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Being An Assistant Principal, Becoming An Administrator: An Organizational Socialization Study, Connie Dickman

Dissertations and Theses

Many school administrators begin their careers in educational administration as assistant principals. The literature on assistant principals contributes very little to an understanding of the perspectives that assistant principals develop during their organizational socialization experiences and of the conditions and processes that influence the development of these socialization outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical understanding of the perspectives that emerge from assistant principals' organizational socialization experiences. Symbolic interactionism established the theoretical and methodological foundation for this study. The sensitizing concepts of perspective (Becker, Geer, Hughes, & Strauss, 1961), situational adjustment (Becker, 1964), and organizational boundary …