Beyond the first choice: The impact of being an alternate choice on social integration and feedback seeking.
研究员工发现自己不是岗位第一选择（备选）时，会因社会融入感降低而减少向他人直接寻求反馈，并检验领导包容能否缓解这一影响。
Existing work on newcomer adjustment and socialization typically assumes that selected employees are the first choice for a role or job. However, this is not always the case. To address this oversight, we introduce and examine the phenomenon of alternate choices: Employees who are selected for a role but perceive or discover that they were not the first choice. Drawing on social identity theory, we contend that alternate choices seek less feedback directly from others due to experiencing less social integration and examine whether leader inclusion offsets these effects. Our studies cycling between experimental and field survey designs support the proposed theory. Taken together, we illuminate how selection processes and decisions made before role entry can impact employees' subsequent work experiences and behavior after they enter the role, providing insights for theory and research on socialization, feedback seeking, and inclusion at work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).