July 1, 2008
Russel Korte presents at the American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE)

Dr. Korte, a new faculty member to the department, presented a paper at American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) conference in Pittsburgh on June 24th. The paper was part of the research that he has been conducting, which is supported by Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), and the Stanford University Collaborative Research Laboratory. To learn more about his conference proceedings, please refer to the following abstract:

Abstract

After several years of demanding study, new engineers graduate from higher education as professionals eager to apply their expertise to solving “real world” problems. Yet, the transition from school to the workplace involves a socialization process through which new graduates attempt to learn the specific tasks and expectations of their job and begin to integrate into the social context of the organization. Research indicates that this socialization process is important for framing new employees’ experiences and forming their perceptions of work and the organization. These socialization experiences have immediate effects on job satisfaction and learning, and potentially long-term effects on turnover and commitment to the organization and profession1, 2, 3.

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating the socialization experiences of newly hired engineers in a large U.S.-based, global manufacturing company. In this organization, new engineers encountered engineering processes of a different nature than they learned in school. The social and organizational contexts within which they worked influenced the problems and processes they experienced—often introducing greater complexity, ambiguity, and subjectivity than expected. How the new engineers in this study perceived and learned about engineering work in this organization depended to a large extent on their interactions with coworkers in their work groups. These findings provide greater description and clarification of these socialization experiences, along with the relationship of these experiences to their education.