Collegiate Assimilation and Current Quality of High School Friendships

CCI Auditorium, 321 Communications Building

Jablin’s (1982) organizational assimilation theory states that as individuals are assimilated into a new organization, new relationships are formed. The formation of new relationships means that less effort can be committed to maintaining past relationships. This study investigated whether a college student’s progression through the phases of organizational assimilation via- encounter, metamorphosis, and exit phases, were predictive of the current quality of high school friendships. The results demonstrated that an individual’s progression through each phase of assimilation was not predictive of past friendship quality.