The Socialization of STEM Professionals Into STEM Careers: A Study of Newly Hired Engineers

Abstract

The Problem

Recently there has been a growing interest to increase the number of people entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. One of the major problems with this “supply-side” model is that it sees STEM workforce development narrowly as one of inputs (recruitment) and ignores the practice of STEM work, which affects the retention of professionals in STEM careers.

The Solution

Informed by recent research and theory on career development, we studied the work experiences of newly hired engineers in one organization. A key finding is that a major part of their experiences involved organizational work and social dynamics outside of what many considered to be “real” engineering work. We propose that these experiences provide important insights for the education and retention of STEM workers.

The Stakeholders

Faculty in higher education that prepare STEM workers, managers in organizations that hire new STEM workers, and aspiring STEM workers.

Keywords

newcomer experiences career development organizational socialization human resource development

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arnett

J. J.

(2004). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ashforth

B. E.

Sluss

D. M.

Saks

A. M.

(2007). Socialization tactics, proactive behavior, and newcomer learning: Integrating socialization models. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 447-462.

Bandura

(1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bauer

T. N.

Bodner

Erdogan

Truxillo

D. M.

Tucker

J. S.

(2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 707-721.

Blustein

D. L.

(2011). A relational theory of working. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 1-17.

Brunhaver

S. R.

(2015). Early career outcomes of engineering alumni: Exploring the connection to the undergraduate experience (Doctoral dissertation). Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Brunhaver

S. R.

Korte

R. F.

Barley

S. R.

Sheppard

S. D.

(2018). Bridging the gaps between engineering education and practice. In Freeman

R. B.

Salzman

(Eds.), Engineering in a global economy (pp. 129-163). University of Chicago Press.

Buse

K. R.

(2009). Why they stay: The ideal selves of persistent women engineers (Doctoral dissertation). Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.

Byars-Winston

Estrada

Howard

Davis

Zalapa

(2010). Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: A multiple-groups analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 205-218.

10.

Carr

J. C.

Pearson

A. W.

Vest

M. J.

Boyar

S. L.

(2006). Occupational experience, anticipatory socialization, and employee retention. Journal of Management, 32, 343-359.

11.

Cheville

(2014, June). A century of defining engineering education. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education 2014, 121st ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Indianapolis, IN.

12.

Collings

D. G.

Mellahi

(2009). Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 19, 304-313.

13.

Connolly

J. J.

Viswesvaran

(2000). The role of affectivity in job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 265-281.

14.

Eisenhardt

K. M.

Graebner

M. E.

(2007). Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 25-32.

15.

Eraut

(2007). Learning from other people in the workplace. Oxford Review of Education, 33, 403-422.

16.

Eraut

(2008). How professionals learn through work (Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education (Sceptre) Working Paper). Guildford, UK: University of Surrey.

17.

Eraut

(2012). Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. In Daniels

Lauder

Porter

(Eds.), Knowledge, values and educational policy (pp. 75-94). New York, NY: Routledge.

18.

Fouad

N. A.

Singh

(2011). Stemming the tide: Why women leave engineering. Milwaukee: Center for the Study of Workplace, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

19.

Fouad

N. A.

Smith

P. L.

(1996). A test of a social cognitive model for middle school students: Math and science. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 338-346.

20.

Greenleaf

A. T.

(2014). Making the best of a bad situation: Career counseling young adults in the aftermath of the great recession. Journal of Employment Counseling, 51, 158-169.

21.

Harter

J. K.

Schmidt

F. L.

Keyes

C. L. M.

(2003). Well-being in the workplace and its relationship to business outcomes: A review of the Gallup studies. In Keyes

C. L. M.

Haidt

(Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived (pp. 205-224). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

22.

Higgins

(2001). Changing careers: The effects of social context. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 595-618.

23.

Ilies

Judge

T. A.

(2003). On the heritability of job satisfaction: The mediating role of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 750-759.

24.

Judge

T. A.

Heller

Mount

M. K.

(2002). Five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 530-541.

25.

Korte

Brunhaver

Sheppard

(2015). (Mis)interpretations of organizational socialization: The expectations and experiences of newcomers and managers. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26, 185-208. doi:10.1002/hrdq.21206

26.

Korte

Sheppard

Jordan

(2008, June 22-25). A qualitative study of the early work experiences of recent graduates in engineering. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

27.

Korte

R. F.

(2009). How newcomers learn the social norms of an organization. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 20, 285-306.

28.

Lattuca

L. R.

Strauss

L. C.

Volkwein

J. F.

(2006). Getting in sync: Faculty and employer perception from the National Study of EC2000. International Journal of Engineering Education, 22, 460-469.

29.

Lent

R. W.

(2013). Social cognitive career theory. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (2nd ed., pp. 115-146). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

30.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

(2006). On conceptualizing and assessing social cognitive constructs in career research: A measurement guide. Journal of Career Assessment, 14, 12-35.

31.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

(2008). Social cognitive career theory and subjective well-being in the context of work. Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 6-21.

32.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

(2013). Understanding and facilitating career development in the 21st century. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (2nd ed., pp. 1-26). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

33.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

Hackett

(1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79-122.

34.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

Schmidt

Brenner

Lyons

Treistman

(2003). Relation of contextual supports and barriers to choice behavior in engineering majors: Test of alternative social cognitive models. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 458-465.

35.

Lent

R. W.

Lopez

A. M.

Jr. Lopez

F. G.

Sheu

H. B.

(2008). Social cognitive career theory and the prediction of interests and choice goals in the computing disciplines. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73, 52-62.

36.

Leung

S. A.

(2008). The big five career theories. In J. A. Anthanasou & R. van Esbroek (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 115-132). Dordrecht: Springer.

37.

Lichtenstein

Loshbaugh

H. G.

Claar

Chen

H. L.

Jackson

Sheppard

S. D.

(2009). An engineering major does not (necessarily) an engineer make: Career decision making among undergraduate engineering majors. Journal of Engineering Education, 98, 227-234.

38.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Guba

E. G.

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

39.

Liptak

J. J.

(2005). Using emotional intelligence to help college students succeed in the workplace. Journal of Employment Counseling, 42, 171-178.

40.

Louis

M. R.

(1980). Surprise and sense making: What newcomers experience in entering unfamiliar organizational settings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 226-251.

41.

Mainiero

L. A.

Sullivan

S. E.

(2005). Kaleidoscope careers: An alternate explanation for the “opt-out” revolution. The Academy of Management Executive, 19, 106-123.

42.

Major

D. A.

Kozlowski

S. W. J.

Chao

G. T.

Gardner

P. D.

(1995). A longitudinal investigation of newcomer expectations, early socialization outcomes, and the moderating effects of role development factors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 418-431.

43.

Matusovich

H. M.

Streveler

Miller

R. L.

Olds

B. A.

(2009, June 14-17). I’m graduating the year! So what IS an engineer anyway? Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Austin, TX.

44.

Metcalf

(2010). Stuck in the pipeline: A critical review of STEM workforce literature. Interactions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 6(2). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zf09176

45.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

A. M.

Saldaña

(2013). Qualitative data analysis (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

46.

Moreland

R. L.

Levine

J. M.

(1982). Socialization in small groups: Temporal changes in individual-group relations. In Berkowitz

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 15, pp. 137-192). New York: Academic Press.

47.

National Science Foundation. (2015). National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT), 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sestat/

48.

Nauta

M. M.

Epperson

D. L.

(2003). A longitudinal examination of the social cognitive model applied to high school girls’ choices of nontraditional college majors and aspirations. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 448-457.

49.

T. W. H.

Feldman

D. C.

(2014). Subjective career success: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 85, 169-179.

50.

Nolan

S. A.

Buckner

J. P.

Marzabadi

C. H.

Kuck

V. J.

(2008). Training and mentoring of chemists: A study of gender disparity. Sex Roles, 58, 235-250.

51.

Ostroff

Kozlowski

S. W. J.

(1992). Organizational socialization as a learning process: The role of information acquisition. Personnel Psychology, 45, 849-874.

52.

Patton

M. Q.

(2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

53.

Polach

J. L.

(2004). Understanding the experience of college graduates during their first year of employment. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 5-23.

54.

Russell

J. E. A.

(2008). Promoting subjective well-being at work. Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 117-131.

55.

Saks

A. M.

Gruman

J. A.

(2011). Organizational socialization and positive organizational behavior: Implications for theory, research, and practice. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 28, 14-26.

56.

Saks

A. M.

Uggerslev

K. L.

Fassina

N. E.

(2007). Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A meta-analytic review and test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 413-446.

57.

Sampson

J. P.

Jr. Hou

P. C.

Kronholz

J. F.

Dozier

V. C.

McClain

M. C.

Buzzetta

Kennelly

E. L.

(2014). A content analysis of career development theory, research, and practice—2013. The Career Development Quarterly, 62, 290-326.

58.

Singh

Fouad

N. A.

Fitzpatrick

M. E.

Liu

J. P.

Cappaert

K. J.

Figuereido

(2013). Stemming the tide: Predicting women engineers’ intentions to leave. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83, 281-294.

59.

Sluss

D. M.

Thompson

B. S.

(2012). Socializing the newcomer: The mediating role of leader–Member exchange. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119, 114-125.

60.

Stake

R. E.

(1995). The art of the case study. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

61.

Strauss

Corbin

(1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

62.

Taris

T. W.

Feij

J. A.

Capel

(2006). Great expectations—and what comes of it: The effects of unmet expectations on work motivation and outcomes among newcomers. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 14, 256-268.

63.

Thoresen

C. J.

Kaplan

S. A.

Barsky

A. P.

Warren

C. R.

de Chermont

(2003). The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: A meta-analytic review and integration. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 914-945.

64.

Tomlinson

Baird

Berg

Cooper

(2018). Flexible careers across the life course: Advancing theory, research and practice. Human Relations, 71, 4-22.

65.

Van Maanen

Schein

E. H

. (1979). Toward a theory of organizational socialization. Research in Organizational Behavior, 1, 209-264.

66.

Wanberg

C. R.

(2012). Facilitating organizational socialization: An introduction. In Wanberg

C. R.

(Ed.), The Oxford handbook of organizational socialization (pp. 3-7). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

67.

Wanous

J. P.

Poland

T. D.

Premack

S. L.

Davis

K. S.

(1992). The effects of met expectations on newcomer attitudes and behaviors: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 288-297.

68.

Yin

R. K.

(2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.