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All firms provide some form of orientation for new employees. This article discusses how to make such programmesmore effective. Three components of orientation programmes are considered: pre‐orientation activities, orientation to the organisation, and orientation to the job. In each case, basic approaches and content are set forth, followed by the techniques used by successful and/or innovative firms. It is concluded that effective orientation programmes generally last longer than their standard counterparts, provide more substantive content, utilise more vivid presentation techniques and participative learning methods, and require more involvement from management and other staff members. Finally, recommendations for how to go about creating or revamping an orientation programme are made.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, employers struggled to develop virtual onboarding (VO) experiences among new employees. Prior research has examined VO processes. This study, by contrast, compares online commentaries in relation to current research findings to determine a functional description of effective VO.

Using a qualitative, inductive thematic analysis, the researchers explored new employees' online, anonymous, public commentary about the employers' VO experiences. Through analyzing 83 posted communications, the researchers sought to not only categorize themes, but to also identify meaning within the employees' commentary. From the thematic analysis, meaningful themes were established and compared to existing literature to identify comprehensive trends in effective VO.

The analysis developed nine themes of discussion question (DQ) prompts and nine themes of discussion responses. The professionals' online discussion about VO in the workplace as well as attributes of each theme was compared to contemporary VO research. In combination with a review of established literature of effective VO and an examination of organizational socialization theory, the study confirms that some virtually onboarded employees are excelling with, and some are challenged by the communication deficiencies of the remote experience. Employee experiences are highlighted to develop a description of contemporary effective VO experiences to support future workplace efficiencies.

Data were gathered via Blind and each response shared on Blind is subject to the viewpoint of the participants. For future research, face-to-face interviews might offer context regarding new hires' VO experiences. Also the generalizability is impacted because not all participants of VO participate via Blind. Participant bias is possible given the perceived dissatisfaction or negative experiences. Future research can perform a national random study of employees. Finally, the data and participants in this study were USA based. Future research should consider other international contexts such as Europe.

The thematic findings of this study yield valuable practical recommendations. New hires that experience VO are seeking improved virtual communication channels between themselves and the managers and colleagues of the hires. As such, corporate managers/trainers can implement a virtual mentoring program to have senior employees prepare and guide new hires into employees' new remote working environment to reduce employees' uncertainty. To improve VO processes in a post-pandemic society, corporate managers/trainers can incorporate social media communication given that employees participate in social media to develop their careers. With social media work groups, new virtual hires can be better socialized through effective peer-to-peer informal internal communications where the hires can freely ask questions and build better work relationships.

In each onboarding experience and evident in each of the five themes, learning is an underlying concept. New employees are describing that it is challenging to development organizational shared values, skills, attitudes, knowledge, abilities, behaviors and relationships in a VO process. As organizational leaders continue to develop VO experiences, a focus on learning as dependent on the virtual learning process and content can be significant in terms of creating a positive employee VO learning experience.

The findings are unique in exploring new hires' self-reported VO experiences. This study offers insight into effective VO practices such as developing virtual trainings that are well planned, engaging and supporting of relationships, collaborations and career goals.

The purpose of this paper is to promote the notion that an orientation plan and socialization to the culture of the organization are crucial components for the retention of library employees.

A review of selected literature was conducted from both within and outside librarianship to determine the relationship orientation and socialization have to retention.

Employee orientation is a multi‐stage process utilizing both formal and informal activities that help assist the employee to become part of the culture of any organization, including the library. A human resources program that includes well‐planned processes for recruitment, selection, orientation, socialization and retention will help a library be more competitive as librarians retire. Paying attention to these processes is increasingly important as we enter the period in which the baby boomer generation is moving toward retirement.

As baby‐boomer librarians retire, libraries should strive to maintain retention by improving current orientation practices and assisting with socialization to the organizational culture. The orientation process and retention can be improved by the use of checklists, the support of the immediate supervisor, and appointing a mentor.

The paper provides considerations that may assist planning approaches for libraries considering future staffing in a shrinking employment market.

Research suggests that leaders influence employee engagement and their connection to the organization, their manager and their team. However, the influence of leadership behaviors on new employees requires further investigation.

This nonexperimental, cross-sectional, quantitative, exploratory study examined Situational Leadership II (SLII) behaviors, specifically the Coaching (S2) style and new employee engagement. New employees that had worked with medium-sized organizations (100 to 999 employees) for less than a year were surveyed using the Leadership Action Profile II (LAPII; The Ken Blanchard Co., 1979) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9 (UWES-9; Schaufeli and Baker, 2003). Regression analysis was used to determine the degree to which the SLII leaders’ behaviors explained new employee engagement. The research question and hypotheses explored the gap between SLII behaviors and new employee engagement.

The findings of this research indicated a positive relationship between the SLII leadership style of Coaching (S2) and new employee engagement. It is important to engage new hires in order to reduce turnover.

The SLII leadership style of Coaching (SW) was studied and in relation to new employee engagement. New hire engagement (those working for an organization for less than a year) is not an area that has been studied in relation to coaching in medium sized organizations and this article contributes to the literature.

When considering whether to adopt a network technology, how does uncertainty about whom a potential adopter might interact with affect their adoption choice? On the one hand, uncertainty about potential network partners might enhance adoption incentives, as increased uncertainty induces the potential for economies of scope across the potential network. On the other hand, uncertainty may reduce the expected value of any particular connection, and reduce adoption incentives. Since this is a theoretical puzzle, this chapter presents empirical evidence to help illuminate it. It presents evidence the destabilizing of a social network may increase the scope of network externalities, using data on sales of a video-calling system made to an investment bank’s employees and subsequent usage by these customers. The terrorist attacks of 2001 led potential customers in New York to start communicating with a new and less predictable set of people when their work teams were reorganized as a result of the physical displacement that resulted from the attacks. This did not happen in other comparable cities. These destabilized communication patterns were associated with potential adopters in New York being more likely to take into account a wider spectrum of the user base when deciding whether to adopt relative to those in other cities. Empirical analysis suggests that the aggregate effect of network externalities on adoption was doubled by this instability, and that for those with diffuse networks, this more than compensated for the negative baseline effects of the instability.

This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

Idiosyncratic jobs occur when formal job duties match the abilities or interests of a specific person. New duties can accrue or be negotiated to match an existing employee or a potential hire. Idiosyncratic jobs can help organizations deal with changing contexts, and influence organizational goals and structure. They can affect job holders’ careers and organizational job structures. The evolutionary accumulation of idiosyncratic jobs can potentially generate unplanned organizational learning. Promising research frontiers include links to work on job crafting, I-Deals, negotiated joining, and ecologies of jobs. Deeper exploration of these domains can advance core theories of job design and organizational transformation and inform normative theory on organizational use of idiosyncratic jobs without falling into cronyism, inefficiency, or injustice.

In today's digitalized world, platform leadership is a novel leadership style that facilitates employee innovation. However, the impact mechanism of platform leadership on employee innovation passion has not been explored.

In this study, based on the theory of a self-organizing objective system, 591 new-generation employees were surveyed to explore the impact of platform leadership on the harmonious innovation passion of new-generation employees.

The results showed that platform leadership stimulates the harmonious innovation passion of employees by promoting the integration of organizational and employee objectives. This mechanism was found to be weakened by the internal integrated organizational culture and strengthened by the external adaptive organizational culture.

This study explores the mechanism by which platform leadership style influences the harmonious innovation passion of new-generation employees and provides theoretical guidance and practical insight into ways to improve the innovation capability of new-generation employees.

A culture of health within an organization offers benefits such as managing healthcare costs and supporting employees in becoming and staying healthy. This study aims to identify successful organization's strategies utilized to socialize employees into a culture of health.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 representatives from organizations recognized for their success in creating a culture of health. Grounded theory analysis of collected data was used to identify themes related to the goals of this study.

New employees are socialized into the culture of health during the recruitment process, at new employee orientation and throughout the early employment period. Existing employees are also continually socialized using a variety of on-going communication strategies. This process is consistent with Jablin's organizational assimilation model, and this study offers the opportunity to use this model to help understand organizational health.

Organizations desiring to create a culture of health can support this culture by incorporating socialization strategies into the recruitment, hiring and new employee on-boarding process.

Though strategies have been shown to be helpful in socializing new employees into organizations, limited research has explored the relationship between socialization and a culture of health. Results from this study offer insight into how organizations that have been recognized for their success in creating a culture of health socialize new and existing employees to create and maintain a culture that supports health and well-being. Also, this study applies socialization theories to health within the workplace, offering new insights both theoretically and practically.

Integrating the resource-based view (RBV) with pay dispersion research, the authors examine how the allocation of resources between hiring new employees and compensating current employees, as well as the allocation of resources among new employees, affects organizational performance.

The authors use panel data on Major League Baseball teams. The authors also use system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimations to control for the impact of past performance on current performance, unobserved individual heterogeneity and omitted variable bias.

The authors find that the larger the portion of the human resources (HR) budget allocated to hiring new employees, the poorer organizational performance becomes unless the focal organization has already significantly underperformed. The authors also find that pay concentration among new employees has a positive impact on organizational performance unless the focal organization has already significantly overperformed.

This study extends RBV research by examining how resource allocation patterns affect organizational performance, which has rarely been studied. Moreover, by showing the organizational context's significant effect on the outcome of financial allocation for resource acquisition, this study extends both the RBV research and the pay dispersion research.