Antecedents of met-expectations of newcomers: a longitudinal analysis

Abstract

The study examined the antecedents of met expectations. It combined three streams of research, namely, the "strength of weak ties hypothesis" (Granovetter, 1973, 1974) in accessing job opportunities, the effects of job sources on the initial expectations of the job seekers (Wanous, 1980, 1992; Wanous and Collela, 1989) and the effects of socialization on expectations (Irving and Meyer, 1994, Major, et al, 1995). Data was collected from college graduates before and after they entered employment. The me del was tested using hierarchical regression design. The results showed that prior work experience (number of years) was positively related to the use of referrals whereas the relatedness of work experience was positively related to rehiring and negatively related to the use of employment agencies. We did not find any relationships between job sources and initial expectations. Initial expectations and socialization had a main affected on met expectations. Socialization also acted as a moderator in the relationship between initial expectation and met expectations. Socialization had a greater impact at low levels of initial expectations than at high levels of initial expectations. A surprising finding was that referrals had a direct negative relationship with met expectations. The model explained 53.9% of the variance in met expectations and had a significant chi-square goodness of fit.