Organizational socialization and induction in universities: Reconceptualizing theory and practice

This paper argues that the theory and practice of induction and socializati on of new academic staff in universities have been based on a partial, corp oratist, perspective influenced by now defunct structural-functionalist the ory. We develop a more sophisticated theoretical understanding of organizat ional socialization and explore its consequences for the practice of induct ion of new academic staff. These ideas are based on secondary data derived from a number of studies of new academic appointees (NAAs), 27 in-depth int erviews we conducted with academics in ten Canadian and English universitie s, both chartered and unchartered, and a five year ethnographic study of ac ademic staff in a single unchartered English university.