Organizational Socialization from a Content Perspective and Its Effect on the Affective Commitment of Newly Hired Rehabilitation Counselors

Upholding high standards of quality is imperative to service delivery in rehabilitation counseling. Yet these standards may be compromised by low affective commitment in the field, in turn leading to high rates of turnover. According to Mann Layne, Hohenshil, & Singh (2004), "turnover is a detrimental problem in the field of rehabilitation (2004). " While little is known about affective commitment in the profession, there are reports showing high turnover rates ranging from 9.4% to 40.7% (Dew, Diller, & Peters, 2005; Galeotos & Dykeman, 2001; Vito & Pearson, 2003; Wisconsin Joint Legislative Audit Committee, 2000). A study by Barrett, Riggar, Flowers, Crimando, & Bailey (1997), reported that during the last decade, turnover in the field grew by 1%, albeit the increase was nonsignificant. Nevertheless, this finding suggests that turnover has not declined and remained at a high rate. Such alarming rates warrant concern that consumers may experience negative fallout from high turnover. Factors such as layoffs, terminations, and retirement may explain some of the turnover (Bishop, 2001; Galeotos & Dykeman, 2001). For instance, in Region III, the State Vocational Rehabilitation system anticipates that in the next two years 46% of the vacancies will occur for the following reasons: retirement, termination, family needs, higher salary, death, reassignment, and other (Dew, Diller, and Peters, 2005). This finding, however, leaves 54% unaccounted for suggesting that other reasons related to a lack of commitment could contribute to departure from the agency. Several studies in other professions (e.g. hotel management, nursing, transportation, etc.) and a few studies in the human-service field have shown that the stronger an employee's level of commitment, the less likely he/she is to leave the job (Allen & Meyer, 1996; Knudsen, Johnson, & Roman, 2003; Hart, 2000; Hackett, Bycio, & Hausdorf, 1994). Within the rehabilitation field, only three studies have examined affective commitment, either as a predictor or criterion variable (Biggs, Flett, Voges, & Alpass, 1995, Mitus, 2005, Satcher & McGhee, 1996). As a predictor variable commitment negatively influenced the level of distress in turn affecting the employee's turnover intentions (Biggs et al., 2005). As a criterion variable, Satcher and McGhee (1996) found counselor characteristics (i.e. age and education) to influence affective commitment such that counselors who were older and less educated were more likely to be committed to the agency. In a study by Mitus (2005) organizational factors were explored as a predictor of affective commitment. She found that rehabilitation counselors were more committed when they had more structured socialization experiences following initial entry into the agency. With the limited studies currently available in the rehabilitation literature, additional research is needed to address the multitude of factors that may influence commitment. Organizational factors may be especially important to study in comparison to counselor factors because implementing organizational change may be more feasible than changing characteristics of the counselor. The purpose of this study was to further our understanding about affective commitment among newly hired rehabilitation counselors by examining whether organizational socialization predicts the degree to which counselors commit to their jobs. According to Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardener (1994), organizational socialization refers to the type and extent of information that new employees learn when entering an organization. The information learned helps new employees to understand the nature of the organization and their specific work roles (Hart, 2000). With this information, the employee is able to make decisions about whether or not to form a connection to the organization. …