Department of Management, Business School, The Chinese U. of Hong Kong,HK, Hong Kong
Status, reflecting an individual’s relative standing within a group, has traditionally been viewed as a static outcome of social consensus. However, recent research suggests status perceptions are dynamic and individualized, particularly during newcomer socialization, where uncertainty complicates status assessments. Integrating the dual perspective model of agency and communion with regulatory focus and status characteristics theories, this study examines how newcomers’ extra-role behaviors influence status development as perceived by both newcomers and their leaders. Using latent change score modeling on four-wave longitudinal data from 374 newcomers and 298 leaders, we find that voice and helping behaviors positively influence newcomers’ self-perceived status, whereas only helping behaviors are positively associated with leaders’ evaluations of newcomer status. Our findings reveal discrepancies between how newcomers and leaders interpret the same behaviors, offering insights into the multi-stakeholder nature of status construction during organizational entry.
