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Identifying the Proactive Actions of Newly Hired Engineers During the Socialization Period

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Personnel Development & Retention

Tagged Division

Aerospace

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

20

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37272

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37272

Download Count

445

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Paper Authors

biography

Yun Dong Iowa State University

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Yun is a Ph.D. student in the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) program at Iowa State University (ISU). She is currently involved in the research project titled Workplace Socialization in the Aerospace Engineering Profession, identifying the actions of managers and newly hired engineers during the socialization process into aerospace engineering companies.

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Subhanwit Roy Iowa State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2634-7163

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Subhanwit Roy received his B.Tech. degree in electronics and communication engineering from National Institute of Technology - Durgapur, India, in 2015, and his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, in 2017. Since 2018, he has been pursuing his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at Iowa State University. His research interests lie in microwave circuit design for wireless communication and noninvasive sensing technologies, and engineering education.

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Lorenzo D. Baber Loyola University, Chicago

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Lorenzo DuBois Baber is an Associate Professor and Program Chair of Higher Education at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Baber's scholarly interest broadly examines equity and social justice in post-secondary education. His research foci include leadership within community college contexts; experiences of minoritized students in post-secondary STEM education; and the use of critical theory to inform higher education policies and practices.

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Benjamin Ahn Iowa State University

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Benjamin Ahn, is a Ph.D student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University.
He received a M.S. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering from Purdue University and a B.E degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of New South Wales, Australia. His research interests are re-examining the professional engineering practice in U.S. universities and industries and, the role of the Graduate Teaching Assistants in engineering classes.

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Abstract

Organizational socialization is the process through which new employees learn and adapt to their new roles in organizations. However, new employees' proactive actions, in the context of engineering organizations, are not well explored. This study examines the actions newly hired engineers take during organizational socialization and identifies the actions from newly hired engineers working in the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) industry. By following Morrison's framework of new employees' primary tasks in socialization, we present the proactive actions taken by 10 participants. Specifically, we identified 13 actions and classified them into four categories: Relationship Developing, Knowledge Acquiring, Real Task Training, and Positive Attitude Cultivating. This study expands the research literature as it 1) explores new employees' proactive actions in the context of engineering organizations, 2) discusses and classifies the specific actions newly hired engineers proactively take during socialization, and 3) reveals how the identified actions in each category function across multiple domains. The study can provide an example of conducting qualitative research on new employees' proactivity for engineering education researchers; help engineering educators prepare students entering the A&D industry; inform managers of the newly hired engineers' insights on organizational socialization, and inform senior engineering students the actions they may need to do in the socialization period.

Dong, Y., & Roy, S., & Baber, L. D., & Ahn, B. (2021, July), Identifying the Proactive Actions of Newly Hired Engineers During the Socialization Period Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37272

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