The Process of Socialization in Relation to Organizational Performance Tereza Vinsova, Lenka Komarkova, Pavel Kral, Stanislav Tripes and Petr Pirozek University of Economics, Faculty of Management, Jindrichuv Hradec, Czech Republic vinsova@fm.vse.cz komarkol@fm.vse.cz kralpa@fm.vse.cz xtris00@fm.vse.cz pirozek@fm.vse.cz Abstract: Organizational culture has been considered one of the variables which significantly affects both individual and organizational performance. Organizational culture determines the direction and intensity of individual behaviour and thus encourages employees to strive to fulfil organizational goals. Considering the range of problems in organizational culture and the great number of components of organizational culture, we have focused on the process of the socialization of key organizational values and their relation to organizational performance, as key organizational values cannot be passed down without an effective process of socialization. Particularly, we study the process of socialization in the Czech Republic (as a representative of a post‐transformational country) where socialization was not inherent in organizational processes before 1990. The main research question is whether there is a significant influence of the process of socialization on organizational performance. Based on a sample of 178 organizations (the sample covered organizations of all sizes and from all sectors of the economy), a quantitative survey was carried out in order to analyse the relation between the process of socialization and organizational performance. A questionnaire was distributed to representatives of organizations that are doing business in the Czech Republic and the degree of the socialization process was evaluated. The organizational performance was assessed using Return on Assets (ROA) indicator. The data were analysed using standard statistical methods. The results indicate that the prevalence of the socialization process (associated with the integration of key organizational values) not only preserves but also enhances sharing and development of key components of organizational culture and thus creates strong organizational culture. Moreover, strong organizational culture is related to higher organizational performance. Keywords: organizational culture, process of socialization, key values of organization, organizational performance, return on assets, corporate sector in the Czech Republic 1. Introduction Neither organizational culture nor its particular components played a significant role in the management of organizations in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries before 1990. The development of organizational culture was substantially limited by central planning and a directive managerial style, based on rigid rules, strict norms and regulation. The phenomenon of organizational culture as a part of organizational management emerged in the 90s as a consequence of the economic transformation of CEE countries. Presently, more than 20 years after the transformation, it is possible to evaluate the impacts of organizational culture on organizations and their management. Thus, the two‐year research was focused on the development of the organizational culture components and the role of organizational culture on organizational performance. Organizational culture leads to an improvement of organizational image and to better organizational performance (Schein, 2009). Socialization also plays a key role in the sustainability of culture in any organization because all the components of organizational culture are primarily passed down in the process of socialization and hence, socialization affects the level of sharing the organizational values. Moreover, socialization helps employees to perceive their role in the organization, facilitates their relation to the organization, and thus affects their individual performance (Deal and Kennedy 1982, Denison and Mishra 1995, Weinzimmer, Franczak and Michel 2008, etc.). As a result, the process of socialization theoretically affects the performance of an entire organization. Thus, the aim of the paper is to identify the relation between the process of socialization and organizational performance evaluated through financial indicator Return on Assets. 2. Theoretical background Some authors dealing with organizational culture do not consider socialization as an elementary component of organizational culture and even are not concerned with the importance of socialization (Brown 1995, Wilson and Rosenfeld 1999, Schein 2004, Cameron and Quinn 2011, etc.). Nevertheless, one of the most cited 332