Co-workers reaction to new employees

Co-workers reactions to new employees have been termed compensatory behaviors (Geller et al. 1996). These are behaviors which attempt to compensate for the fact that the employee is new to the job, and needs familiarizing with all aspects of the job. Of course familiarization is required in both directions the new employee will need to become familiar with all aspects of the job, including their co-workers behavior and attitudes, and co-workers will need to become familiar with the new employee s behavior and attimdes. The latter is particularly important for co-worker safety. New employees can be somewhat unpredictable in their behavior due to a desire to be helpful (Burt et al. 2014). Chapter 8 focuses specifically on helping behaviors which new employees may engage in and the risks these may pose to co-workers. In addition to unexpected helping behaviors, new employees can be unpredictable in how they work, and co-workers need to be veiy mindful of this. 

Table 9.3 The expected co-workers reactions to new employees scale items...

The expected co-workers reactions to new employees scale has 4 items, and both versions are shown in Table 9.3. The items for the new employee version were adapted (by rewording into future tense) from scales developed by Burt and Stevenson s (2009) and Burt et al. s (2009). Burt et al. s (2012) reported an alpha value of 0.86 for flie new employee version, and 0.76 for the job incumbent version. 

---