A paper coauthored by Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) professors and alumni received the 2022 JOB Best Paper Award at the 2023 AOM Annual Conference. Titled "Getting Ahead or Getting Along? How Motivational Orientations for Newcomers' Cohort Network Structures, Task Assistance, and Turnover," the paper was the work of LI Ning, the Flextronics Chair Professor of the Department of Leadership and Organization Management at Tsinghua SEM, ChI Wei, a tenured associate professor at Tsinghua SEM, and ZHOU Jinyi, an assistant professor at School of Economics & Management USTB (a 2013 PhD of Tsinghua SEM).

As work environments become increasingly diverse, how to help college graduates make the transition from student to worker, integrate into their employer's organization, and realize their potential when starting their first job have become core issues that attract attention from many organizations and scholars. This paper provides in-depth insights, arguing that in the process of socialization, new employees need to seek valuable support from "insiders" (colleagues and leaders) and to establish supportive connections with other new employees with similar experiences. This study utilized social theory, a view of social networks, and a long-term and dynamic methodology that yielded a series of beneficial conclusions.

At the award ceremony, the chief editor of JOB highly commended the paper for its broad scope, dynamic perspective, and utility on behalf of the Best Paper Award review committee. This honor is a recognition of the academic achievements of the three authors, as well as the continuous efforts of Tsinghua SEM in international academia. Tsinghua SEM will remain devoted to academic research and to exploring new frontiers of study with other scholars.