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1. Undergraduate Socialization in Engineering: The Role of Institutional Tactics and Proactive Behaviors

   Henderson, T. S. (January 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   Higher education literature is replete with evidence that socioeconomic variables and background characteristics inform a myriad of factors related to students’ college life. These include the institutions students choose to attend, their experiences after matriculation, differences in success rates, and even post-graduation outcomes. This is particularly true in engineering, where gaps in academic performance, persistence, and degree attainment still endure despite the litany of federal, institutional, and unit-level resources designed to address socioeconomic disparities. In contrast to much of the literature that takes a deficit-based approach, in this work we presuppose that it is not simply differences in socioeconomic variables and background characteristics that separates highly engaged, successful students in engineering from their less engaged, unsuccessful counterparts. Rather, we suggest that an underlying set of socialization processes by which students become familiar with collegiate engineering education makes students more or less likely to engage in activities that are associated with success. We posit that students’ experiences with these socialization processes – institutional socialization tactics and proactive behaviors – may better explain patterns of participation and outcomes in engineering that go beyond the consideration of access to academic and social resources. Drawing on Weidman’s Undergraduate Socialization framework, we developed a conceptual model for understanding the socialization processes that inform engineering students’ participation in co-curricular activities (specifically professional engineering societies and student design teams). This model is guided by three hypotheses. First, we hypothesize that socioeconomic, academic, and demographic background characteristics combine to uniquely inform students’ experiences with two socialization processes – institutional tactics and proactive behaviors. This, in turn, informs their participation in co-curricular activities, such as professional engineering societies and student design teams. Finally, students who participate in co-curricular engineering activities have different academic and social outcomes than their counterparts who do not participate in co-curricular engineering activities. We also developed a survey instrument based on this model to understand how various socioeconomic variables and background characteristics inform students’ socialization processes and, as a result, their outcomes in engineering. Our goal is to understand the factors that shape students’ socialization into engineering, as well as their development into engineers. Ultimately, our goal is to narrow gaps in participation and success in engineering by addressing negative socialization experiences. 

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2. Factors that Affect Retention and Satisfaction Among Newly Hired Aerospace Engineers

   Davis, Lucas; Ahn, Benjamin; Dong, Yun; Campbell, Ravonte N (June 2020, ASEE annual conference)

   Turnover plays a significant role in the productivity of any organization and is especially vital within the initial adjustment period of new hires. Organizations seek to develop strategies to reduce turnover to help solve this issue, but these strategies require knowledge of what influences the retention and satisfaction of the employees. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that managers perceive to affect the retention and the satisfaction of newly hired aerospace engineers so that managers or employers can create strategies to reduce turnover within this group. While research has been conducted on general retention and satisfaction, no research has been specific to the aerospace engineering field and its newly hired employees. These aspects are important because unique factors can arise within specific fields. The current study used qualitative research methods to analyze seven semi-structured interviews with experienced managers of newly hired aerospace engineers. These interviews were analyzed to find key factors that managers consider to affect retention and satisfaction. This research identified six themes for retention factors: local and national economic trends, personal factors unique to each newcomer, the quality of work assigned to the newcomer, the social environment of the workgroup, benefits offered to employees, and the newcomer’s role and how it fits in with the workgroup. This study also identified six themes for satisfaction factors: the quality of work assigned to the newcomer, management styles and actions, general work environment, benefits, fit with a mentor, and expectations for the aerospace industry. 

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3. Investigating the experiences that develop competence for newly hired engineers in an electric power company

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35662  

   Korte, Russell; LeBlanc, Saniya (June 2020, Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   This study is a work-in-progress investigating the experiences most salient to newly hired engineers in an electric power utility as they began new jobs. The study is based on an inductive, qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with 12 newly hired engineers. It was the process of integrating and developing the individual’s competencies to better match the requirements of the job (i.e., socialization or onboarding) that was an indicator of job performance—and the focus of this study. The characteristics of this competency matching during the first year of their new employment was related to the newly hired engineers’ education (for the new graduates), and job experiences (for experienced hires)--both acquired from their schooling and previous work. The interviews of newly hired engineers provided in-depth reports of their experiences developing and refining their technical competencies, as well as their professional competencies within the organization. These experiences clearly portray the complexities of how the newcomers worked out the requirements of integrating into the organization. The new hires reported that many of the requirements of the job were not clearly defined or presented; rather, they often learned through trial-and-error. Initial findings indicate that the learning experiences of these newcomers cluster around four content areas of learning aided by facilitating processes in the development of competence.The findings of this study corroborate and elaborate on previous work done on the preparation and transition of engineering graduates from school-to-work, and provide new insights into the process of integrating individual competencies into job requirements. The contribution of this work highlights how newcomers learned about their new jobs and what competencies they drew upon from their education, as well as how they applied their competencies to the practice of engineering. This included various types of formal, informal, incidental and social learning building upon their previous educational and work experiences, self-directed learning on the job, and the mentoring obtained from more experienced insiders. The implications of this work inform the development of professional engineers broadly for STEM careers, and specifically for the energy industry, which is part of the increasing interdisciplinarity and convergence of a wide range of technical fields. 

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4. Investigating the experiences that develop competence for newly hired engineers in an electric power company

   Korte, Russell; LeBlanc, Saniya (June 2020, Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   This study is a work-in-progress investigating the experiences most salient to newly hired engineers in an electric power utility as they began new jobs. The study is based on an inductive, qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with 12 newly hired engineers. It was the process of integrating and developing the individual’s competencies to better match the requirements of the job (i.e., socialization or onboarding) that was an indicator of job performance—and the focus of this study. The characteristics of this competency matching during the first year of their new employment was related to the newly hired engineers’ education (for the new graduates), and job experiences (for experienced hires)--both acquired from their schooling and previous work. The interviews of newly hired engineers provided in-depth reports of their experiences developing and refining their technical competencies, as well as their professional competencies within the organization. These experiences clearly portray the complexities of how the newcomers worked out the requirements of integrating into the organization. The new hires reported that many of the requirements of the job were not clearly defined or presented; rather, they often learned through trial-and-error. Initial findings indicate that the learning experiences of these newcomers cluster around four content areas of learning aided by facilitating processes in the development of competence.The findings of this study corroborate and elaborate on previous work done on the preparation and transition of engineering graduates from school-to-work, and provide new insights into the process of integrating individual competencies into job requirements. The contribution of this work highlights how newcomers learned about their new jobs and what competencies they drew upon from their education, as well as how they applied their competencies to the practice of engineering. This included various types of formal, informal, incidental and social learning building upon their previous educational and work experiences, self-directed learning on the job, and the mentoring obtained from more experienced insiders. The implications of this work inform the development of professional engineers broadly for STEM careers, and specifically for the energy industry, which is part of the increasing interdisciplinarity and convergence of a wide range of technical fields. 

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5. Examining Privilege in Engineering Socialization Through the Stories of Newcomer Engineers

   https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2021.1958824  

   Beddoes, Kacey (January 2021, Engineering studies)

   Prior research has demonstrated that early career socialization experiences play an important role in career outcomes, including learning, performance, satisfaction, and retention. What is not yet well under- stood, however, is how the organizational socialization experiences of different groups of early career engineers vary and how such variation leads to different career outcomes. By examining the experiences of first year engineers, this article contributes new insights into factors affecting socialization experiences and draws attention to privilege as an important factor shaping engineering socialization experiences. The stories of negative interpersonal interactions experienced by first year women civil engineers are presented and used to glean forms of privilege that affect newcomer socialization. The primary forms of intersectional privilege identified stem from gender and race, with religion and nationality also shaping newcomer experiences. The stories are used to inform proposed additions to a model of engineering socialization. 

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