Professional Socialization of Graduate Students: A give-and-take process.

Professional socialization of graduate students is a give-and-take process due to its complexity and dynamism. This paper, which falls under organizational behavior focuses on the three approaches to socialization of graduate students—functionalist, interpretive and critical. The author views professional socialization from the standpoint of interpretive approach, which argues that a student plays a significant role in the professional socialization process. While the department puts the student through the socialization process, the student makes a decision and chooses how to behave through the socialization process. Thus, the student influences socialization process just as the socialization process influences the student’s professional preparation. The paper focuses on graduate students because of the assumption that graduate study plays a fundamental role in socializing and preparing students for work and developing an early professional identity.