Organizational Entry and Transition from Acedemic Study

Abstract

A critical stage in the development of young Information Systems (IS) professionals is when they make the transition from academic study to industrial work. At this stage, the young IS professional must learn about his work requirements, understand work procedures, and develop new skills and knowledge in order to function effectively in the workplace. This study develops a three-phase model of organizational socialization to analyze this process of organizational boundary crossing and professional development for a group of recent Information Systems graduates. Overall, this exploratory study illustrates that the socialization framework could provide a useful research model for examining the early professional development of young IS workers. The results indicate that the effective preparation of young IS workers involves far more than just a fixed set of academic subjects. The framework is also useful to reveal some specific characteristics of information technology work that could pose particular challenges for the adjustment process of young IS workers in the workplace. The implications of the preliminary findings from this exploratory study for educators, managers, and researchers are discussed.