New employee orientation: Cases of Korean corporations

Despite its effectiveness in socialization and development, new employee orientation (NEO) as a stand-alone training intervention has rarely been a topic of interest in the academic world. The purpose of this study was to examine the NEO programmes for university graduates in Korean corporations. Through an extensive review of NEO-related materials in 10 large Korean corporations, the designs and contents of Korean NEOs were analysed. As a result, all investigated corporations were found to use most of the institutionalized socialization tactics: Formal, collective, fixed, sequential, and serial. The contents of the NEOs mainly focused on the synergism and integration roles. The embedded national culture and organizational contexts in Korean corporations were explored to explain the practices of the NEOs. Implications for HRD practice and research were suggested.