Values and value systems are important determinants of individual behaviour. These are, however, often ignored by organisations. Newcomers to an organisation are highly malleable and by understanding the processes by which their values change, we can control organisational culture. Through a series of three longitudinal studies, we investigate the nature of changes in individual values because of an individual joining an organisation during the start of his or her career. We explore changes in newcomers’ values from the day they join their first job, over time, by looking at three organisations – an engineering company, a bank, and an automobile company. In the engineering company (N = 244), after one month of classroom training, newcomers showed an increase in self-enhancement values and a reduction in self-transcendence values. In a bank (N = 59), after 18 months on-the-job experience, newcomers’ values showed a reduction in self-transcendence values. In an automobile company (N = 64), the supervisor's transformational leadership enhanced self-transcendence values and reduced self-enhancement values of newcomers. We also found that transformational leadership of the newcomer’s supervisor was positively related to enhancement of the newcomer–supervisor value congruence. This study shows the impact of transformational leadership on value change in followers. Specifically, transformational leaders enhance self-transcendent values of followers and over time values of leaders and followers become congruent. The newcomer in an organisation is in alien territory and is seeking cues for his/her behaviour. The immediate supervisor is an easily accessible source of not just the organisation's norms and values but also work values in general. Hence, organisations must take care to assign newcomers under the supervision of those managers who embody the values of the organisation. Further, those managers must be trained in transformational leadership, so that they can effectively inspire and influence the newcomers.
