Anticipatory socialisation: the effect of recruitment
and selection experiences on career expectations
Dora Scholarios
Department of Human Resource Management, University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow, UK
Cliff Lockyer
Department of Human Resource Management, University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow, UK
Heather Johnson
Disability Service, Jobcentre Plus, Kilmarnock, UK
Management literature has tended to
emphasise post-entry organisational
influences in newcomer socialisation (e.g.
Comer, 1991; Van Maanen and Schein, 1979;
Wanous, 1992); but pre-entry experiences also
Abstract
influence socialisation to work and
Recruitment and selection
experiences are part of a process organisational life (Porter et al., 1975). The
of pre-entry organisational
career transition from higher education into
socialisation, also known as
employment is one such phase which has
anticipatory socialisation.
Graduates are susceptible to such been identified as contributing to graduates’
career development. Garavan and Morley
effects as their socialisation
through exposure to professional
(1997) suggested a stage model of
employers begins during training.
organisational entry, where the first stage,
Employers’ practices are thought
anticipatory socialisation, encompassed all
to contribute to the formation of
realistic career expectations and
learning that took place prior to a graduate’s
the initial psychological contract
first day on the job, and influenced
between graduates and
subsequent stages such as the development of
employers. The present study
an initial psychological contract and the first
found that students in traditional
professions reported greater
organisational encounter (see also Rousseau,
exposure to employers than
1990).
students in an emerging
The focus of the present study is the
profession through work activities,
anticipatory socialisation stage for students
more proactive engagement in
recruitment events, and more
planning to enter professions, and in
extensive experience of selection particular the effects of recruitment and
processes at similar stages of
selection experiences on career expectations
study. Greater activity, in turn,
and orientation. The nature of students’ job
was related to career
expectations, including varying
search activity, the possession of relevant
levels of commitment to and
work experience, and exposure to employers
interest in the profession and
through recruitment and selection activities
career clarity.
may form part of the ``evolving sequence of a
person’s work experiences’’ (Arthur et al.,
1996, p. 8) which contributes to anticipatory
socialisation. It has been argued that
Received November 2002
Revised February 2003
exposure to employers through recruitment
Accepted February 2003
and selection is a social process where
employers and potential employees gradually
perceive a match (e.g. Anderson, 2001;
Anderson and Ostroff, 1997; Chatman, 1991;
Herriot, 1989). Through job search activities
and awareness of employers’ recruitment
literature and events, students gather
information about organisation goals, values,
Career Development
climate and work practices to guide their
International
ultimate decision (Major et al., 1995).
Exposure to selection procedures provides
information about the culture and attributes
of an organisation, and candidates form
judgments from their perceptions of the
fairness of the selection methods used (Arvey
and Sackett, 1993; Gilliland, 1993).
Stewart and Knowles (1999a) argued that
providing students with greater awareness of
employment opportunities, and equipping
them with the ability to be proactive in
approaching potential employers, will lead to
more effective career self-management and
selection processes. There is also evidence
that employers prefer graduates with a
broader range of skills than just academic
knowledge and greater appreciation of
business needs (Stewart and Knowles, 1999b),
both of which can be gained through work
experience and awareness of employers’
recruitment and selection procedures.
Using a sample of students in two
traditional and one emerging profession
(law, accountancy and human resource
Management), the present study examined
the extent of career-related pre-employment
work, recruitment and selection experiences
and the relationship between these
experiences and career expectations. The
focus on professions reflects the expectation
that anticipatory socialisation is likely to be
greater amongst these students. Although
most students in their final years of
university training will have had some
contact with potential employers (Rynes
et al., 1980), students in dedicated
professional courses are likely to be provided
with information earlier in their training
about potential employment in the
profession. This is partly because of the
prescribed nature of the degree, the
mandatory post-degree training required for
membership of the professional institute,
unlike the problems identified in general
# MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 1362-0436]
[DOI 10.1108/13620430310482562]
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Keywords
Social systems,
Organizational culture,
Recruitment, Selection,
Career development, Graduates
8/4 [2003] 182-197
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Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
degree courses (Stewart and Knowles, 1999a),
because lecturers are likely to have closer
ties to the practicing profession. Students in
traditional professions, therefore, are
exposed earlier to the values of the
profession, such as a commitment to client
service and a professional code of conduct
(Makin, 1989). The mandatory nature of this
training also makes it likely that such a
socialisation process persists despite
idiosyncratic events within a profession; for
example, recent concerns with corporate
governance within accountancy which may
have adversely affected the attractiveness of
the profession for students and hence may
impact recruitment into the profession
(Vinten, 2002).
It was hypothesised that experience of
work in the profession and of employers’
recruitment and selection practices would be
related to differences in career orientation
which are significant for the development of
realistic expectations. The paper first
reviews the arguments linking recruitment
and selection experiences to student career
expectations and the process of anticipatory
socialisation, particularly for professional
courses. It then examines the potential that
recruitment and selection experiences have
for influencing career expectations, before
describing the present study and its findings.
The influence of work experience,
recruitment and selection on ``met
expectations’’
Stage theories of organisational socialisation
(Van Maanen and Schein, 1979; Wanous, 1992)
propose that unmet expectations (i.e. a
discrepancy between pre-entry expectations
and post-entry experiences (Porter and
Steers, 1973)), lead to a variety of post-entry
adjustment problems; for example, low job
satisfaction and early turnover (Wanous
et al., 1992). Exposure to employers through
recruitment and selection processes is
argued to be one part of a series of social
episodes which influence the development of
appropriate expectations and inform the
early development of individuals’
psychological contract with the organisation
(Herriot, 1984; 1989).
The incongruence between graduate
expectations and the realities of employment
(see, for example, Keenan and Newton, 1986;
Mabey, 1986) has been linked directly to
inadequate recruitment procedures, and is
thought to lead to feelings of disillusionment,
frustration and turnover before completion
of training (Nicholson and Arnold, 1991).
Gammie (1996) and Reed and Kratchman
(1989) attributed a high drop out rate in
accountancy to the lack of realistic
information provided by selectors to
graduates and argued that better matches
would result from providing realistic
exposure of the profession earlier to
graduates.
Career-related work experience at
university also may play a major role in
structuring graduates’ expectations.
Dorsman and Kelly (1983) identified six
outcomes of work experience that facilitated
the graduate socialisation process: insight
into the world of work, personal
development, career preparation, technical
development, interpersonal and social skills
and the integration of theory and practice.
Similarly, Arnold and Garland (1990) argued
that sandwich placements on degree
programmes lead to more effective induction
and shorter periods of job training as well as
more realistic expectations; and Garavan and
Morley (1997) discussed the positive effects of
work experiences during college or
university training. In general, Arnold (1985)
argued that the more graduates knew about
working life before they enter an
organisation, the better equipped they will be
in their future careers.
The present study focused on students’
activities during university training for
entry into a profession. For traditional
professions, formal training, the content of
which is monitored by a professional body,
begins earlier than in other occupations;
although some practical training is received
within the first employing organisation,
training is usually undertaken full-time, at a
university or similar institution. Students
enter into their specific professional
undergraduate course and largely stay
together for their whole degree.
The emerging profession of human
resource management (HRM) has undergone
only recent ``professionalisation’’ of training
courses and career structures. Membership
of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) is regarded as useful for
HR practitioners, and the Institute actively
promotes continuous professional
development as a means of promoting
flexibility and professional growth (Rothwell
et al., 1998). None of this, however, is a
requirement to practice, meaning that HRM
has no prescribed entry route for working in
the profession. Although the CIPD does
accept graduate membership following some
recognised degree courses, HRM
professionals may come from diverse
backgrounds. These differences are detailed
in Table I.
Students’ exposure to employers might be
expected to reflect the prescribed nature of
[ 183 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
the courses, with law then accountancy being
the most rigidly prescribed, and so reflecting
the greatest degree of pre-employment
recruitment and selection activity. In
addition, as the extent and nature of career
exploration depends on the career stage of
the individual (Stumpf and Rabinowitz, 1981),
more proactive job search and career-related
activities should emerge at later stages of
study as students make a stronger
commitment to remain in the profession.
This includes self-directed career
exploration, which is defined as purposive
behaviour and cognitions that afford access
to new information about occupations, jobs
or organisations (Super et al., 1963) and may
include self-marketing and networking
(Stickland, 1996). The first hypothesis
examined in the study, therefore, related to
the differences in activity across the three
professional groups and their stage in
training.
H1. Students planning to enter a traditional
profession and at the later stages of
their degree study will report more
career-related experiences (i.e. more
proactive profession-related
recruitment and selection events,
applying for a job in the profession, and
having work experience in the
profession) than HRM students.
With regard to the nature of the selection
methods encountered, students in
traditional professions were expected to be
more proactively involved in the process
(e.g. by sending speculative letters of
application) because of the unique nature of
professional development and socialisation.
The majority of employers report using the
``classic trio’’ of application forms, letters of
reference and interviews for both graduates
and non-graduates (Harvey et al., 1997;
Robertson and Makin, 1986). Professional
employers also report an interest in
determining graduates’ potential
commitment to the profession rather than
qualifications or technical skills (Makin,
1989; Scholarios and Lockyer, 1999; White
and Doyle, 1997) and so tend to favour less
formal, extended recruitment and selection
processes involving more social and
interactive procedures. Scholarios and
Lockyer’s (1999) examination of selection
decision processes used by Scottish firms of
accountants, architects, lawyers and
surveyors found them to perceive a value in
informal strategies including personal
contacts, unsolicited letters of application
and unstructured or semi-structured
methods such as the interview. These were
thought to be useful methods for evaluating
qualities such as role related skills, values,
personality profiles or fit with the
organisation or profession and for
establishing relationships with high quality
students with the appropriate professional
values, early in their training. Taking these
findings into account, the second
hypothesis considered the nature of
selection processes by examining the most
frequently encountered selection methods,
the number and type of selection events
encountered, and the number of events
initiated by the student (i.e. student
proactivity).
H2. The most common selection processes
experienced for all students will be
application forms, references and
interviews, but students in traditional,
compared to emerging professions, will
have experienced a greater number of
selection events, will be more proactive
in the selection process and experience
more ``informal’’ selection procedures.
Table I
Description of entry routes to the professions
P rofession
E ntry to course
En try to p ro fes sion
P rofess ional status
La bour m arket features
Law
E ntry to specific co urse
Stud ents w ill large ly stay
toge ther for the w hole de gre e
C om p lete an ho nours degree
fo llo w ed by a on e-year
diplom a a nd then requ ired
prac tice
Essential to w ork and for
career pro gre ssion
Initially q ualifie d only to w ork
in Scotlan d. A few la rge b ut
m ainly sm all and m edium -sized
firm s
Ac coun ta ncy
E ntry to specific co urse
Stud ents w ill large ly stay
toge ther for the w hole de gre e
Som e stu dents lea ve after
co m pletin g a B A ordinary
de gree w hile others stay to
co m plete a B A hono urs
Essential to w ork and for
career pro gre ssion
Q ua lification U K-w id e. La rg e
firm s but som e sm all
locally-base d p ra ctice s
HRM
D o not ente r a spec ific
co urse but w ill have varyin g
sub jects. Entry in to spe cific
co urse only o ccurs in
po stgra duate ye ar
Either choice to specialize is
m ad e in se cond year or enter
at the dip lom a/ M Sc sta ge
N ot e sse ntial to w o rk
D iverse lab our m arket. Ve ry
few d edica ted H R firm s
[ 184 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
Anticipatory socialisation and graduates’
career expectations
Recent organisational trends and careers
literature suggest a change in the pattern of
careers, particularly for graduates. Rather
than a linear, employment focused model,
writers have conceptualised career in terms
of movement between different areas of work
and sequences of employment-related
experiences (Arnold, 1997; Gutterman, 1991).
Stewart and Knowles (1999a, p. 370) suggest
that, for graduates especially, there is
increasing importance attached to
``individual ownership of career’’ and to
being proactive in shaping their careers.
Research on graduates has shown,
however, that they have rather traditional
expectations about their future careers.
Sturges et al. (2000) found them to rate longterm career prospects and the training
offered as the most important reasons for
joining an organisation, suggesting that little
had changed from earlier evidence that most
students subscribed to a traditional
bureaucratic view of career (Brown and
Scase, 1994; Pitcher and Purcell, 1997).
Of particular interest in the present
study, given the emphasis in the careers
literature on self-management and
exploratory activity, were experiences
related to students taking a proactive role
in job search activities, recruitment and
selection procedures and work experience
which may lead to more realistic
expectations of career. These activities are
thought to lead to the acquisition of more
information, greater focus, and satisfaction
with the information obtained, as well as
changes in perceptions of the labour market
and intended career path (Stumpf et al.,
1983) and more effective newcomer
socialisation (Morrison, 1993). Arnold and
Mackenzie-Davey (1992) found that
graduates were rarely able to define clear
short-term and longer-term career
possibilities and their perception of career
progress affected their feelings of
competence, especially concerning their
interpersonal skills and their ability to get
things done in the organisation. Although
some have argued against the rigidity
introduced by an organisational system of
career development (Connor et al., 1990),
Arnold and Mackenzie-Davey proposed that
graduates require at least a mental map of
potential organisational careers rather
than guarantees. Greater career clarity,
legitimate (rather than perceived)
opportunity awareness, and realistic
perceptions of career barriers are qualities
valued by employers and thought to lead to
a more positive first employment
experience (Stewart and Knowles, 1999a).
The final hypothesis examined in the study,
therefore, relates to the effect of employer
contact through work, recruitment and
selection experiences on students’ career
expectations in terms of clarity, degree of
awareness, and orientation towards the
profession.
H3. The greater students’ contact with
professional employers through work,
recruitment and selection experiences,
the more positive and realistic their
career orientations with respect to the
profession.
Method
Sample
The study focused on six groups of students
at different stages of training in three
professional courses ± law, accountancy
and human resource management (HRM) ±
at the University of Strathclyde in the
academic year 1998-1999. For each
professional group, an ``early’’ and ``later’’
stage of training were defined according to
how the profession specified entry routes to
employment. In law and HRM, final year
honours and diploma students represented
the ``early’’ and ``later’’ stages, respectively,
although only the diploma for HRM also
qualified students for membership of the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development. For accountancy, third year
and honours students were chosen, as these
are the points at which students can leave
to enter into the professions (see Table I).
Questionnaires were distributed and
completed during lecture periods on three
consecutive days in order to include as
many of the students in each course year as
possible. A total of 291 responses were
received, with 40 per cent of the sample
represented by accountancy students, 45
per cent by law students and 15 per cent by
HRM. The lower proportion of HRM
students reflects particularly low
attendances at the honours (``early’’ stage)
classes on those three days ± a fact which
may be explained by the relative noncollegiality of the undergraduate degree
programme compared to law and
accountancy (see Table I).
In HRM and accountancy, there were a
greater proportion of ``early’’ stage students
(61.4 per cent and 61.2 per cent, respectively),
but this was reversed for law where 60 per
cent of the sample was ``later’’ stage (see
Table II). There was also a relatively even
[ 185 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
gender balance in law and accountancy but a
dominance of females in HRM (70 per cent of
that sample). Around 60 per cent of the total
sample overall were aged between 21 and 24.
Only in accountancy was there a sizeable
percentage of younger students between 17
and 20 (42.5 per cent) because of the inclusion
of third year students in this sample to
represent the earlier stage of training. Age,
predictably, increased in the later stages of
training where 73 per cent of the sample was
between 21 and 24. Most of the sample in all
professional groups were Scottish, and only
11 per cent of the sample overall stated they
belonged to an ethnic minority. The majority
of students in all professions stated they were
planning to enter the profession although, as
might be expected, at the later stages of
training, this percentage increased further
from 82.5 per cent to 93.6 per cent.
Measures
Forced choice questions gathered
biographical information on age, gender,
nationality, ethnic minority, course stage,
and the professional group ± law,
accountancy, HRM. The questionnaire also
included questions on profession-related
activities (e.g. work experience, placements,
recruitment events, selection procedures),
and career expectations.
Profession-related activities
The respondents were asked to indicate from
a list of 12 professional employment-related
activities which ones they had or had not
attended or undertaken. Activities of both a
``proactive’’ and ``passive’’/``reactive’’ nature
were included in the questionnaire.
``Passive’’ activities were:
attending recruitment fares;
attending organised visits from
professional bodies arranged by the
university;
attending organised visits by employers;
and
attending employer seminars.
``Proactive’’ activities were:
contacting employers in the profession;
contacting academic staff;
attending professional meetings;
looking at job advertisements for local,
national and international opportunities
in the profession; and
discussing career opportunities with
personal or family contacts.
Students were also asked whether they had
undertaken work experience in the
profession and a work placement as required
training for the profession ± experiences
identified as potential influences on the
socialisation process (Garavan and Morley,
Table II
Sample description
Variab le
Total sam ple
n
P er cent
n
HRM
Per cent
Acco unta ncy
n
Per c ent
n
Law
P er cent
E arly stage
n
Per cent
Late r stage
n
Per c ent
S tag e in training
Early (3rd year/ hons)
La te (h ons/d iplo m a)
130
111
53.9
46.1
27
17
61.4
38.6
71
45
61 .2
38 .8
32
49
39.5
6.5
S ex
M a le
Fem a le
100
138
42.0
58.0
13
31
29.5
7.5
52
61
46 .0
54 .0
35
46
43.2
56.8
57
70
44.9
55.1
43
68
38 .7
61 .3
Age
17-20
21-24
25+
60
144
34
25.2
6.5
14.3
4
28
12
9.1
63.6
27.3
48
63
2
42 .5
55 .8
1.8
8
53
20
9.9
56.8
24.7
58
63
6
45.7
49.6
4.7
2
81
28
1.8
73 .0
25 .2
Na tion ality
Scottish
Oth er British
Oth er EU
Oth er non E U
Ethn ic m ino rity
205
10
7
14
25
86.9
4.2
3.0
5.9
1.7
37
4
3
0
4
93.6
9.1
6.8
0
4
91
3
4
14
17
81 .3
2.7
3.6
12 .5
5.6
77
3
0
0
4
96.3
3.8
0
0
5.0
106
4
4
12
13
84.1
3.2
3.2
9.5
1.4
99
6
3
2
12
9.0
5.5
2.7
1.8
11 .1
Plann ing to e nter profes s ion
Yes
No
Do n’t know
207
27
2
87.7
11.4
0.8
38
5
0
88.4
11.6
0
96
15
1
85 .7
13 .4
0.9
73
7
1
9.1
8.6
1.2
104
21
1
82.5
16.7
0.5
103
6
1
93 .6
5.5
0.9
[ 186 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
1997; Laycock et al., 1990; Arnold and
Garland, 1990).
Experience of selection
Presented with a list of selection methods
representing informal networks (personal
knowledge and recommendations), biodata
(qualifications and experience), interviews,
tests and work samples, respondents were
asked to rate how often they had encountered
each selection method in seeking
employment or required training in the
profession. A five-point scale of frequency
from ``never encountered’’ (0 per cent of the
time) to ``consistently encountered’’ (100 per
cent of the time) was used. Attaching a
percentage to the scale was intended to
clarify what constituted the time period
implied. For example, a rating of ``3’’ would
imply the student had encountered the
selection method about half of all the times
they had sought employment in the
profession.
The list of selection methods was
consistent with those used in the Scottish
Survey of Recruitment and Selection in
Professions (Scholarios and Lockyer, 1999),
and included detailed descriptions of
methods with which students may not have
been familiar. For example, job/work
samples were described as follows:
These represent the output of one of more job
tasks; e.g. written work, a portfolio of work.
A psychometric test of general ability was
described as:
Usually professionally-developed and
consisting of one or more tests measuring
verbal ability, reasoning, and numerical
ability.
The responses to these questionnaire items
were used to create one continuous and four
dichotomous variables related to experiences
of selection methods:
(1) number of methods, measured as the total
number of methods encountered
``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’;
(2) experience of ``proactive’’ approaches
(assigned a value of ``1’’ if respondents had
experienced letter of application,
speculative application or trial period of
employment ``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’ and ``0’’ if never
encountered);
(3) experience of ``informal’’ approaches
(assigned a value of ``1’’ if respondents had
experienced telephone conversation
interview, contacts via family or friends
or only one-to-one interviews
``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’ and ``0’’ if never
encountered);
(4) experience of ``structured’’ or ``batch’’
methods which are associated with easing
the administrative task of differentiating
amongst large applicant groups, and are
more often used by large companies (e.g.
Robertson and Makin, 1986) (assigned a
value of ``1’’ if respondents had
experienced application form, school/
college certificate, or assessment centre
``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’ and ``0’’ if never
encountered); and
(5) experience of ``sophisticated’’ methods
(assigned a value of ``1’’ if respondents had
experienced tests of general ability, tests
of specific ability, job or work sample, job
or work simulation, personality
questionnaire, interest inventory
``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’ and ``0’’ if never
encountered).
The use of psychometric tests is considered
``sophisticated’’ because of the increased
predictive validity that these have been
shown to offer employers (e.g. Schmidt and
Hunter, 1981).
Career expectations
On a five-point scale ranging from ``strongly
agree’’ to ``strongly disagree’’ respondents
rated 21 items representing career clarity,
career barriers (perceptions of progression
within the profession), expected
organisational support for career, expected
self-management of career, success
orientation, and commitment to career/
profession. These items were adapted for the
student sample using existing items from the
Graduate Development Inventory (Arnold
and Mackenzie-Davey, 1992), items from
Blau’s (1985) measures of professional
commitment, and new items based on Stumpf
et al.’s (1983) concept of career exploration.
Questions relating to career clarity were
modified to form seven items (e.g. ``I have
been able to identify which long term career
paths are open to me in this profession’’, ``I
am clear about the achievements required for
gaining promotion within the profession’’).
Three items were adapted from questions
relating to career barriers (``My prospects
within this profession will depend on
whether the right people happen to like me’’),
and three items adapted from questions
relating to career progress (e.g. ``I have
discussed my prospects within the profession
with people who can influence these
[ 187 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
prospects’’). Six items measured professional
interest, continuance commitment to the
profession and feelings of loyalty to the
profession (e.g. ``I keep myself up to date with
news in the profession’’, ``I have given too
much of myself to the profession to consider
changing direction’’, ``I believe a person
should always be loyal to his/her
profession’’). Career exploration was
measured by two items developed for this
study to represent self-management (e.g. ``I
am constantly looking for opportunities to
develop my own career’’).
Exploratory factor analysis of the 21 career
expectations items revealed seven factors,
three of which corresponded with Arnold and
Mackenzie-Davey’s (1992) dimensions of
career clarity, perception of career barriers
and expectation of organisational career. As
the interpretation of the factors for the
student sample was ambiguous, though,
single items were selected to represent the
factor solution results. Item selection was
based on either the highest loading item
within each factor or on the item which most
unambiguously represented the career
expectation construct for students still
studying at university. The seven variables
used to represent career expectations were:
(1) career clarity (``I am clear about where my
next job within the profession will be’’);
(2) expectation of organisational career path
(``I think it is important for organisations
to provide clearly defined career paths for
their employees’’);
(3) opportunity awareness (``I am constantly
looking for opportunities to develop my
own career’’);
(4) success orientation within the profession
(``I am clear about the achievements
required for gaining promotion within the
profession’’);
(5) shift in career aims (``I have altered my
career aims since beginning my degree
course’’);
(6) interest in the profession (``I keep myself
up to date with new developments in the
profession’’); and
(7) continuance commitment to the
profession (``I have given too much of
myself to the profession to consider
changing direction’’).
Procedure
The questionnaire was pilot tested on a group
of 15 post-graduate human resource
management students from Glasgow
Caledonian University. After minor
rewording, contact was made with lecturers
on the three courses (law, accountancy and
[ 188 ]
HRM) in order to obtain permission to attend
the relevant lectures and administer the
questionnaire. The administrator attended a
lecture for each of the groups (diploma law,
honours law, honours accountancy, third
year accountancy, diploma HRM and the
honours HRM course) to distribute the
questionnaires. The respondents were then
given time in the lecture to complete the
questionnaire and the administrator
collected them after completion.
Analysis
Hypotheses H1 and H2 were tested using
univariate tests (one-way ANOVA, t-tests and
chi-square tests). H3 was tested using ordinal
regression equations to examine the
combined and relative influence of work and
recruitment/selection experiences.
Regression equations were estimated for
each of the seven variables representing
career expectations (i.e. career clarity,
expectation of organizational career,
opportunity awareness, success orientation,
shift in career aims, professional interest and
professional commitment). For each
dependent variable the number of ordinal
categories used for each item’s scale of
agreement was reduced from 5 to either 3 or 4
where cell numbers were low; four
recruitment/work activity variables
(number of ``passive’’ recruitment events,
number of ``proactive’’ recruitment events,
whether the students had experienced work
placement; and whether they had relevant
work experience) and five selection
experience variables (the total number of
selection methods encountered, and four
dichotomous variables representing
experience of structured, sophisticated,
proactive, and informal methods) were
created as independent variables for these
equations. All equations also controlled for
gender and stage of training.
Results
H1. Students planning to enter a traditional
profession and at the later stages of their
degree study will report more careerrelated experiences (i.e. more proactive
profession-related recruitment events,
applying for a job in the profession, and
having work experience in the
profession) than those entering an
emerging profession or at earlier stages
of study.
Table III summarises students’ experiences
of profession-related employment activities
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
and shows that they were already exposed to
a wide range of career-related experiences,
although most of these tended to be ``passive’’.
Across the total sample, 75 per cent looked at
job adverts to see what work is available in
the profession, 68 per cent had attended
recruitment fares, 66 per cent had attended
visits to the university by employers, 60 per
cent had discussed opportunities with
personal friends and family contacts and
55 per cent had contacted employers in the
profession themselves. As might be expected
for students, relatively fewer overall had
proactively pursued contacts with employers
than had attended organised university
events. This did vary across the three
professions, however: 75 per cent of HRM and
84 per cent of accountancy students attended
recruitment fares compared to 42 per cent of
law students ( 2 = 40.54, p < 0.001) and a
greater percentage of law students took part
in the more proactive activity of contacting
the employers within the profession
themselves (75 per cent of law students
compared with only 41 per cent of the HRM
and 46 per cent of the accountancy students)
( 2 = 21.07, p < 0.001).
Other ``proactive’’ activity was just as
likely to be reported by HRM as either law or
accountancy students. The majority of HRM
and law students looked at job
advertisements for local and national/
international jobs compared with a lower
percentage of accountancy students.
Discussing opportunities with personal
friends and family contacts, although slightly
more so for law students, was common across
all professions and the difference across the
groups was not significant. Taken together,
these findings support some group
differences between traditional and emerging
professions as predicted in H1 but not all.
In terms of actual working experience
overall, 68 per cent of the sample had applied
Table III
Profession-related employment activities
To ta l sam ple
n
Per cent
``P as s iv e’’ a c tivit ies
R ec ruitm e nt fairs
Visits to university b y
em p loyers
Visits to university b y
professio nal bod ies
Se m ina rs orga nised by
em p loyers
``P roac t ive’’ ac tiv ities
C on tact em plo yers in the
professio n
Atten d profession al
m ee tings
C on tact acade m ic staff
abo ut jobs
Looking at job ads fo r
w ork locally
Looking at job ads
national/inte rnation al
D iscus s ca reer
opp ortunities
w /contacts
W ork a c tivit ies
W ork p lacem ent as
required for tra ining
W ork e xperie nce in the
professio n
Ap plie d for a job in th e
professio n
``E arly’’ stage in cou rse
``Late r’’ stage in course
n
HR M
Pe r ce nt w ithin group
n
Acco untan cy
P er cent w ithin grou p
164
68.3
33
7 5.0
97
84.3
158
65.8
30
6 8.2
89
77.4
131
54.6
19
4 3.2
72
62.6
111
46.1
19
4 3.2
62
132
54.8
18
4 0.9
48
9.9
12
63
26.1
181
n
Law
Per cent w ithin group
34
39
2
Sig.
42.0
4 .54 0.001
48.1
1 8.20 0.001
40
49.4
6 .18 0.046
53.4
30
37.0
5 .65 0.059
53
45.7
61
75.3
2 1.07 0.001
2 7.3
19
16.4
17
21.0
2 .46 0.292
14
3 1.8
28
24.1
21
25.9
0 .98 0.613
75.4
41
9 3.2
72
62.6
68
84.0
2 .84 0.001
150
62.2
36
8 1.8
57
49.1
57
70.4
1 7.36 0.001
144
59.8
24
5 4.5
67
57.8
65.4
1 .69 0.430
43
17.8
19
4 3.2
14
12.1
10
12.3
2 3.58 0.001
113
47.1
26
5 9.1
36
31.3
51
63.0
2 2.24 0.001
164
79
85
68.0
4.8
76.6
22
15
7
5.0
5 5.6
4 1.2
74
39
35
63.8
54.9
77.8
68
25
43
84.0
78.1
87.8
1 6.98 0.001
5 .04 a 0.025
1 .65 a 0.273
53
N ote: a C hi-squa re tes t is fo r c om pa rison betw een acc ou ntancy a nd law on ly bec ause of sm a ll cell sizes fo r H R M
[ 189 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
for a job related to the profession, and
significantly more law students (84 per cent)
than either accountancy (63.8 per cent) or
HRM (50 per cent) ( 2 = 16.98, p < 0.001). This
might be explained by the fact that a larger
proportion of the law group in this study
were at a ``later’’ stage of training, and the
results clearly show that for accountancy and
law, a greater proportion of students at the
later stages of training had applied for a job
than at the earlier stages. However, although
``early’’ stage law students (honours) were
more likely to have applied for a job in their
profession than ``early’’ stage accountancy
students (third year) ( 2 = 5.04, p < 0.05), this
difference disappeared in the comparison at
the later stage between honours accountancy
and diploma law students ( 2 = 1.65). In other
words, both the traditional professions at
later stages of training were more likely to
have applied for a job in the profession than
the HRM students. These findings support H1
for law students only, as they had relatively
more contact with employers in their
profession than accountancy students.
Consistent with this pattern, a higher
proportion of law students (63 per cent) had
actual work experience in the profession
with accountancy reporting the lowest figure
(31 per cent) ( 2 = 22.24, p < 0.001). HRM
students were more likely than the
traditional professions to have experienced
work placements ( 2 = 23.58, p < 0.001).
H2. The most common selection processes
experienced for all students will be
application forms, references and
interviews, but students in traditional,
compared to emerging professions, will
have experienced a greater number of
selection events, will be more proactive
in the selection process and experience
more ``informal’’ selection procedures.
An examination of the percentage of students
in each group who had encountered selection
methods ``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or
``consistently’’ reveals the more commonly
encountered methods as well as some
tentative conclusions regarding differences
across groups. Table IV provides the full list
of selection methods presented to
respondents in the questionnaire in
descending order of the most commonly
encountered. Consistent with expectation,
most students, regardless of profession,
appeared to have frequently encountered the
``classic trio’’ selection methods: application
forms (94 per cent), references (88 per cent)
and one-to-one interviews (72 per cent).
Letters of application and CVs were also
encountered, particularly by HRM and law
students.
[ 190 ]
Where there were differences across the
groups, these suggested that accountancy
students had encountered more structured
and ``sophisticated’’ methods than either the
HRM or law students, while the latter two
groups showed evidence of more ``proactive’’
approaches to employers. Table IV shows
that a significantly greater proportion of
accountancy students had experienced
psychometric tests of general ability
( 2 = 16.02, p < 0.001) and specific aptitude
( 2 = 16.01, p < 0.001) compared to both the
HRM and law students. They were also more
likely to encounter one-to-one interviews
( 2 = 21.32, p < 0.001). In contrast, HRM and
law students were more likely to have sent
letters of application ( 2 = 18.16, p < 0.001), and
CVs to employers ( 2 = 41.09, p < 0.001), and to
have encountered interviews with two or
more people ( 2 = 11.21, p < 0.01).
Letters of application and CVs may indicate
unsolicited attempts by students to contact
employers as opposed to responses to job
openings. Accountancy students were just as
likely to apply for a job related to the
profession so these results may suggest a
different type of application process.
Consistent with this, the results in Table IV
also show that law students were more likely
than accountancy students to have made
speculative applications to employers
( 2 = 5.62, p < 0.05). The number of HRM
respondents for this question was too small to
allow a test of significance, but the percentage
was similar with that for the law students.
The selection method variables created to
summarise students’ experiences provide a
clearer picture of the pattern of differences
across the groups while also dealing with the
problem of small cell sizes for individual
selection methods. The last few rows of Table
IV show statistically significant differences
between the proportions of each group
encountering proactive, informal,
structured/batch and sophisticated selection
methods. Law students were more likely to
report encountering proactive methods, both
law and accountancy students encountered
more informal methods, accountancy
students were more likely to encounter
structured/batch methods, and both law and
accountancy encountered more sophisticated
methods. Thus, although the nature of
accountancy for students at this stage of
training appeared to involve more
formalistic testing (hence sophisticated
methods), law students at least were more
likely to report selection method experiences
based on informality and student proactive
involvement. In general, law and
accountancy students reported encountering
a mean of 5.74 and 5.26 selection methods,
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
respectively, compared to 3.28 by HRM
students. These mean differences between
the three groups were statistically significant
(F(2.238) = 3.23, p < 0.05) with Scheffe tests
showing only the difference between law and
HRM to be significant at the 95 per cent
confidence level.
H3. The greater students’ contact with
professional employers through work,
recruitment and selection experiences,
the more positive and realistic their
career orientations with respect to the
profession.
Ordinal regression equations for each of the
seven career expectation variables are shown
in Table V. Each equation included the
predictors gender, stage of training,
proactive recruitment activity, work
experience, and the five selection method
Table IV
Selection methods encountered ``sometimes’’, ``frequently’’ or ``often’’ by students who have applied for a job in the
profession
Total sam p le
n
P er cent
S e lec tion m etho d
Ap plic ation form
R eferen ces
O ne -to-one face intervie w
Lette r of a pplicatio n
C urricu lu m vitae
Interview w ith 2 or m ore
peo ple
Te st of ge neral a bility
Te st of sp ecific a ptitude
G roup e xercis e
P erson ality qu estion naire
R espo nse from
specu la tive application
C on tacts via friends and
fam ily
Sc hool/college rep ort/
certificate
Interest inventory
Te st of traina bility/
pote ntial
P resen tation of w ork
Job sim u latio n
Tria l periods o f
em p loym ent
Asse ssm e nt centre
R ole p lay
Te lepho ne con versatio n
in tervie w
Job or w ork sam p le
Se lf-assessm e nt
H on esty/in tegrity test
P eer assessm e nt
H an d w ritin g an alysis
S u m m ary s ele c tion m e thod
va riable s
P roa ctive m eth ods
Inform al m e th od s
Structured/batch m ethods
So phisticated m ethods
n
H RM
P er ce nt
w ithin gro up
A ccou ntanc y
P er cent
n
w ithin gro up
La w
n
P er cen t
within group
2
Sig.
147
135
106
109
107
94.2
87.7
72.1
69.0
67.7
19
17
11
14
19
95.0
89.5
57.9
7.0
9.5
69
62
63
38
30
9 5.8
8 6.1
9 .0
5 3.5
4 1.7
59
56
32
57
58
92.2
88.9
55.2
87.7
89.2
b
0.24 a
21.32
18.16
41.09
0.627
0.001
0.001
0.001
68
67
55
41
39
46.3
45.9
37.9
28.7
27.3
12
6
5
3
3
63.2
37.5
31.3
18.8
18.8
21
44
38
25
20
3 1.3
6 2.9
5 4.3
3 5.7
2 9.0
35
17
12
13
16
57.4
28.3
2.3
22.8
28.1
11.21
16.02
16.01
2.51 a
0.01 a
0.004
0.001
0.001
0.114
0.910
33
23.7
5
31.3
10
1 4.7
18
32.7
5.62 a
0.018
32
22.9
7
41.2
13
1 9.4
12
21.4
0.08 a
0.781
34
28
22.8
19.7
2
2
11.8
11.8
16
18
2 3.2
2 6.1
16
8
25.4
14.3
0.09 a
2.61 a
0.767
0.106
25
23
23
17.5
16.3
16.1
1
1
2
6.3
6.3
12.5
18
19
16
2 5.7
2 7.5
2 2.9
6
3
5
1.5
5.4
8.8
4.73 a
0.030
b
0.034
21
21
21
15.3
15.0
14.9
1
3
1
6.3
18.8
6.3
10
14
13
1 4.9
2 .6
1 8.8
10
4
7
18.5
7.1
12.5
0.28 a
0.93 a
0.597
0.034
0.336
23
20
20
18
14
10
14.8
14.2
14.1
12.8
1.1
7.2
5
3
1
2
0
0
26.3
18.8
6.3
12.5
0
0
8
11
13
13
10
8
1 1.3
1 6.4
1 8.8
1 8.8
1 4.7
1 1.9
10
6
6
3
4
2
15.6
1.3
1.5
5.4
7.3
3.6
0.55 a
0.457
115
114
150
87
47.7
47.3
62.2
36.1
15
13
7
19
34.1
29.5
15.9
43.2
41
64
57
71
3 5.3
5 5.2
4 9.1
6 1.2
59
37
23
60
72.8
45.7
28.4
74.1
b
b
b
b
b
b
b
3.88
8.53
18.41
11.68
0.001
0.014
0.001
0.003
N ote: All C hi-squa re tests w ere cond ucted for e ither 3 £2 or 2 £2 contingenc y table s of freque ncies fo r profe ssiona l group and the varia ble s h ad
ne ver/h ad enco untere d se lectio n m ethod ; a C hi-sq uare test is for com p ariso n be tw e en accou ntanc y and la w only b ecaus e of sm all cell sizes for
H R M ; b C ell sizes too sm all for chi-squ are test
[ 191 ]
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
variables. The equation for expectation of
organisational career progression was not
significant ( 2 (9) = 1.56), but an examination
of the significant coefficients for the
remaining significant equations shows that
the results are generally supportive of the
hypothesis that greater student activity
related to the profession will have an effect
on career expectations. Specifically, having
work experience relevant to the profession
was related positively to career clarity
( = 0.62, p < 0.05) and a lower likelihood of
having shifted career aims ( = ±0.74, p < 0.01).
Engagement in more proactive recruitment
activities was related to greater interest in
the profession ( = 0.33, p < 0.01). The greater
the number of different selection methods
experienced the greater the degree of
continuance commitment to the profession
( = 0.26, p < 0.001) and the more likely
students were to have shifted career aims
( = 0.08, p < 0.10).
Type of selection method experienced was
significant in several different ways ±
experience of both more proactive and more
sophisticated methods was related to lower
levels of continuance commitment to the
profession ( = ±0.95, p < 0.05 and = ±1.09,
p < 0.05, respectively); experience of more
sophisticated methods was related to greater
career clarity ( = 1.43, p < 0.01); and
experience of more proactive methods was
related to greater opportunity awareness
( = 0.87, p < 0.05) and a lower likelihood of
having shifted career aims ( = ±0.68, p < 0.10).
Gender was not significant in any equation
and stage of training was significant only in
the case of success orientation ± later stage
students reported greater clarity about what
was required for gaining promotion within
the profession ( = 0.54, p < 0.10).
Discussion and conclusions
The findings illustrate the importance of early
student contact with employers, and the
significance of some types of recruitment and
selection methods in increasing students’
opportunity awareness and establishing
realistic expectations of future careers. In
particular, the findings are significant in two
respects: first, in showing the nature of
anticipatory socialisation for professional
students and, second, in highlighting the role
of recruitment and selection as a pre-entry
socialisation phase which influences graduate
career transitions. Each of these implications
is discussed here.
The study focused specifically on a sample
of traditional and emerging professional
students. Traditional professions are well
[ 192 ]
known to cultivate anticipatory socialisation
processes amongst students through formal
training, or even earlier through the
influence of relatives or friends in a
profession (e.g. Dean et al., 1985; Makin, 1989).
The results of the present study reinforce this
point with respect to recruitment and
selection activities amongst law and
accountancy students. Law students
represented the most prescribed training
route in the present sample and were found
to engage in more profession-related activity
overall, including applying for a job in the
profession, career-related work experience
and exposure to employers’ recruitment and
selection processes. Both law and
accountancy students had been exposed to a
greater number of different types of selection
methods, with accountancy students
encountering more structured and
``sophisticated’’ methods, such as panel and
structured interviews, and law students
more ``proactive’’ approaches to employers,
such as sending speculative letters and
informal interviews.
For law students especially, the use of
proactive approaches to employers and
experiences of informal selection practices
may reflect a socialisation process through
which candidates and organisations
gradually perceive a match (Anderson and
Ostroff, 1997), and an awareness of the nature
of the Scottish legal labour market. This
approach to selection contrasts with the
more standardised approach evident in this
sample of accountancy students who were
more likely to be part of batch graduate
recruitment processes conducted by the large
accountancy firms at certain times of the
year. Scholarios and Lockyer (1999), in their
discussion of the findings of their survey of
professional employers, suggested that law
firms use inherently social, interactive and
technically less rigorous recruitment and
selection methods to facilitate the
convergence between the candidates’ and the
firm’s perceptions and expectations. In the
small marketplace for Scots lawyers,
students may have no choice but to approach
smaller and necessarily Scottish law
practices with less regular recruitment
intakes. Scholarios and Lockyer (1999) also
showed that Scottish law firms equally see
value in establishing links with university
law schools. This situation favours
relationship building over the long-term,
and, on the basis of the present findings,
student exposure to employers during study
at university is part of this developing
relationship.
With respect to the role of recruitment and
selection activities in shaping career
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
expectations, it was found that greater
activity was related to career clarity,
opportunity awareness, changes in career
aims, and the degree of continuance
commitment and interest in the profession.
The relationship between work experience
and career clarity has been shown also in
other contexts (e.g. Garavan and Morley,
1997). The present study goes further to show
that exposure to sophisticated selection
procedures (e.g. psychometric testing, work
samples and assessment centres) may
enhance career clarity, perhaps because the
increased rigour in measuring potential
performance has the effect of communicating
clearly to candidates the job and the
profession’s requirements.
Certain types of recruitment and
selection activity also were related to
changes in students’ career aims. Stumpf et
al. (1983) suggested that information
gathering through career exploration
activities leads to greater focus and
satisfaction with the information obtained
and changes in perceptions of the labour
market and career opportunities. In the
present study, students who had
proactively participated in employers’
recruitment activities were more likely to
have altered their career aims since the
beginning of their degree programme.
Conversely, students who had work
experience and who had participated in
proactive selection processes, such as
sending speculative applications or trial
periods of employment, were less likely to
have altered their career aims. It may be
that students at the early stages of career
exploration use experiences of recruitment
events to develop awareness of legitimate
career opportunities as opposed to
perceived opportunities (Stewart and
Knowles, 1999a) which then leads them to
alter their career aims. Students with more
direct contact with employers, such as
those with work experience or who have
been involved in relationship building
selection activities, and who have arguably
already experienced legitimate career
opportunities, develop greater certainty
regarding the path they have chosen and so
reduce the extent to which they change
career direction. In both cases, student
experiences are likely to result in more
realistic expectations.
Interest in the profession was related to
greater participation in proactive
recruitment activities. Although the present
analysis cannot presume a direction of
causality, it is a significant finding whether
students who already had more interest in
the profession participated more in proactive
information gathering, or whether more
information gathering lead to greater
interest. The implication is that both are
desirable outcomes.
The study also examined continuance
commitment to the profession which
suggested that students perceived that they
had invested too much in the profession
already in order to change course. This
perception increased with the number of
selection methods encountered and
decreased for those who reported
encountering either proactive or
sophisticated methods. Experience of more
selection methods implies more time and
effort invested in finding a job related to the
profession; therefore the finding might be
explained by an escalation of commitment
to the profession (Staw, 1976). The effect of
proactive and sophisticated methods in
reducing continuance commitment is
harder to explain, but might indicate an
increasing feeling of control over one’s
career through exposure to employers’
needs and the profession, and hence the
development of a more normative rather
than continuance commitment to the
profession.
These findings are significant for
employers and suggestive of how students
can be better prepared for their future
careers. The development of realistic
expectations potentially reduces
inappropriate matches and dropout rates
(Reed and Kratchman, 1989) and facilitates
organisational newcomer socialisation, for
example, by improving the effectiveness of
induction and requiring shorter periods of
job training (Arnold and Garland, 1990;
Garavan and Morley, 1997). Employers,
therefore, should be encouraged to actively
build long-term relationships with
university departments and to develop
links with students well before graduation
through visits, recruitment efforts and
work placements. Such arguments resonate
with recruitment literature which proposes
greater emphasis on efforts to attract
suitable applicants (e.g. Barber, 1998;
Breaugh and Starke, 2000). They also
support the view of recruitment and
selection as social processes with important
informational qualities for both employers
and potential employees, which therefore
have the potential to shape the developing
psychological contract between graduates
and employers (Anderson and Ostroff, 1997;
Derous and deWitte, 2001; Scholarios and
Lockyer, 1999).
From the perspective of graduates’ career
self-management it has been argued that
student awareness of the range of employer
[ 193 ]
[ 194 ]
0.0 5
0.2 2
0.0 1
0.1 9
0.0 1
0.0 6
±1 .61
±0 .22
±0 .07
1.5 6 ns
0.0 07
246 .61
0.25
±0.11
0.03
0.62*
0.03
0.22
0.23
±0.56
1.43**
42.02** *
0.162
418.98
±0.0 3
1.4 4
±0.2 1
±2.2 1
0.0 2
0.8 7*
0.6 6
±0.4 7
1.4 4
16.6 0y
0.0 67
250 .94
1 .27
0 .54 y
0 .05
0 .44
0 .05
0 .39
0 .31
±0.75
0 .74
24.42**
0 .098
264.61
0.34
±0.003
0.17y
±0.74* *
0.08y
±0.68y
±0.51
±0.63
±0.003
17.23*
0.070
410.08
±0.03
±0.37
0.33* *
0.32
0.04
0.21
±0.61
0.32
0.07
26.81**
0.107
254.85
O pp ortu nity aw aren ess Su ccess orien ta tion Shift in career a im s Interest in professio n
±0.15
0 .04
±1.12
0 .22
0 .26 ***
±0.95 y
±0.31
±0.31
±1.09*
24.33* *
0 .09 8
237.17
C ontinu an ce com m itm ent to
profession
N ote: n = 24 1; * p < 0 .05; ** p < 0 .01 ; *** p < .00 1; All coefficie nts a re standa rdized values; Re c-pro . = no. of proactive recruitm ent m ethods exp erience d; R ec-pas s. = no. o f passive recruitm ent
m ethod s experie nc ed; W ork e xp. = had w o rk e xperien ce ; SM -# = total num b er of selectio n m ethods en coun tered; SM -pro = sele ctio n m ethods: proactive; SM -inf. = sele ctio n m ethods: inform a l;
SM -b atch =sele ction m ethods: batch or structured; SM -soph. = selection m ethods: sophis ticated
P seudo R 2
±2 Log likelih ood
2
G ender
Stage
R ec-pro.
W ork exp .
SM -#
SM -p ro .
SM -inf.
SM -b atch
SM -sop h.
E xpec ta tio n o f organisa tional
career pa th
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
C areer clarity
Table V
Ordinal regression equations for prediction of career expectations
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer
and Heather Johnson
Anticipatory socialisation:
the effect of recruitment and
selection experiences on
career expectations
Career Development
International
8/4 [2003] 182-197
recruitment and selection processes
provides greater understanding of business
needs, clarifies career goals, and allows
students to better position themselves in
developing necessary skills (Arora and
Stoner, 1992). Stewart and Knowles (1999a,
b) argued that students should be more
aware of the recruitment and selection
approaches of small and medium-sized
employers who are unlikely to use the
graduate milkround or assessment centres
and testing like larger businesses,
preferring instead to rely on work
experience students or personal contacts.
Clearly, this places students who
proactively participated in recruitment and
selection events at an advantage in terms of
seeking employment with smaller
employers.
In different ways, then, various forms of
work, recruitment and selection
experiences during study and universitybased training provide a forum through
which clearer and more realistic
perceptions of a profession develop. The
inclusion of recruitment and selection
experience amongst these anticipatory
socialisation variables represents an
advance in a sparsely researched area
within selection research, and expands
knowledge of how employer practice
interacts with graduate career
expectations.
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