Upon entry into an organization, newcomers are plunged into a "strange new
world." Uncertain and anxious, newcomers undergo the process of organizational
socialization, seeking information to understand and accept the requirements of their
new organizational role in terms of values, beliefs, abilities, and expected behaviors.
Much of the research in organizational socialization has focused on investigating the
intentional socialization tactics used by organizations to orient newcomers, such as
training and orientation programs. Such a focus, however, assumes the information
organizations purposefully produce for newcomers is the only information newcom
ers use to comprehend their surroundings. By employing the use of critical incidents,
evidence is provided that such assumptions may be short-sighted. The organiza
tional newcomers surveyed indicated that, of all the types of information they attend
to, critical incidents involving training and orientation were not the most important.
Such evidence lends support to the notion that newcomers look everywhere forclues
- not just in orientation and training programs.
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