Learning in the workplace: newcomers’ information seeking behaviour and implications for education

ABSTRACT

Information seeking is integral to the workplace learning of organisational newcomers including new recruits, graduates in study-to-work transition, and students on work-integrated learning (WIL) placements. Despite the importance of information seeking in newcomers’ workplace learning, previous research findings are fragmented and inconsistent. This indicates a need to inform research and practice by mapping the extant literature through a scoping review. This review synthesised and analysed findings from 25 empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals during 2000-2021 and relating to factors influencing organisational newcomers’ information seeking behaviour (ISB). The key theoretical contribution of the review is a model of organisational newcomers’ ISB and its antecedents. Through untangling complicated dynamics involved in workplace learning among newcomers, the model has implications for employers in enhancing newcomers’ learning and adaptation and for educators in preparing students for WIL placements and subsequent study-to-work transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Information seeking
• workplace learning
• organisational newcomer
• study-to-work transition
• employability
• scoping review

Acknowledgements

The first author is a recipient of the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. We would like to thank Dr. Cindy Smith and Associate Professor Sonia Ferns for their helpful feedback on the first draft of the article, and Marilyn Coen and Diana Blackwood for their expertise and support in the literature search.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.