ceive well-trained, highly motivated new employees as quickly as possible (Robinson, 1998).
How effective is the new employee orientation process in conveying organization-wide issues like quality? Do
employees learn from new employee orientations, and is that learning carried back to the workplace? It is difficult to
address these questions because of the dearth of research on the topic. Wanous and Reichers (2000) note that
“orientation programs have rarely been the subject of scholarly thinking and research” (p. 2). They continue by
noting that “the current body of research work (on new employee orientation programs) is too small for metaanalysis”
(p. 2), and as a result they changed the methodology used in their 2000 study to descriptive summary
(Wanous & Reichers, 2000). Other researchers have come to similar conclusions. While most organizations use
formal orientation training, “there is surprisingly little in the academic literature examining the impact or most
appropriate structure of these programs” (Klein, 2000, p. 3).