The Relationship between Organizational Socialization, Information Seeking Behavior, and Organizational Commitment of New High-tech Professionals Abstract Due to the rapid growth of high-tech industry in Taiwan, there is an increasing need for high-tech professionals. Therefore, it is easy for high-tech professionals to switch jobs frequently. This phenomenon causes high-tech companies to spend a lot of money and time on the management of newcomers every year, so it is important to understand how newcomers adjust to the new environment and increase their commitment to the organization. Organizational socialization is generally defined as the process whereby newcomers learn the behaviors and attitudes for assuming roles in an organization. Research on socialization has focused on the socialization tactics used by organizations and tends to portray newcomers as passive in the socialization process. However, relatively is known about how newcomers obtain the information they need. Hence, this study was designed to examine the relationship between organizational socialization, information seeking behavior and organizational commitment of high-tech professionals. Besides, this research also examined the mediating effects of socialization content on the relationship between organization socialization and organizational commitment and the relationship between information seeking behavior and organizational commitment. Surveys were given to 99 new professionals six and twelve months into their jobs. The results of the research indicate that: 1. High-tech companies tend to use institutionalized socialization tactics; new professionals tend to use overt, third party and observing tactics to obtain the information . 2. Collect, sequential, fixed and serial socialization tactics are associated with high socialization content; overt and observing information seeking tactics are associated with high socialization content. 3. Sequential fixed and serial socialization tactics are associated with high organizational commitment; observing information seeking tactic and high socialization content are associated with high organizational commitment. 4. The mediating effects of socialization content on the relationship between organization socialization and organizational commitment and the relationship between information seeking behavior and organizational commitment are not obvious. Key words: organizational socialization, information seeking behavior, socialization commitment, high-tech company, newcomer

The study explored the relationship between program placement policies regarding the education of recently immigrated students and selected outcomes for these newcomers in urban high schools located in Texas under the implementation of NCLB. In an effort to better understand the impact of such policies on immigrant learning opportunities, this research investigated how newcomers’ identification and promotion, which were based upon English language proficiency testing, affected recent immigrant students’ program placement, course completion and educational achievement. In addition, this study used secondary data analysis to examine how newcomers’ background characteristics were associated with their grade retention rates. Finally, the relationship between students’ background characteristics and newcomers’ academic performance in language arts and mathematics subject areas were examined. This research attempted to answer questions including: 1) How do newly arrived youth students enrolled in newcomer programs, schools, and those enrolled in traditional English as a Second Language (ESL) programs differ with regard to characteristics, such as race, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), course completion, grade retention, and language spoken at home?, 2) How do the differences in characteristics of newly arrived youth students relate to grade retention?, 3) What is the relationship between the growth in academic achievement and newly arrived youth students’ demographic characteristics while enrolled in different programs?, and 4) What kinds of learning opportunities and educational supports are provided by traditional ESL programs, newcomer programs, and newcomer schools for newly arrived youth students in northern and central Texas? Findings indicated newly arrived immigrant adolescents are consistently the most disadvantaged group due to their later start age with limited English proficiency facing a new culture. In general, recently arrived immigrant youths appear to benefit more from teachers with ESL certification as well as even much more experience for serving immigrant adolescents in a safe and caring environment, newcomer schools. / text

Newcomers engage in proactive behaviors during organizational entry to increase their adjustment to the organization and to successfully complete their socialization. The present study investigated the links between proactive socialization tactics (i.e., positive framing, sense making and relationship building) and organizational outcomes. Specifically, organizational citizenship behaviors (e.g., assisting coworkers) and counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., verbal abuse) were investigated. The sample included 216 employees from various industries and organizations with an average organizational tenure of 9 months. The results indicated that all proactive socialization behaviors were associated with high levels of citizenship behaviors (i.e., OCB). Only positive framing was associated with low levels of counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., CWB). Furthermore, newcomer adjustment variables (i.e., role clarity, self-efficacy and social integration) were positively related to OCB and negatively related to CWB. The results also provided some support for the newcomer adjustment variables as mediators between proactive socialization behaviors and OCB/CWB. The present study also investigated the role of procedural justice in this model that links proactive socialization behaviors to OCB/CWB through newcomer adjustment variables. Results indicated procedural justice moderated the relationship between relationship building and newcomer adjustment including role clarity, self-efficacy and social integration.

In my thesis, I focus on the role that sexual health messages play in the lives of African newcomer teen girls and young women living in Winnipeg. The research question I ask is: How have sexual health discourses shaped my interlocutors’ experiences and perceptions of sex and sexuality upon settling in Canada? My work seeks to address the complexities of sexual health discourses through a feminist-poststructuralist framework that reveals the taken-for-granted and emphasizes how looking at the heterogeneity of these young women’s experiences of sex and sexuality can challenge universalizing public health discourses. Specifically, I utilize the concepts of risk, bio-pedagogy, and biological citizenship to better understand how health has become bound up with idea of being a “bio-citizen.” I conducted 13 ethnographic interviews with ten participants and utilized participant observation in the field. My research will allow us to question not only the importance placed on being “sexually healthy,” but also how these narrowly defined discourses effectively obfuscate other ways of thinking about sexual health. / October 2015

The purpose of this research study is to compare two yearlong program models designed specifically to educate secondary-level newcomer immigrant youth within one large, urban school district in Southern California. The two divergent secondary-level programs that are compared in this study, a self-contained newcomer program and a beginning level English as a Second Language program (ESL 1/2), are explored to determine which program more successfully prepares secondary-level Latino immigrant youth to gain the language proficiency, academic skills, and academic self-concept necessary to exit after the requisite year. The research for this study is informed by scholarly literature that concerns the education of immigrant youth. The literature review is driven by the following four central concepts: an analysis of significant federal and California state language policy, mitigating factors in the education of immigrant youth, existing specialized program models, and guiding theories in the schooling of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The data for this study was collected utilizing a mixed-methods multiple case study approach. Three classrooms within each of the two programs were observed over a month-long period as simultaneous stakeholder interviews and focus groups were carried out to illuminate emergent themes and tensions. Additionally, both current and former students from the two programs were surveyed to determine their academic, social, and personal self-concept levels. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered through this study was analyzed and triangulated to determine the effectiveness of each program and answer the guiding research questions. The results of this study demonstrated mixed findings between the two programs under study. The students gained greater academic skill levels and a higher academic self-concept level as a result of the more supportive environment offered within the newcomer program, yet the ESL 1/2 students made greater gains linguistically, as was evidenced by higher redesignation rates. In addition, after their second year, the students from the newcomer program reported far lower academic self-concept levels than those who had exited the ESL program. Therefore, due to the mixed results, this study incorporated an action plan to assist districts in creating and implementing effective programs for newcomer youth.

The aim of the study is to elucidate and analyze newcomer students´ experiences of the Language Introduction Program, in more detail, how the students describe their time at the program and how experiences could differ between girls and boys. Finally, the study examines how the program, according to the students, can be significant for their future. The analysis of the students´ dictums is based on the perspective of intercultural education. To answer the study´s aim and research questions, the investigation consists of eight semi-structured interviews with students who are studying at the Language Introduction Program at an upper secondary school in Uppsala.The results show that the main advantages with studying at the Language Introduction Program are, according to the students, that they learn the Swedish language and that they meet students with several cultural backgrounds. The main disadvantages that were noted were that the Language Introduction Program takes a long time to finish, and furthermore, the contact with the students at the other programs at the school is not enough. To some extent, the students´ experiences differ, however, the differences are not always due to gender. The students feel that the Language Introduction Program has helped them with the Swedish language and prepared them for future studies. In conclusion, the study shows that good knowledge in the Swedish language is considered to be the key to success in school and society, both for social life and for educational purposes.

In the years between 1789 and 1792 the shores of what is now British Columbia were opened to European scrutiny by a series of mostly Spanish expeditions. As the coastline was charted and explored by agents of European empires, the Pacific Northwest captured the attention of Europe. In order to carry out these explorations the Spanish relied on what turned out to be an experiment in ‘gentle’ imperialism that depended on the support of the indigenous “colonized”. This thesis examines how the Spanish envisioned their imperial space on the Northwest Coast and particularly how that space was shaped through the exploration of the Salish Sea. A close examination of the Spanish explorations of 1790-91 opens a window on this distinctive Spanish imperialism, on Aboriginal culture and politics in this era, and on the cartographic and cultural mapping of this the centre of gravity of modern British Columbia.

<p>Challenges to or criticisms of existing social arrangements often result in individuals bolstering the status quo rather than becoming inspired to consider avenues for improvement - a phenomenon known as system justification. However, it is not yet known whether characteristics of the individual challenging the system might magnify (or alleviate) system-defensive responding. New entrance into a system might be one such characteristic to heighten defensiveness because new entrants likely have had fewer opportunities to prove their commitment to the system’s values. Thus, I conducted three initial studies to develop experimental paradigms testing whether recommendations for change are particularly repudiated when advocated by newcomers. Study 1 examined responses to proposals by a freshman congressperson (vs. senior or control) to change an obscure U.S. policy (<i>N </i>= 540). Study 2 examined responses to a proposal by a new employee (vs. senior or control) to change a workplace policy (<i>N </i>= 515), and Study 3 investigated student responses to a proposal by a junior transfer student (vs. junior continuing student) to change a proudly-held university policy (<i>N </i>= 309). Together, findings across these three paradigms suggest mixed evidence that both newcomers themselves, and their policy ideas, are derogated more than are full members when advocating change, particularly among individuals higher on dispositional system justification. Future, sufficiently-powered research should continue to examine impacts of proposer’s membership status on resistance to system change in order to provide insight into the actors most likely to successfully advocate for social progress. </p>

Idag upplever Sverige en stor bostadsproblematik som påverkar både ursprungsbefolkningen och nyanlända. De senare påverkas i synnerhet på grund av gruppens svaga betalningsförmåga. Med föga chanser till jobb och hotet av segregation, befinner de nyanlända sig i en ofördelaktig situation på bostadsmarknaden, en situation som tenderar att mynna ut i en ond spiral som endast kan brytas om åtgärder och initiativ tas vid på entreprenöriell, kommunal, statlig nivå. Detta arbete fokuserar därför på de nyanländas bostadssituation. Mer specifikt undersöker arbetet bakomliggande faktorer till deras ofördelaktiga situation och därmed vilka optimala åtgärder som kan tas vid för att lösa detta. Resultatet påvisar att den ogynnsamma situationen beror på fyra större faktorer: Den rådande bostadsbristen, EBO-lagen, höga hyres- och prisnivåer och den svaga betalningsförmågan bland nyanlända. Den första faktorn innebär att det råder ett underskott på bostäder, vilket antyder att vare sig nyanlända har råd eller inte med att hyra en bostad så finns inte mycket tillgängligt ändå. Enligt flertalet respondenter är lösningen till detta att staten subventionerar markpriser och att detaljplaneprocessen förkortas. Den andra faktorn är en lagstiftning som medför att nyanlända får bosätta vart de vill och är uppbyggd på människors rätt att vara fria. Dessvärre leder lagen till segregation i allra högsta grad då de nyanlända tenderar att bosätta sig i närhet av bekanta. Detta innebär inte bara större trångboddhet, men också sämre chanser till jobb, språkutveckling och etablering i samhället och på bostadsmarknaden. Resultat såväl som diskussion kommer fram till att en avskaffning av lagen är en optimal lösning. En annan lösning är implementering av komplementerande lagstiftning som tillåter kommuner att kontrollera trångboddhet i bostäder som nyanlända avser flytta till. Detta i syfte att avgöra om de får flytta dit eller inte och på så sätt minska den potentiella segregationen. Den tredje och fjärde faktorn är sammankopplade. En kombination av höga hyres- och prisnivåer och de nyanländas svaga betalningsförmåga formar ogynnsamma förhållanden för de nyanlända. Eftersom att hyres- och prissättningen idag är ett stort problem, ser flera respondenter att de enda lösningarna är att kommuner sänker markpriser, staten subventionerar byggherrar och detaljeringsgraden i detaljplaner sänks. Detta i syfte att byggherrar ska kunna sänka produktionskostnader och på så sätt bygga mer prisrimliga bostäder. Ytterligare en lösning är att de nyanlända får ett snabbare kliv in i arbetsmarknaden. / Today, Sweden is experiencing a large housing problem that affects both the indigenous population and new arrivals. The latter are particularly affected by the group’s poor purchasing power. With little chance of jobs and the threat of segregation, the newcomers find themselves in a disadvantageous situation in the housing market, a situation that tends to result in an evil spiral that can only be broken if measures are taken at an entrepreneurial, municipal and state level. Thus, this work focuses on the new arrivals’ housing situation. More specifically, the work examines underlying factors for their disadvantageous situation and thus what optimal measures can be taken to solve this. The result shows that the unfavorable situation is due to four major factors: The current housing shortage, the EBO Act, high rents and prices and the poor purchasing power among new arrivals. The first factor is that there is a deficit in housing, which indicates that whether newcomers can afford to rent a home or not, there is not much available anyway. According to several interviewees, the solution to this is government grants to the municipalities and a shortened detailed planning process. The second factor is a legislation that allows new arrivals to settle wherever they want and is built on people's right to be free. Unfortunately, the act results in segregation to the highest degree as the newly arrived tend to settle in the vicinity of acquaintances. This not only means overcrowded accomodations, but also worse opportunities for jobs, language development and establishment in the society and in the housing market. Results as well as discussion conclude that the abolition of the law is an optimal solution. Another solution is the implementation of complementary legislation that allows municipalities to control the cramped living situations in homes that newcomers intend to move to. This is to determine whether they can move there or not and thus reduce potential segregation. The third and fourth factors are linked. A combination of high rents and price levels and the newcomers' weak purchasing power form unfavorable conditions for the newcomers. Since setting rents and pricing is a major problem today, several respondents see that the only solutions are that municipalities lower land prices, the state subsidizes construction clients and the level of detail in detailed development plans is lowered. This, in order for the construction client to be able to lower production costs and thus build more affordable housing. Another solution is that the newcomers get a faster step into the labor market.

Immigrant-origin students, particularly newcomer students, are a rapidly growing demographic in schools. Educational settings serve as the first contact zones where newcomer immigrant students interact with society. Therefore, their school environment plays a crucial role in their adaptations, forming identities, and analyzing the socio-political issues. Teachers have a profound impact on this process by creating a dynamic interplay between their self-capacities and the learning environment through reflecting on their biases and using their agencies. This study was based on the premise that literacy is an ongoing process of identity formation through social interaction, and it serves as a means of learning about the world. For the purpose of this research an exploratory case study design was employed to investigate the literacy practices of four English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in two urban high schools. The data was collected by conducting interviews and classroom observations using purposeful sampling. The research findings highlighted that teachers' perceptions and attitudes have a significant impact on the development of students' identities. Teachers used their mainstream coding system to interpret and comprehend the cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity that was present in their classrooms. The findings of the study also indicated that power dynamics, standardized exams, and prescribed curricula have an impact on the ways teachers utilize their agency, pedagogy, and facilitation roles. Several implications have been discussed based on the research findings.