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Starting a new job is both an exciting and potentially anxiety-inducing experience. Uncertainty might stem from not yet knowing work norms, questioning what is or isn’t appropriate work attire or wondering about an organization’s adherence to particular policies. The process by which new employees integrate into and become part of their new organizational workplaces is called socialization.

While organizational socialization is often discussed using four phases (anticipatory socialization, encounter, metamorphosis and exit), for new employees, entering a new job and finding their way is most often considered part of the encounter phase. When new employees first enter the organization, they typically gain both role-related information and information about the organization’s culture through formal and informal communication.

So how do incoming employees gain information about their new position and about the organization’s culture? They may try one of the following information-seeking tactics. Some strategies might be more appropriate than others depending on the level of uncertainty as well as the “social cost” of seeking said information. For context, I worked as an office coordinator for a staffing company before going back to graduate school. Below, I provide examples for each information-seeking tactic in relation to my past work, with these examples focusing on the task of paid time off (PTO) requests.

• Overt/direct questioning: Directly asking questions to the most relevant individual

  • Ex: Asking “How do I edit someone’s PTO request in our company’s HR software?” to a direct supervisor.

• Indirect questions: Asking questions in a less direct manner, typically still with the most relevant person

  • Ex: Asking “What is the process of logging PTO requests?” to a direct supervisor.

• Third parties: Getting information from secondary sources

  • Ex: Asking a fellow office coordinator in another office and location (e.g., San Diego, Chicago, New York) about PTO requests.

• Testing Limits: Intentionally breaking organizational rules to observe reactions, thereby getting information

  • Ex: Intentionally not logging an employee’s PTO request.

• Disguising conversations: Gaining information by interspersing questions into natural conversation

  • Ex: During lunch, speaking with another employee about their upcoming vacations, casually asking if they have put in a PTO request yet. If so, asking how much time they typically have in between when they sent the request to when the PTO days will occur.

• Surveillance/observation: Watching and making sense of observed behavior

  • Ex: Listening in on a manager and their employee talk about PTO requests; looking at past employees’ PTO request forms.

As new employees gain more experience and tenure with a new organization, they will go from organizational “outsider” or newbie to “insider.” Feeling fully integrated within the organization means they've entered the metamorphosis stage of socialization.

While incoming employees getting acquainted with a new workplace via socialization might feel like a lot of conforming to the organization, it's important that they don’t feel like they must completely assimilate at the cost of their individual flair! One easy way to blend the personal with the organizational is through the process of placemaking, or personalizing a workspace to make it meaningful and personal. This might be as simple as adding photos to a desk, hanging a diploma or including stickers or buttons in a space.

Placemaking might be more or less embraced depending on the work environment. To get an organization’s take on placemaking, a new employee could use the observation or the disguising conversation information-seeking tactics. At the end of the day, it is important to strike a balance between individuality and organizational immersion.

Good luck on the first day!

About the professor

Madeline “Maddy” Pringle, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of communication studies, specifically within organizational communication, in the College of Liberal Arts. Her research program focuses on difference and identity in organizing while emphasizing sociomateriality and the importance of space and place. Maddy’s research has been published in Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research and Language and Intercultural Communication. At the University of Nevada, Reno, Maddy teaches Business and Professional Speaking and Organizational Communication courses.