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 graduates 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 persons 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
Keywords
Social systems, Organizational culture, Recruitment, Selection, Career development, Graduates

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
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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

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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 Lockyers (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 Law E ntry to course E ntry to specific co urse Stud ents w ill large ly stay toge ther for the w hole de gre e E ntry to specific co urse Stud ents w ill large ly stay toge ther for the w hole de gre e 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 En try to p ro fes sion 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 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 Either choice to specialize is m ad e in se cond year or enter at the dip lom a/ M Sc sta ge P rofess ional status Essential to w ork and for career pro gre ssion La bour m arket features 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 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 D iverse lab our m arket. Ve ry few d edica ted H R firm s

Ac coun ta ncy

Essential to w ork and for career pro gre ssion

HRM

N ot e sse ntial to w o rk

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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

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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.

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,

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.

Table II Sample description Variab le S tag e in training Early (3rd year/ hons) La te (h ons/d iplo m a) S ex M a le Fem a le Age 17-20 21-24 25+ Na tion ality Scottish Oth er British Oth er EU Oth er non E U Ethn ic m ino rity Plann ing to e nter profes s ion Yes No Do nt know [ 186 ] Total sam ple n P er cent 130 111 100 138 60 144 34 205 10 7 14 25 207 27 2 53.9 46.1 42.0 58.0 25.2 6.5 14.3 86.9 4.2 3.0 5.9 1.7 87.7 11.4 0.8 n 27 17 13 31 4 28 12 37 4 3 0 4 38 5 0 HRM Per cent 61.4 38.6 29.5 7.5 9.1 63.6 27.3 93.6 9.1 6.8 0 4 88.4 11.6 0 Acco unta ncy n Per c ent 71 45 52 61 48 63 2 91 3 4 14 17 96 15 1 61 .2 38 .8 46 .0 54 .0 42 .5 55 .8 1.8 81 .3 2.7 3.6 12 .5 5.6 85 .7 13 .4 0.9 n 32 49 35 46 8 53 20 77 3 0 0 4 73 7 1 Law P er cent 39.5 6.5 43.2 56.8 9.9 56.8 24.7 96.3 3.8 0 0 5.0 9.1 8.6 1.2 57 70 58 63 6 106 4 4 12 13 104 21 1 44.9 55.1 45.7 49.6 4.7 84.1 3.2 3.2 9.5 1.4 82.5 16.7 0.5 43 68 2 81 28 99 6 3 2 12 103 6 1 38 .7 61 .3 1.8 73 .0 25 .2 9.0 5.5 2.7 1.8 11 .1 93 .6 5.5 0.9 E arly stage n Per cent Late r stage n Per c ent

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.

``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 Blaus (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

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

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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-Daveys (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).

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 items 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

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

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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 164 158 131 111 68.3 65.8 54.6 46.1 n 33 30 19 19 HR M Pe r ce nt w ithin group 7 5.0 6 8.2 4 3.2 4 3.2 n 97 89 72 62 Acco untan cy P er cent w ithin grou p 84.3 77.4 62.6 53.4 40 30 n 34 39 Law Per cent w ithin group 42.0 48.1 49.4 37.0
2

Sig.

4 .54 0.001 1 8.20 0.001 6 .18 0.046 5 .65 0.059

132 48 63 181 150

54.8 9.9 26.1 75.4 62.2

18 12 14 41 36

4 0.9 2 7.3 3 1.8 9 3.2 8 1.8

53 19 28 72 57

45.7 16.4 24.1 62.6 49.1

61 17 21 68 57 53

75.3 21.0 25.9 84.0 70.4

2 1.07 0.001 2 .46 0.292 0 .98 0.613 2 .84 0.001 1 7.36 0.001

144

59.8

24

5 4.5

67

57.8

65.4

1 .69 0.430

43 113 164 79 85

17.8 47.1 68.0 4.8 76.6

19 26 22 15 7

4 3.2 5 9.1 5.0 5 5.6 4 1.2

14 36 74 39 35

12.1 31.3 63.8 54.9 77.8

10 51 68 25 43

12.3 63.0 84.0 78.1 87.8

2 3.58 0.001 2 2.24 0.001 1 6.98 0.001 5 .04 a 0.025 1 .65 a 0.273

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 ]

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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.

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,

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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

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 147 135 106 109 107 68 67 55 41 39 33 32 34 28 25 23 23 21 21 21 23 20 20 18 14 10 94.2 87.7 72.1 69.0 67.7 46.3 45.9 37.9 28.7 27.3 23.7 22.9 22.8 19.7 17.5 16.3 16.1 15.3 15.0 14.9 14.8 14.2 14.1 12.8 1.1 7.2 H RM P er ce nt w ithin gro up 95.0 89.5 57.9 7.0 9.5 63.2 37.5 31.3 18.8 18.8 31.3 41.2 11.8 11.8 6.3 6.3 12.5 6.3 18.8 6.3 26.3 18.8 6.3 12.5 0 0 A ccou ntanc y P er cent n w ithin gro up 69 62 63 38 30 21 44 38 25 20 10 13 16 18 18 19 16 10 14 13 8 11 13 13 10 8 9 5.8 8 6.1 9 .0 5 3.5 4 1.7 3 1.3 6 2.9 5 4.3 3 5.7 2 9.0 1 4.7 1 9.4 2 3.2 2 6.1 2 5.7 2 7.5 2 2.9 1 4.9 2 .6 1 8.8 1 1.3 1 6.4 1 8.8 1 8.8 1 4.7 1 1.9 La w n 59 56 32 57 58 35 17 12 13 16 18 12 16 8 6 3 5 10 4 7 10 6 6 3 4 2 P er cen t within group 92.2 88.9 55.2 87.7 89.2 57.4 28.3 2.3 22.8 28.1 32.7 21.4 25.4 14.3 1.5 5.4 8.8 18.5 7.1 12.5 15.6 1.3 1.5 5.4 7.3 3.6
2

n 19 17 11 14 19 12 6 5 3 3 5 7 2 2 1 1 2 1 3 1 5 3 1 2 0 0

Sig.

b 0.24 a 21.32 18.16 41.09 11.21 16.02 16.01 2.51 a 0.01 a 5.62 a 0.08 a 0.09 a 2.61 a 4.73 a
b b

0.627 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.004 0.001 0.001 0.114 0.910 0.018 0.781 0.767 0.106 0.030 0.034 0.597 0.034 0.336 0.457

0.28 a
b

0.93 a 0.55 a
b b b b b

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

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 ]

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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

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 firms 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

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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 professions 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 ones 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

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[ 194 ] O pp ortu nity aw aren ess Su ccess orien ta tion Shift in career a im s Interest in professio n C ontinu an ce com m itm ent to profession 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 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

Career Development International 8/4 [2003] 182-197

Dora Scholarios, Cliff Lockyer and Heather Johnson Anticipatory socialisation: the effect of recruitment and selection experiences on career expectations

Table V Ordinal regression equations for prediction of career expectations

C areer clarity

E xpec ta tio n o f organisa tional career pa th

G ender Stage R ec-pro. W ork exp . SM -# SM -p ro . SM -inf. SM -b atch SM -sop h.

P seudo R 2 2 Log likelih ood

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 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

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

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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