Socialization of Undergraduate Engineering
Students into Professional Industrial Settings
through a Cooperative Education Program
Preliminary Results
Chris Plouff
Grand Valley State University
Thoughts…
Remember what it was like to first begin
dating?
Remember high school dances?
What do you look for in a partner and how do
you make decisions about relationships?
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2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
January 25, 2006
Presentation Points
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What is Socialization?
Key Terms Defined
Why Study Student Socialization?
Goals of the Research Project
Significance of the Research Project
Organizational Theory Primer
Research Study Overview
Results
Conclusions
Limitations/Future Research
2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
January 25, 2006
What is Socialization?
The interaction between a stable social system and
the member who enters it. Socialization refers to the
process by which required behavior patterns of the
society, organization, or group that he or she is
entering are learned (Schein, 1970).
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Key Terms Defined
Organization: Collectivities oriented to the pursuit of
relatively specific goals and exhibiting relatively
highly formalized social structures (Scott, 1998).
Field: The existence of a community of organizations
that partakes of a common meaning system and
whose participants interact more frequently and
fatefully with one another than with actors outside
of the field (Scott, 1994).
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Key Terms Defined
Profession: A collective group that exercises control
by defining social reality, by devising ontological
frameworks, proposing distinctions, creating
typifications, and fabricating principles or
guidelines for action (Scott & Backman, 1990).
Professions construct cognitive frameworks that
define arenas within which they claim jurisdiction
and seek to exercise control (Scott, 2001).
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Key Terms Defined
Values: Conceptions of the preferred or desirable, together with
the construction of standards to which existing structures or
behaviors can be compared and assessed (Scott, 2001).
Norms: Specify how things should be done; they define
legitimate means to pursue valued ends (Scott, 2001)
Roles: Conceptions of appropriate goals and activities for
particular individuals or specified social positions. Beliefs
are prescriptions of how the specified actors are supposed to
behave (Scott, 2001).
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2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
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Key Terms Defined
Culture: A pattern of basic assumptions, invented,
discovered or developed by a given group, as it
learns to cope with its problems of external
adaptation and internal integration, that has worked
well enough to be considered valid and, therefore is
to be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel in relation to those
problems (Schein, 1990).
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Why Study Student Socialization?
Student Perspective:
 learning outcomes not likely accomplished (at least
to the intended level going into the work event)
 satisfaction with the experience unlikely
 potential for dissatisfaction with the chosen
academic and career fields increases
 self esteem and confidence in the ability to succeed
may be negatively impacted
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Why Study Student Socialization?
Employer Perspective:
 lower productivity from the student
 negative morale that could influence current fulltime employees and other future students that may
want to work for the organization
 greatly limited potential for retention of the student
after the experience thereby minimizing the return
on investment
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Goal of the Research Project
Investigate cooperative education as an
organizational phenomenon (from an
anthropological and sociological perspective).
Goal: To better understand the processes that
students experience when participating in
cooperative education experiences so that the
preparation of both student and organization will
result in better, more meaningful, and effective
experiences.
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Significance of the Research Project
Most research in this area has focused on learning
outcomes
Some Exceptions: (Brown, 1985; Garavan and
Murphy, 2001; Kirby, 1990; Major and Kozlowski,
1997; Nixon, 1989; Parsons and Caylor, 2004/2005)
Provide an organizational-based conceptual
framework of the cooperative education process.
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Organizational Theory Primer
Organizations are about people, not buildings or
facilities. An organization is not a physical entity, but
rather consists of relationships between and among
people and the processes that are used to maintain the
desired relationships. (Barott, 2002)
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Organizational Theory Primer
Three layers of Culture (Kuh & Whitt, 1988; Schein, 1992):
Outer layer: consists of the organization’s artifacts
(physical layout of the organization, the dress code,
stories, myths, symbols)
Middle layer: consists of espoused values
(articulated beliefs about what is “good,” what “works,”
and what is “right.”)
Inner core: consists of underlying assumptions
(deepest ingrained assumptions that are rarely
questioned and taken-for-granted)
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Organizational Theory Primer
Three elements (or pillars) of institutions: regulative systems,
normative systems, and cultural-cognitive systems.
Regulative systems: include establishing rules, monitoring
conformity to them, and manipulating sanctions (rewards or
punishments) in an attempt to influence future behavior.
Normative systems: “define goals or objectives…and designate
appropriate ways to pursue them” (values and norms)
Cultural-cognitive systems: recognizes the “shared conceptions that
constitute the nature of social reality and the frames through which
meaning is made” Scott (2001)
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Organizational Theory Primer
Carriers are the processes that institutions employ to transmit
their messages: symbolic systems, relational systems, routines,
artifacts (Scott, 2001)
Symbolic systems: refer to conventional aspects of culture, including
rules and values, as well as newer conceptions of symbolic schemata
including models, classifications, representations, and logics.
Relational systems: “rely on patterned expectations connected to
networks of social positions: role systems”
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Organizational Theory Primer
Carriers are the processes that institutions employ to transmit
their messages: symbolic systems, relational systems, routines,
artifacts (Scott, 2001)
Routines: “carriers that rely on patterned actions that reflect the tacit
knowledge of actors: deeply ingrained habits and procedures based
on inarticulated knowledge and beliefs”
Artifacts: “material culture,” and include complex technologies
embodied in hardware and software. Artifacts accommodate
structure and action, and are therefore both products of human action
and, once created and deployed, a part of the objective, structural
properties of the situation.
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Organizational Theory Primer
Entry into an organization “is a process of breaking in and
joining up, of learning the ropes, of figuring out how to get
along and how to make it” (Van Maanen, 1975)
Three stage process:
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1.
Entry: individual preparation and training, recruitment and selection,
hiring decisions, and initial job placement;
2.
Socialization: the early process of learning the ropes and finding out how
to make it in the organization, mutual testing between the individual and
organization;
3.
Mutual Acceptance – the processes of formally and informally obtaining
and granting full membership in the organization (Schein, 1978).
2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
January 25, 2006
Organizational Theory Primer
Socialization is the process by which a culture reproduces itself.
Socialization by an organization is supported by rules and
regulations, cognitive categories and schemes, and norms/values
(Barott, 2002).
Stage 1: confronting and accepting organizational reality
Stage 2: achieving role clarity
Stage 3: locating within the organizational context
Stage 4: detecting signposts of successful socialization
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(Wanous, 1992)
2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
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Organizational Theory Primer
Seven dimensions of organizational socialization processes:
Group vs. Individual
Formal vs. Informal
Sequential vs. Random
Fixed vs. Variable
Serial vs. Disjunctive
Reconstructing vs. Self-enhancing
Tournament vs. Contest
(Van Maanen & Schein, 1979; Schein, 1990)
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Organizational Theory Primer
Three outcomes of socialization processes (Schein, 1990):
1. Custodial: total conformity to norms and learning of
assumptions
(formal, self-reconstructing, serial, sequential, variable, tournament)
2. Creative Individualism: all central assumptions of the culture
learned, all peripheral ones rejected, allowing creativity
(informal, self-enhancing, random, disjunctive, fixed, contest)
3. Rebellion: total rejection of assumptions
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Activity
The Co-op Dating Game
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Research Study Overview
Research Questions
 What are the daily experiences of a cooperative education
student?
 What experiences and processes does a student encounter
when they move from the academic to the work environment
through a cooperative education program?
 What experiences and values did students have prior to
entering the cooperative education event that were influential
in the student’s move from outside to inside the
organization?
 How does academic training prior to the work experience
impact the transition to the work environment?
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Research Study Overview
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Research Questions
 What programs and/or processes (formal or informal) are
used by organizations to bring students from outside to
inside the organization?
 How are cooperative education students socialized to the
field? the organization? the profession? roles?
 How do students in a cooperative education program learn
about what they need to do?
 How are the experiences during each cooperative education
semester instrumental in helping a student understand their
roles and the norms of the organization?
 Can the induction and socialization process for students into
experiential education programs be predicted?
2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
January 25, 2006
Research Study Overview
Target consists of understanding the activities of engineering
students participating in a cooperative education program
within the School of Engineering at GSU.
Cooperative education at GSU:
 required for engineering students
 full-time for three separate, four-month long semesters
 work with the same organization throughout
 alternating semester format
 the last two years of the academic program.
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Research Study Overview
School of Engineering (SOE) at Great State University
(GSU):
 bachelor of science in engineering degree with
emphases in computer, electrical, interdisciplinary,
manufacturing, and mechanical engineering
 master of science degrees in mechanical and
manufacturing engineering are currently offered.
 approximately 650 undergraduate and 50 graduate
students in SOE, and 19 terminal-degreed faculty.
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Research Study Overview
Sampling:
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students who began their first co-op semesters in Summer of 2000
through Summer of 2002
all four emphases (mechanical, manufacturing, electrical and computer
engineering) included
study narrowed to include one yearly cycle (2001 start time)
purposeful sampling was used to learn in-depth information about
representative individual cases
snowball sampling of GSU SOE faculty was used beginning with the
dean of the college
purposeful sampling of company/organization representatives
participating in the cooperative education program based on the
information gathered in the student portion of the study
2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
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Research Study Overview
Data Collection:
Review of Artifacts/Documents:
 academic records (transcripts, etc.)
 evaluations completed by students and worksite supervisors
 journals written by students
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Research Study Overview
Data Collection:
Interviewing:
 21 students
7 ME, 9 EE, 3 CE, 1 EE/CE, 1 BUS
19 male, 2 female
20 Caucasian, 1 Asian
18 from near GSU, 3 others from same state
GPA range 2.68 to 3.88 (avg. 3.28)
19 unique co-op organizations
9 unique post-graduation employers
10 hired-on with co-op employer, 10 hired-on with new employer
1 left the engineering program (graduated in business)
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2006 ASEE-CIEC Conference
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Research Study Overview
Data Collection:
Interviewing:
 16 employer representatives
14 male, 2 female
16 Caucasian
16 from within 1 hour drive of GSU
9 unique co-op organizations
years with employer range 6 to 25 years (avg. 16+ years)
 3 faculty representatives
dean of college
co-op program coordinator (faculty member for 16 years in ME)
chair of EE and CE programs (faculty member for 6 years)
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Research Study Overview
Data Collection:
Organizations:
 24 unique organizations
17 manufacturing- and product-based companies
employee size: 7 - 1,000+, 5 – 250 to 1,000, 5 - 250 and below
4 engineering design or engineering service-provider companies
employee sizes: 8, 65, 80, 300
1 governmental entity
mid-size city of over 100,000 people
1 higher education institution
over 20,000 students
1 transportation company
over 500 employees
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Results
How is it organized?
“Leaky Funnel”
Modeling the Process
5 stages:
1. pre-entry
2. match-making (co-op position)
3. entry/socialization (co-op position)
4. match-making (post-graduation)
5. accelerated entry/socialization (post-graduation)
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Conclusions
A fairly comprehensive understanding has been developed of what a
student may encounter during the co-op experience
The socialization process is fairly predictable and therefore can be
modeled and replicated (e.g. metaphorically like dating)
This model could be used to better prepare engineering students
potentially impacting retention in academic programs and persistence
into early career
Successful socialization:
individual/group, informal, self-enhancing, random, disjunctive,
variable, contest-like (similar to creative individualism)
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Limitations/Future Research
Limitations:
Lack of diversity in student and employer informant groups
Students from one (regional) institution
Employer and students from one geographic area
Future Research:
Talk to more students who did not persist
Does co-op impact persistence and success post-graduation
Interview non-co-op hires of the same employers
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