong relationship. The relationship between process clarity and perceived values congruence was found to be negative in nature, reenforcing literature related to the importance of focusing on goals and values specifically.

Findings were discussed in relation to the content of training programs and the importance of utilizing values-based training models. Implications for future theory and practice were presented along with recommendation for future research.