Events

Ms Zhishuang Guan
Ph.D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland

Newcomers are often referred to as “new blood” because they are expected to bring fresh insights to organizations. This research tackles how newcomer proactive knowledge sharing with coworkers impacts socialization outcomes. Drawing on attribution theory, I propose that newcomer proactive knowledge sharing is subjected to different attributions by coworkers, driving coworkers to demonstrate ambivalent reactions: due to its prosocial nature, proactive knowledge sharing can be attributed to newcomers’ prosocial motives, which in turn motivates coworkers to provide more socialization support. Meanwhile, because it shows off newcomers’ potential to make an impact, newcomer proactive knowledge sharing can also be interpreted as driven by status striving motives, which makes coworkers less likely to appreciate the knowledge shared. I further propose that the ambivalent coworker reactions will have opposing impacts on the extent to which newcomers perceive they are valuable and respected organizational insiders. In addition, I also identify two strategies that will make coworkers more prone to interpret newcomer proactive knowledge sharing as prosocial: newcomers’ information-seeking behavior and leaders’ encouragement of learning. I’m conducting two studies to test my predictions. In Study 1, I’m collecting large-scale multiphase, multisource, and multilevel field data. In Study 2, I plan to conduct a field experiment to test the interventions.