Gilad Chen
Assistant Professor of Management

A Newcomer's Significance

In any employment situation, a newcomer always faces questions and concerns from coworkers: Will he be able to get the job done? Can she work well under pressure? How will he handle working on a team?

The question of performance is especially crucial in the fast paced, project-driven atmosphere of today's corporate market. Corporations do not have time to slowly introduce and baby their employees through company proceedings because of rapid changes in technology and business. Instead, new company employees must jump right into the action and tackle more important projects just after they are hired.

In his 2004 research paper "Newcomer Adaptation in Teams: Multilevel Antecedents and Outcomes," Mays Assistant Professor of Management Gilad Chen assesses how a newcomer's adaptation to a work environment can make or break his or her team's production. The work complements Chen's 2003 research, which focused on what characteristics benefit a newcomer's successful performance. The current paper looks at how quickly newcomers can integrate into their company's or specific team's environment.

The paper shows that a newcomer's most critical time for social integration into his or her corporate team takes roughly two months. During those first months, new employees can expect little or no pampering. Successful employees must use the first month of initiation to improve their skills, while taking the second month to stabilize themselves at work.

"A newcomer can be a liability or leverage for success," Chen says. "A team's success often depends directly on its ability to integrate new employees into its ranks."

According to Chen, project team managers who are successful at incorporating a new member will often assign semi-important tasks to new employees to cultivate a sense of ownership, responsibility and empowerment over a project.

The paper explains that employees who are immediately expected to be competent in their work often perform better than employees who are not encouraged to master projects quickly. Employees who are poorly integrated appear to be less motivated, promote their respective teams poorly and are far more likely to quit than well-integrated employees.

— Alycia C. Zuehlke



Gilad Chen Assistant Professor of Management	A Newcomer's Significance In any employment situation, a newcomer always faces questions and concerns from coworkers: Will he be able to get the job done? Can she work well under pressure? How will he handle working on a team? The question of performance is especially crucial in the fast paced, project-driven atmosphere of today's corporate market. Corporations do not have time to slowly introduce and baby their employees through company proceedings because of rapid changes in technology and business. Instead, new company employees must jump right into the action and tackle more important projects just after they are hired. In his 2004 research paper "Newcomer Adaptation in Teams: Multilevel Antecedents and Outcomes," Mays Assistant Professor of Management Gilad Chen assesses how a newcomer's adaptation to a work environment can make or break his or her team's production. The work complements Chen's 2003 research, which focused on what characteristics benefit a newcomer's successful performance. The current paper looks at how quickly newcomers can integrate into their company's or specific team's environment. The paper shows that a newcomer's most critical time for social integration into his or her corporate team takes roughly two months. During those first months, new employees can expect little or no pampering. Successful employees must use the first month of initiation to improve their skills, while taking the second month to stabilize themselves at work. "A newcomer can be a liability or leverage for success," Chen says. "A team's success often depends directly on its ability to integrate new employees into its ranks." According to Chen, project team managers who are successful at incorporating a new member will often assign semi-important tasks to new employees to cultivate a sense of ownership, responsibility and empowerment over a project. The paper explains that employees who are immediately expected to be competent in their work often perform better than employees who are not encouraged to master projects quickly. Employees who are poorly integrated appear to be less motivated, promote their respective teams poorly and are far more likely to quit than well-integrated employees. — Alycia C. Zuehlke