Changes in newcomers' psychological contracts during organizational socialization: a study of recruits entering the British Army HELENA D. C. THOMAS AND NEIL ANDERSON* Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, U.K. Summary A study into changes in the psychological contracts held by newcomer recruits into the British Army is reported. Following a review of the disparate literatures on organiza- tional socialization and the psychological contract, the need for integrative research which examines changes in perceived expectations during the organizational entry process is asserted. Four speci®c hypotheses are derived from this review. A sample of 880 recruits completed questionnaire measures on day one and 314 subsequently eight weeks into training. Responses were compared against a sample of 1157 experienced `insider' soldiers. It was found that newcomers' expectations of the Army increased signi®cantly on several dimensions; that these changes were predicted by learning about Army life; that perceived importance of dimensions of Army life increased; and most importantly, that these changes were generally toward the insider norms of experienced soldiers. The implications of the developing nature of the psychological contract are discussed. # 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction During organizational socialization individuals enter organizations as naive newcomers, and have to make sense of new environments (Louis, 1980; Weick, 1995). Hence, this period of organizational entry is characterized by newcomer knowledge acquisition in a number of domains relating to task responsibilities, the work group, and the organizational culture (Anderson and Thomas, 1996; Morrison, 1993a, b; Ostro and Kozlowski, 1992). As part of this learning process, newcomers will elaborate the rudimentary psychological contract they hold at entry in line with organizational reality (Anderson and Ostro, 1997; Dunahee and Wangler, 1974; Hiltrop, 1995; Levinson et al., 1962; Nadler, Hackman and Lawler, 1983; Shore and Tetrick, 1994). In this paper, we focus on the development of newcomers' psychological contracts during organizational socialization, an area which has received little empirical research attention. CCC 0894±3796/98/070745±23$17.50 # 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 19, 745±767 (1998) *Correspondence to: Neil Anderson, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, U.K. Tel: 0171 919 7894. Fax: 0171 919 7873. E-mail: pss01na@gold.ac.uk