Organizational Socialization of Academic Librarians in the United States

Abstract

This study aims to investigate academic librarians' organizational socialization. Successful socialization can increase librarians' commitments to and retention in the libraries, which may enhance the quality of information services to library patrons. In addition to collecting demographic information, we measured the organizational socialization of 314 academic librarians using Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, and Gardner's (1994) content framework. Study participants possessed high levels of socialization in their libraries overall. They were well socialized in Politics, followed by Performance Proficiency (task/skills), and Language; however, their socialization in Organizational goals/values, History, and People were relatively low, suggesting that there is room for improvement. Other key findings are: (1) male participants had lower levels of socialization in the People dimension than did females; (2) participants who were tenured had higher levels of socialization than did those who had not yet achieved tenure; (3) participants who had informal mentoring experiences had higher levels of socialization overall compared to those who had not received any mentoring; and (4) participants' socialization was associated negatively with the number of employees in their libraries and with the highest degree offered by their institutions. The study findings can be used to understand the learning and adjustment process of academic librarians in the United States, predict their retention and job satisfaction, and develop and improve library training or orientation programs.