Faculty Socialization into the Advising Role: An Examination of Information and Information Sources that Shape Role Learning

Abstract

Faculty advisors at four institutions completed questionnaires designed to categorize the information they received when learning advising responsibilities. They identified role-set members who provided this information and its usefulness by type. They receive more organizational (policies and procedures) information than any other type of advising information, which they rate high in usefulness. While they receive formal appraisal information less often than any other type and rate it lowest in usefulness, faculty members receive informal appraisal messages from students. The findings warrant further investigation of the influence of students as socialization agents in the faculty advisor role-learning process.