Findings

1. For my internship site and numerous other similar organizations, on the one hand, employees and staff members can proactively create a more welcoming and stress-free environment where newcomers feel the ease of building rapport with a group of people who already know each other and have strong connections. Furthermore, employers and experienced staff members should be more aware of the challenging situations and challenges newcomers may face and take actions (such as creating rapport-building programs or activities) to help them navigate rapport-building. On the other hand, newcomers ought to have the courage to break the silence, the awkwardness, and the confusion caused by being new and a lack of knowledge of language’s interpersonal function. Both organizations/companies and newcomers ought to realize and keep in mind their mutual intention of harmonious rapport-building and communication. When in doubt, either side should confidently speak out and/or reach out to the other side and express their worries, concerns, and questions. Some people may need the courage to step out of their communicational comfort zone, verbalize their inner voice, and desire good rapport-building. One may fear rejection, mistakes, or humiliation of themselves, but only if one overcomes that can one embrace a brighter and worthy path of more robust connections with people in the organization. 

2. For the ICC field (and theoretical implication,) more research focusing on newcomers navigating rapport building and communication in an online environment is expected to see in the future. Rapport building in online communication has the potential to become the new normal. Besides that, rapport-building is common in work in all fields and industries. I believe that in-depth-and-width exploration of how to navigate rapport-building and communication would benefit the applied linguistics field and thus benefit society. My project was a small start in this area, and there is much more space for other scholars to explore and contribute.

3. More broadly speaking, to society, rapport-building happens everywhere and anytime - online or offline, on formal or informal occasions, intercultural or within the same culture. Anyone who participates in the practice of rapport-building as a newcomer could benefit from educating themselves on the interpersonal function of language. People may not realize how much they can do and change through language. Navigating rapport-building and communication will become an enjoyable task in work and life with each individual's willingness and effort.