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Onboarding and Socialization Under COVID-19 Crisis: A Knowledge Management Perspective

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Virtual Management and the New Normal

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Abstract

COVID-19 has contributed to a digitalization of communication, and in many cases a distribution of the workforce in organizations. In turn, this has affected knowledge management practices during the pandemic. In particular, this paper scrutinizes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on onboarding practices in a large public organization. The research aimed to investigate employees’ perceptions of the onboarding process during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they expect “the new normal” workday to unfold. A total of nine employees were interviewed in a large public organization. We find that COVID-19 caused a certain degree of detachment from the workplace among the new employees, raised issues regarding communication, knowledge sharing and personal development, but also the uptake of an extensive and lasting use of digital administrative systems. The newcomers emphasize the importance of being physically present at work. The unanimous prediction of the post-COVID-19 work future was more flexibility regarding working at the office versus working from home, and a balance for newcomers between presence and e-learning when being onboarded.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Rena, Norway

    Hanne Haave & Tone Vold

  2. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Gjøvik, Norway

    Aristidis Kaloudis

Authors
  1. Hanne Haave
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  2. Aristidis Kaloudis
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  3. Tone Vold
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Correspondence to Tone Vold .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway

    Svein Bergum

  2. Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Breukelen, Norway

    Pascale Peters

  3. Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Rena, Norway

    Tone Vold

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Haave, H., Kaloudis, A., Vold, T. (2023). Onboarding and Socialization Under COVID-19 Crisis: A Knowledge Management Perspective. In: Bergum, S., Peters, P., Vold, T. (eds) Virtual Management and the New Normal. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06813-3_12

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