Newcomer Information Practice: Negotiations on Information Seeking in and Across Communities of Practice

Abstract

Information seeking and access to information and knowledge play an important role in newcomer learning and socialization. The present paper reports a research project that investigated organizational newcomers’ information practice by analyzing their information seeking as an integrated part of their learning process. Empirical material was collected during an eight month field study among newly recruited sales assistants in the transport company DSB S-train in Denmark. A practice learning perspective was used as a theoretical framework for analyzing how information seeking is negotiated in practice, and how it contributes to differrent forms of participation. The analysis shows that the newcomer’s information practice is negotiated and renegotiated across communities of practice and between individuals and communities. Therefore the newcomer’s information practice can be seen as the result of a complex interplay between various practices and forms of participation.