An exploratory study of vocational organizational communication socialization

Abstract

This study was concerned with determining if people develop perceptions of the communication behaviors of organizational/occupational roles during the process of vocational socialization. Specifically, this research attempted to discover (as reported by a cross‐sectional sample of 311 teachers) what occupations students talk and read about in school, the types of “communicator styles” students attribute in class discussions and assigned readings to persons fulfilling these roles, and whether these attributions vary as students progress from elementary school to high school. In general, the findings of the investigation are supportive of the notion that class discussions and assigned readings in school may be an important source of communication‐related vocational information for individuals during their childhood and adolescent years.