Center for Newcomer Onboarding

Early-Career Professionals

Diane D’Archangelo successfully defended her dissertation on April 1, which examined the factors impacting whether early-career Student Affairs professionals leave or remain in the field.

How Non-Standard Workers Onboard Into Client Organizations

Along with a WCU co-author, Jackie Zalewski is conducting a qualitative study using in-depth interviews to explore how non-standard workers—contractors, consultants, etc.—are onboarded into client organizations. The goal is to interview 30-50 non-standard workers, agencies that place these workers into clients, and clients who hire and manage these workers. 30 interviews have been conducted to date. This semester, two independent study students, Caylee Thomas and Arielle Smith, are working with the team to code the data and identify themes. The students will be applying to present at the spring WCU Research Day.

Also based on this research, Jackie will be presenting at two upcoming conferences, Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) in June and Society for Study of Social Problems (SSSP) in August.

 

How Cultural Values Influence New Employee Information Seeking

Along with WCU and Appalachian State University co-authors, Vipanchi received the Provost Research Grant to begin a project looking at new employee information seeking and how cultural values influence these behaviors. Data collection to begin this semester.

Realistic Onboarding Preview

Johnna Capitano, Benjamin Thomas (U of Texas at Austin) and Patti Meglich (U of Nebraska at Omaha) recently published a study of realistic onboarding preview, building on decades of research on realistic job preview. The article, "If I Knew Then What I Know Now: How Realistic Previews of Onboarding Influence Self-Selection and Expectations" is published in Group & Organization Management.

Freshman Stress

First Year Student Onboarding Perceptions and Wellbeing: A Test of Socialization Resources Theory by Megan Nolan, Vipanchi Mishra, and Johnna Capitano is now in press at the Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition. The study looks at first year student onboarding perceptions, social integration, course engagement, depression, and university satisfaction

Workplace Hazing

With collaborators at Drexel University, Rutgers University, Utah State University, and Penn State, Johnna Capitano is currently developing and validating a new measure of workplace hazing. This research demonstrates the negative outcomes of hazing new employees at work, and highlights how to prevent workplace hazing is across a number of industries.

With these collaborations, Dr. Capitano recently published and article titled "Development and validation of the workplace hazing scale". Authors include Mary B Mawritz, Johnna Capitano, Rebecca L Greenbaum, Julena M Bonner, and Joongseo Kim.