New research from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Kentucky reveals that assigning new employees to complex projects early in their careers significantly boosts their long-term professional success, enhancing learning, status attainment and career progression.
A new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Kentucky has found that assigning employees to complex projects at the start of their careers significantly boosts their long-term professional success.
Published in the Academy of Management Journal, the research uncovers how these early assignments enhance learning, status attainment and career progression.
The study investigated the impact of early work experiences on career outcomes, focusing on over 500 employees at a high-tech Chinese company between January 2020 and December 2022. Participants were randomly assigned to projects during their first two years on the job.
The findings underscore the importance of these early assignments, particularly in dynamic industries such as high-tech.
“It is critical to explore organizational socialization practices that simultaneously support newcomers’ on-the-job learning and drive their status attainment, and to identify the conditions under which these practices yield optimal outcomes,” co-author David Krackhardt, a professor of organizations at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, said in a news release. “This is especially important in the dynamic and rapidly evolving high-tech industry, where early career experiences can have a profound and enduring impact on employees’ future performance and career progression, and the value they bring to their organizations.”
Long-Term Benefits of Complex Assignments
Employees assigned to more complex projects early on reported higher levels of learning, earned more professional certifications and frequently appeared in the company’s newsletters.
These achievements correlated with increased promotion rates, higher monetary rewards and better supervisor evaluations.
“Our study is the first to consider status attainment as a key indicator of successful socialization by examining how on-the-job experiences during the entry period influence newcomers’ integration into an organization’s informal status hierarchy,” added co-author Nynke Niezink, an assistant professor of statistics and data science at Carnegie Mellon and an affiliated member of the faculty of Heinz college. “Our findings underscore the pivotal role of early assignments in shaping newcomers’ career development.”
The researchers also found that previous industry experience amplified the positive effects of project complexity, suggesting that newcomers with significant human capital are better equipped to benefit from challenging assignments.
Implications for Industry
Lead author Shihan Li, an assistant professor of management at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics, commented on the broader implications.
“Being assigned to projects with high coordination and component complexity gives newcomers substantial learning and status benefits, which subsequently unfold as advantages to promotion and performance,” she said in the news release.
Understanding the long-term impact of early career assignments is crucial for organizations, especially as nearly a quarter of U.S. workers are new hires. The outcomes of this research could guide companies in structuring onboarding processes to maximize employee development and organizational value.
Study Limitations
While the study offers valuable insights, the authors acknowledge limitations. They noted that their measures of status might not capture all nuances across different firms and factored out intrinsic motivation and a sense of work meaningfulness.
Nevertheless, this research provides a vital understanding of the long-term benefits associated with assigning complex projects to new employees, paving the way for more effective socialization practices in various industries.
Source: Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University