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Organizational and professional socialization: its impact on the performance of new administrators

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Abstract

While interest in holding administrators accountable for school effectiveness has increased over the past decade, the quality of evaluation systems and corresponding assessments of their performance has not. Few empirical studies have focused on evaluating the performance of new administrators as they carry out important functions of their role, so little is known about the process of socialization and how it may affect the beginning administrator's job performance. The purpose of this study was to propose and test a model of socialization factors that may be related to the evaluation of new elementary and secondary assistant principals' job performance. These factors were grouped into three major sets: individual demographics, professional socialization (i.e., type of administrative preparation), and organizational socialization (e.g., school context).

Results of the LISREL covariance structure analysis supported the proposed theoretical model, indicating that organizational socialization directly affected administrative performance. In contrast, the effect of professional socialization on performance was mostly indirect. Moreover, independent of socialization, women in the study were rated as more effective than men. While most of the variation in performance observed was very likely due to individual differences, the findings suggest the importance of considering how an individual is socialized into the profession and the specific school when appraising performance.

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  1. College of Education, Education Administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1776 University Avenue, 96822, Honolulu, Hawaii

    Ronald H. Heck

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  1. Ronald H. Heck
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Heck, R.H. Organizational and professional socialization: its impact on the performance of new administrators. Urban Rev 27, 31–49 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354334

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