Abstract:  Organizational politics is a common phenomenon in the workplace. Newcomers’ belief in coping with organizational politics effectively is key to their adaptability in the organization and their enhancement of professional competitiveness. Therefore, the dynamic evolution and mechanism of newcomer’s political self-efficacy will be explored based on the interactionist perspective of organizational socialization. First, political self-efficacy will be conceptualized using qualitative method. Following rigorous scale development procedures, measures of political self-efficacy will be developed and its reliability and discrimination validity will be tested. The construct validity of political self-efficacy will be further examined through building its nomological network. Second, a dynamic model will be constructed to reveal how newcomer’s political self-efficacy evolves with the process of their political learning, and how newcomer’s political willing and learning orientation affect this evolving mechanism. Third, a multilevel interaction model will be developed to systematically analyze how newcomer’s political self-efficacy affects job performance through both a fit path and a relationship path over the course of the interactions between the newcomer and his/her leader and peers. In all, the findings will not only extend present theories in the fields of organizational socialization, organization politics and self-efficacy, but also provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for motivating newcomers.

Key words: political self-efficacy, organizational socialization, newcomer, interactionist perspective