Latest CAHRS ResearchLink Available: Birds Of A Feather: How New Employees’ Similarity to Coworkers Affects Organizational Behavior and Productivity.

The latest research brief in the CAHRS ResearchLink series is now available for download from the DigitalCommons@ilr digital repository. The brief, entitled “Birds of A Feather:  How New Employees’ Similarity to Coworkers Affects Organizational Behavior and Productivity," summarizes key findings from a recent study that all similarity is not created equal. The types of similarities that new employees share with their work groups affect the efforts they make to form relationships with their coworkers and bosses.   In general, newcomers are more likely to make more efforts to form relationships when they have obvious things in common with their work group – such as race, gender, or education level -- rather than when they have more-subtle, deeper things in common, such as work ethics or moral values. In this regard, similarities that employees themselves perceive as important tend to be more relevant than similarities that an outside observer might consider important.  When newcomers actively socialize with their new coworkers, they don’t necessarily gain a better understanding of their role within the organization; however, they do tend to perform more creatively and feel more loyal and supportive to their new employer.

This study was conducted by Beth A. Livingston, assistant professor of Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University; John D. Kammeyer-Mueller, associate professor, Department of
Management, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida and Hui Liao, associate professor of Management and Organization, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

ResearchLink, a publication series from the Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS), provides HR practitioners with concise, high-level overviews of research by Cornell ILR School's HR Studies faculty.