That's the take-home message from a study inspired by an insurance firm that wasn't getting the results it expected from adjusters it hired from a competing firm.

The study may have looked at adjusters working in a call center, but the results can apply to anyone who moves between organizations or even between parts of an organization, says lead author Gina Dokko, an assistant professor at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

"People are weighed down by the baggage they bring in," says Dokko. "Related experience, as people expect, is great for bringing knowledge and skills to the job, but there's a counterbalancing negative effect that we think is attributable to behavioral and cognitive rigidities."

To put it more simply, the habits you pick up about how to do your job, and your own ideas about what constitute good performance, can prevent you from doing well at a new job if you don't pick up and respond to clues about corporate culture.

The study also looked at cultural fit. In the case of the insurance company, one firm considered customer service paramount, while the other wanted adjusters to reduce claim size. Employees who fit with the culture were better able to fully benefit from their previous experience.

Accounting for Culture

How might the study play out in accounting? In client-facing positions, culture can influence who answers which client questions, and which client matters can be delegated and at what levels. "You don't want to violate those norms," says Steffanie Wilk, an associate professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, who ran the study with Nancy Rothbard, an associate professor at the Wharton School. "You want to be clued in to the signals being given about how the company works and whether the way you're doing the work is appropriate.”

The professors also looked at the influence of adaptability. Apparently, there are people out there who see the signal flashing red but can't bring themselves to stop. Not surprisingly, the higher someone scored on measures of adaptability, the less likely they were to suffer from negative effects of baggage. However, low adaptability doesn't mean you won't succeed, just that you need to recognize it as the personal challenge it is. "We all have tendencies to be rigid or adaptable, but if we're aware, we can adjust our behavior," says Dokko.

Their advice to employees in new work environments is pretty straightforward: Get feedback and if people say that what you're doing isn't what's expected, adjust your behavior and don't take it personally. If you suspect you're annoying the boss, just come right out and ask. Does he like the way you're communicating with clients or producing reports?

“The earlier you tackle this, the better,” Wilk says. “Don't wait until you've been there a year and wonder why your performance evaluations aren't going up.”

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