ABSTRACT
This chapter helps the reader to understand the assimilation process, which is grounded in recent work on the individual/organization interface, which better confronts the changing nature of change in the modem world. There are two central problems with the traditional approach to assimilation. First, the management-oriented focus has resulted in the minimization or misunderstanding of individuals, differences between individuals as they experience assimilation processes, and the relationship between assimilation and identity work. Second, the microperspective prevalent in assimilation theory has meant that issues pertaining to environmental change, organizational responses to change, and the effects of those responses on individual organizational members has also been neglected or misunderstood. Some theorists have pointed to the importance of human identities and their management in organizations. A major reconceptualization of the assimilation process will require a willingness to resist the temptation to impose a generic socialization experience on all organizational newcomers.
