The flip side of organizational encounter developing and testing a model of veteran employee uncertainty and information seeking about new employees

Organizational socialization research regarding new employees is well established. However, research of this nature provides a largely one-sided view of organizational entry processes. Although newcomers experience uncertainty and the specific types of uncertainty have been established in previous research, the newcomer s entry creates uncertainty for veteran employees as well (Gallagher & Sias, 2009). The new hire changes the normal routine and flow of work activities as well as the social atmosphere of the organization. This manuscript presents a project that was designed to develop and test a model of veteran employee uncertainty reduction regarding new hires. New instruments were developed based on previous research. The instruments were tested, revised, and developed throughout three studies using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Particular attention was paid to the psychometric qualities of the instruments. The third study also tested a path model of the relationships between veteran employee uncertainty, information seeking, and task interdependence. The results indicate that task interdependence between veteran employees predicts particular aspects of uncertainty and information seeking. Uncertainty about new hires also predicts the use of information seeking tactics, a relationship that is supported by Uncertainty Reduction Theory. This project represents the first quantitative analysis of the veteran employee perspective of organizational encounter, which begins to provide a more holistic view of organizational socialization processes