Socialization,resocialization, and communication relationships in the context of an organizational change

This investigation explores the influence of perceptions of socialization tactics' use and communication relationships on employees at the initiation of and 4 months into an organizational restructuring. Results of this longitudinal investigation reveal that employees (N = 72) report considerable changes in perceptions of organizational socialization/resocialization efforts. Results also indicate that both perceptions of socialization tactics' use and communication relationships contribute to decreased role ambiguity and role conflict and increased commitment at the initiation of the restructuring and four months later. However, the influence of these factors on the dependent variables changes over time. These findings are discussed in relation to recent research on organizational entry and change, and suggestions are made for future research.     

International Communications

Henry 0. Hart's Mass Communication and Social Change Process and Practice (An Attempted Extension of Basic Models) (East European Area Audience and Opinion Research Dept., RFE/RL, Inc., Oettingenstrasse, 67 AM Englischen Garten, 8000 Munich 22, West Germany—apparently free on request, paper)

World Directory of Mass Communication Periodicals ($15.00)

Mass Communication Research–Current Documentation ($10.00 per volume)

Directory of Mass Media Research Centres in European Socialist Countries ($5.00)

Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner and Hans Speier, eds. Propaganda and Communication in World History, Volume II: Emergence of Public Opinion in the West (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980-825.00)

Stephen L. Vaughn's Holding Fast the Inner Lines: Democracy, Nationalism, and the Committee on Public Information (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980—$21.00)

Mock and Larson's Words That Won the War (1939)

Oswald H. Ganley's The United States-Canadian Communications and Information Resources Relationship and its Possible Significance for Worldwide Diplomacy (Working Paper W-79-7, November 1979—$10.90, paper, 97 pp.)

Anthony Crawford's Posters of World War I and World War II in the George C. Marshall Research Foundation (Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1979—$9.95)     

Faculty in the Hinterlands: Cultural Anticipation and Cultural Reality

Using qualitative inquiry, this paper employs a cultural lens to explore the work life experiences of faculty who work in smaller higher education administration programs in institutions that are not high-level research universities. The research focus included understanding how participants made sense of the institutions in which they worked and the consequences of that for their lives. Implications for the field of higher education administration, faculty work, and graduate socialization are examined. Ultimately, this research suggests that a single model of faculty work life identity drawn using a research institutional prototype does little to support all faculty members, many of whom work in markedly different institutions.     

Reform must begin with K-12

This essay was originally presented as part of the panel “Can Higher Education Be Mass Education?” at “What Should a University Be?” the fourth national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in San Francisco, 16–18 April 1993.     

Linkages Among Preschoolers' Playground Behavior, Outcome Expectations, and Parental Disciplinary Strategies

To explore relationships among parent's self-reported disciplinary strategies, preschoolers' outcome expectations, and playground behavior, 136 mothers of preschool-age children (age range = 39-71 months) participated in home disciplinary style interviews. Measures of preschoolers' outcome expectations and observations of childrens' prosocial, antisocial/disruptive, and nonsocial/withdrawn playground behavior in preschool settings were also obtained. Results indicated that power-assertive mothers had preschoolers who engaged in more antisocial/disruptive behavior and who expected successful instrumental outcomes for hostile methods of resolving peer conflict. Preschoolers with such outcome expectations also participated in more antisocial playground behavior. Older preschoolers of inductive mothers engaged in more prosocial behavior and expected prosocial behavior to lead to both instrumental gains and enhanced relations with peers. Preschoolers who were more prosocial envisioned friendly-assertive strategies as leading to instrumental gains and, in the case of less nonsocial behavior, to enhanced relations with peers. Children's outcome expectations were also found to be different for older versus younger preschoolers. Evidence was also obtained suggesting that maternal discipline and outcome expectations make separate and independent contributions to children's social and aggressive play behavior.