Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

Workplace Socialization and Onboarding
Second, information peers are vital during workplace socialization or onboarding.
can be defined as the process by which new organizational members learn the rules (e.g., explicit
policies and explicit procedures), norms (e.g., when you go on break, how to act at work, who to eat with,
who not to eat with), and culture (e.g., innovation, risk-taking, team orientation, competitiveness) of an
organization. Organizations often have a very formal process for workplace socialization that is called onboarding.
Onboarding is when an organization helps new members get acquainted with the organization,
its members, its customers, and its products/services.
Networking
Third, information peers help us network within our organization or a larger field. Half of being successful
in any organization involves getting to know the key players within the organization. Our information
peers will already have existing relationships with these key players, so they can help make introductions.
Furthermore, some of our peers may connect with others in the field (outside the organization), so they
could help us meet other professionals as well.
Knowledge Management/Maintenance
Lastly, information peers help us manage and maintain knowledge. During the early parts of workplace
socialization, our information peers will help us weed through all of the noise and focus on the knowledge
that is important for us to do our jobs. As we become more involved in an organization, we can still
use these information peers to help us acquire new knowledge or update existing knowledge. When we
talk about knowledge, we generally talk about two different types: explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is
information that is kept in some retrievable format. For example, you’ll need to find previously written
reports or a list of customers’ names and addresses. These are examples of the types of information that
may exist physically (or electronically) within the organization. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is
the knowledge that’s difficult to capture permanently (e.g., write down, visualize, or permanently transfer
from one person to another) because it’s garnered from personal experience and contexts. Informational
peers who have been in an organization for a long time will have a lot of tacit knowledge. They may have
an unwritten history of why policies and procedures are the way they are now, or they may know how
to “read” certain clients because they’ve spent decades building relationships. For obvious reasons, it’s
much easier to pass on explicit knowledge than implicit knowledge.
Collegial Peers
The second class of relationships we’ll have in the workplace are or relationships that
have moderate levels of trust and self-disclosure and are different from information peers because of the
increased openness that is shared between two individuals. Collegial peers may not be your best friends,
but they are people that you enjoy working with. Some of the hallmarks of collegial peers include career
strategizing, job-related feedback, recognizing competence and performance, and friendship.
Career Strategizing
First, collegial peers help us with career strategizing. is the process of creating a
plan of action for one’s career path and trajectory. First, notice that career strategizing is a process, so it’s
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