Job-Searching Expectations,Expectancy Violations,and Communication Strategies of Recent College Graduates

Abstract

Expectancy violations theory, a communicative framework, is applied in this study to understand how recent college graduates form, evaluate, and respond to violated job-searching expectations. In-depth interviews of college seniors (N= 20) who were currently job searching helped answer the three research questions posed. Using a thematic analysis, the findings indicate that young job seekers evaluate some negative information positively because it reduces their uncertainty and that expectations and responses to expectancy violations change over time and are not stagnant, as the theory originally predicted. Other contributions, limitations, and teaching implications are discussed.

Keywords

career development job-search communication organizational communication

Expectations play an important role in the job-searching process. Research has indicated that recent college graduates have specific career-related expectations such as schedule flexibility, opportunities for rapid advancement, and the need for a meaningful work experience (Brack & Kelly, 2012;Deloitte, 2016;Ng, Schweitzer, & Lyons, 2010).Burgoon’s (1978)expectancy violations theory (EVT) of communication explains how people react to expectation violations in communication encounters, making it an ideal fit for examining how recent college graduates communicatively respond to expectancy violations throughout the job search.

Grounded in EVT, the purpose of this study was to examine how job-searching expectations are formed and the role that expectations and expectancy violations play in the job search for recent college graduates. This study contributes to communication research at large by articulating the communicative responses to violated expectations and furthering the extension of EVT in the field of organizational communication. Ultimately, this study aimed to provide further insight into the communicative processes and management of expectations for searching and finding a job based on the expectations of recent college graduates through a rich and detailed qualitative method and interpretation of participants’ experiences.

Literature Review

Career Expectations and Job Searching

Despite graduating college during one of the hardest economic periods, recent college graduates have been surprisingly optimistic about their future, with 59% expecting they will make enough money to live the life they desire (Pew Research Center, 2014), reflecting their overall career expectations. However, phenomenological research indicates that college graduates have inflated and unrealistic expectations about the workplace and their role as employees (Gardner & Lambert, 1993;Perrone & Vickers, 2003). Therefore, in addition to searching for jobs, recent college graduates must also manage their unmet expectations, which can lead to disappointment, depression, and increased stress and uncertainty (Wendlandt & Rochlen, 2008).

Job search literature has examined how people of all ages, from college students to senior citizens, search and find jobs, and it has articulated the communicative context in which job searching occurs and the role of expectations within job searching. For example,Rynes and Lawler (1983)outlined how expectancy theory can help explain the decision to pursue job alternatives.Yen, Cooper, and Murrmann (2013)explored the career decisions and expectations of culinary graduates and how they utilize on-campus career resources.Barnett (2012)specifically examined how internships can help shape more realistic expectations among college students. However, given the size and importance of recent college graduates entering the workforce, a better understanding of their unique job-searching and career-related expectations and management of expectations is warranted. Specifically, expectations are important to the job-searching process because they influence the types of jobs that young job seekers apply for and the recruitment and retention efforts of employers. Therefore, the findings from this study show how recent college graduates communicatively responded to violated expectations during their job search through a qualitative examination of their experiences.

Expectancy Management and Expectancy Violations Theory

EVT was first posited byBurgoon (1978)to understand how people respond to unexpected communication encounters especially with regard to proxemic violations. The theory centers on expectations, defined byBurgoon (1993)as an enduring pattern of anticipated behavior based on norms. Expectancies are the central construct of EVT. They represent shared understandings and rules for communicative encounters and serve as framing devices used to define and shape interactions. People plan their communication according to the communication they expect from the other (Burgoon, 1993). Moreover, expectancies serve as perceptual filters, which influence how social information is processed (Burgoon, 1993). Therefore, expectancies must be understood before examining expectancy violations for predicting and explaining communicative situations (Burgoon, 1993).

EVT assumes that interactions are normative and that people hold expectations about their social interactions. However, it is also normal for violations of expectations to occur in social interactions, including within job searching. An expectation violation is any deviation (either positive or negative) from a held expectation (Burgoon, 1978). In the job-searching context, EVT advances that violations should activate the job seeker’s interest or attention and arouse adaptive or defensive mechanisms to cope with the deviation, causing a distraction, before making an evaluation of the violation (Burgoon, 1978). Violations, especially negative violations, such as a lack of feedback while job searching or not being selected for a job, can lead to increased levels of uncertainty (Afifi & Burgoon, 2000) and, therefore, have communicative consequences like a reduction in communication or a change in the communication strategy being used. Furthermore, “any behavior that falls outside a range of expected behaviors is theorized to produce cognitive arousal and trigger an interpretation-evaluation sequence that helps individuals cope with unexpected outcomes” (Afifi & Metts, 1998, p. 367). Job-searching research has indicated that job seekers with high expectations of finding a job spend less time job searching, likely because they are overestimating their ability to find a job, compared with job seekers who have lower expectations about their job search (Vansteenkiste, Lens, De Witte, & Feather, 2005). However, when an expectancy violation occurs, such as not obtaining a job as quickly as a job seeker expected, the person’s job-searching strategies change (Vansteenkiste et al., 2005).

Expectancy violations trigger an arousal, which leads into the interpretation and evaluation phase of EVT. People first interpret what happened and then evaluate the violation (Burgoon, 1978). It is during the interpretation-evaluation phase that people assign a valence to a violation. More simply, after a violation, individuals assign either a positive or negative meaning to the violation (White, 2008). While valence helps determine the outcomes of an interaction, it is also useful in helping people determine whether it is better to do what is expected or to deviate from the norm when responding after a violation. To do so, people consider the communicative consequences, which are best understood through the communicator reward value (Burgoon, 1993). Communicator reward value is the concept that people possess characteristics that influence the extent to which interactions with them are rewarding (Burgoon, 1993). Typically, physical attractiveness, power, and intelligence are interpreted as rewarding traits (Burgoon, 1993). Therefore, job seekers are likely to view interviewers, CEOs, and hiring managers as rewarding sources.

Using 11 axioms and assumptions (seeBurgoon, 1978), EVT originated as a theory used to predict outcomes of space violations, but it is now more widely used for a variety of communication violations. At the core, EVT explains how individuals develop expectations and evaluate and respond to violations of expectations (Burgoon, 1978). Although EVT research has been primarily used to understand interpersonal relationships, several of the axioms make EVT a good fit for examining job-search communication. Specifically, the first axiom, indicating that humans have a need for affiliation, demonstrates the desire for people to be accepted and liked within social interactions, such as impression formation during interviews, something that is important in trying to obtain a job that meets the organizational culture and social expectations of young job seekers. More important, as stated in Axiom 2, the need for affiliation may be magnified by the presence of rewards within the communication context. In the context of job searching, the potential for rewards is high throughout the entire job application process, as the job seeker is trying to get hired, which would translate to a reward when interpreted through the lens of EVT. The second axiom also highlights the importance of a job seeker making a good impression through their application materials, networking, and interviewing in an effort to obtain a job from the hiring manager or organization. This segues into the third axiom, which posits that people will approach rewarding situations and avoid punishing situations. Throughout the job search, recent college graduates are likely going to apply for jobs they are qualified for and that meet or exceed their expectations, so as to get hired (reward) rather than remain unemployed (punishment).

It is important to note that expectations are related to the behaviors that are appropriate for a situation and may reflect what a person knows to be “normal.” For example, when applying for jobs, it is normal to be notified that the submission of the application is complete; not receiving this confirmation could be considered a violation to the job seeker when interpreted through the lens of EVT. As Axiom 11 of EVT describes, positive evaluations are influenced by the degree to which the other person is perceived as rewarding, such that (a) positively valued messages from a positively regarded source are rewarding, (b) negatively valued messages from a positively regarded source are punishing, (c) positively valued messages from a negatively valued source are not rewarding and may even be punishing, and (d) negatively valued messages from a negatively valued source are not punishing and may even be rewarding (Burgoon, 1978). Within the context of job searching, feedback can be interpreted either positively or negatively, and the lack of feedback presents an interesting area for exploration to determine how recent college graduates evaluate a lack of feedback. Some examples of feedback within the job-searching context could include being invited for an interview, comments about experience level, and either being selected or not being selected for a job.Carvajal et al. (2000)have noted that when career expectations do not align with reality, job seekers experience feelings of failure and discontent, which can inhibit the continuation of their job search. This illustrates the impact that expectancy violations can have on the overall process of job searching.

The interpretation and evaluation phases of EVT are conceptually cognitive in nature and occur intrapersonally, while behavioral adaptations demonstrate the communicative changes that take place following expectancy violations.Burgoon, Le Poire, and Rosenthal (1995)reviewed several theoretical approaches that predicted how people would respond to unexpected communication encounters. While some theories favor compensating behavior, other theories predict reciprocal communication responses (Burgoon et al., 1995). EVT, however, assumes reciprocity in some situations and compensation in others, depending on the reward level of the violator and whether the violator is increasing or decreasing communication with the receiver (Floyd & Voloudakis, 1999). While behavioral adaptations associated with EVT have primarily been studied within interpersonal relationships, they can be extended into the job-searching context. For example, in high-reward relationships, such as between a hiring manager and a job candidate, EVT posits that recipients will reciprocate attempts by the communicator to increase communication. Conversely, if the hiring manager is unresponsive or no longer communicating with the job candidate, the candidate may compensate for the decrease in communication through a change in communication strategies (seeHale & Burgoon, 1984). Behavioral adaptations within EVT have also been described as a function of synchrony, or the degree to which communicators match each other’s behaviors (Floyd & Voloudakis, 1999). Essentially, EVT predicts that when someone interacts with a rewarding other, the person will reciprocate behavior following positive violations and compensate following negative violations.

While EVT has been applied to a variety of communication contexts such as nonverbal behavior (Burgoon & Hale, 1988), communication with friends (Floyd & Voloudakis, 1999), interpersonal deception (Aune, Ching, & Levine, 1996), and intimate relationships (Afifi & Metts, 1998), it has yet to be specifically applied to job-searching research. However, some EVT research has examined organizational communication and demonstrated that people have workplace expectations that are similar to their interpersonal expectations (A. A. Bailey & Bonifield, 2010;Kalman & Rafaeli, 2011). Knowing that recent college graduates do have expectations related to their job searching and careers (Carvajal et al., 2000;Ng et al., 2010) and develop those expectations based on social norms, EVT provides a theoretical foundation that can assist in interpreting what type of communicative violations occur throughout the job search to contribute to existing job-searching literature. Furthermore, because many recent graduates are inexperienced with job searching, they may not have had the time or experience to form realistic expectations, which could lead to more violations throughout the job-searching process. EVT can help interpret how recent college graduates respond communicatively to violated job-searching expectations. This is especially important information for aligning employees with employers. For example, lack of success in job searching may cause recent college graduates to reevaluate or change their expectations about finding a job, while simultaneously adjusting their job-searching strategy, just as an interactant could alter his or her behavior following a violation. Therefore, the following research questions are proposed:

Research Question 1:How are job-searching expectations formed among recent college graduates?

Research Question 2:What communicative violations occur throughout the job search for recent college graduates?

Research Question 3:How do recent college graduates communicatively respond to violated job-searching expectations?

Method

The goal of this research study was to understand how recent college graduates form their job-searching expectations, the expectancy violations recent college graduates experience while job searching, and how they communicatively respond to these violations. Twenty young adults (N= 20) preparing to graduate college and enter the full-time workforce were interviewed at two different periods, 3 months apart, throughout their job search. These participants all attended the same university and were primarily from the Southwestern region of the United States. The sample was selected to be “representative of the typical case” defined byLindlof and Taylor (2011)as a strategy that “attempts to capture the typical (or normative) form of a phenomenon” (p. 115). Typical case samples are used to be illustrative, not definitive, and not used to make generalized statements of all participants (Patton, 1990). Therefore, the requirements for participation in this study included being currently enrolled U.S. college seniors who were preparing to graduate within the next 3 months, preparing to begin their job search, and not planning to attend graduate school during the 2014-2015 academic school year. Variation within the sample was maximized through demographic factors including age, race, and gender, because participants had a range of experience levels, from no previous work experience, to part-time and internship experience, to some full-time work experience (i.e., over the summer), but none of the participants had experience looking for a full-time, postgraduate job. Additional demographic information can be found inTable 1. Pseudonyms were used to identify participants and ensure confidentiality.

Table 1.

Participant Demographic Information.

Name	Narrative
Adam • 22 Years • Male • Caucasian • Communication major	Adam has less than 6 months of full-time work experience and is hoping that his summer internship leads to a full-time job on graduation.
Amy • 22 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and English minor	Amy has not searched for a full-time job before and has less than 6 months of full-time work experience. She has completed one internship during college. Amy is hoping to move to Boston after graduation.
Andie • 22 Years • Female • Hispanic • Communication major and e-society minor	Andie is a first-generation college graduate in her family. She has not searched for or had a full-time job before but has completed an internship during college. She hopes to have fun and friendly coworkers at her postgraduation job.
Caty • 22 Years • Female • Caucasian • Psychology major and communication minor	Caty has less than 6 months of full-time work experience and has not searched for a full-time job before. She had an internship during college but did not enjoy that experience and is hoping to find a full-time job that is more enjoyable for her.
Courtney • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and business administration minor	Courtney has searched for full-time jobs before and has had two internships. She is hoping that her summer internship will provide a full-time opportunity for her to work in event planning postgraduation.
David • 22 Years • Male • Asian/Pacific Islander • Communication major and business administration minor	David has not searched for a full-time job before and has less than 6 months of full-time work experience. He has had two internships.
Emily • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and government and public policy minor	Emily has had one full-time job and an internship before. She is hoping to work in the hospitality industry on graduation and would like to relocate to another state.
Evan • 22 Years • Male • Caucasian • Communication major and business administration minor	Evan is currently a full-time manager for a local restaurant group. While he could remain at his current job postgraduation, he is looking for new opportunities in other fields such as sales or recruiting.
Jane • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and nutrition minor	Jane has not searched for a full-time job before and, despite completing an internship, has never had a full-time job. She is hoping to find a job as a college admissions counselor or work in media communication.
Jim • 22 Years • Male • Caucasian • Communication major and marketing minor	Jim has searched for full-time jobs before and has about 2 years of full-time work experience. During college, he has had three internships. He is hoping to get an internship during his last semester of college that will lead to a full-time job when he graduates.
Kim • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and fashion minor	Kim has not searched for a full-time job before but has had six internships throughout college. She is very nervous about job searching but hoping to get a job in marketing.
Lacey • 21 Years • Female • Hispanic • Public health major and Spanish minor	Lacey is a first-generation college graduate in her family. She has not searched for a full-time job before but has done two internships. She is hoping to find a full-time job working for a nonprofit where she can help educate people about public health issues.
Mary • 21 Years • Female • African American • Communication and psychology majors	Mary has not searched for a full-time job before and is worried that her internship experience (one internship) is not enough for her to find a job postgraduation. She is open to accepting a paid, full-time internship position after graduation to gain more experience.
Megan • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and business administration minor	Megan has not searched for a full-time job before and, despite having part-time jobs throughout college, she does not have any full-time or internship work experience. She hopes to work in pharmaceutical sales but first needs to gain general sales experience postgraduation.
Melody • 35 Years • Female • Caucasian • Communication major and psychology minor	Melody is a mom to four children and has over 3 years of full-time work experience, but she has not ever had an internship. Upon graduating, she is moving her family to Oklahoma, where she plans to search for a full-time job.
Rita • 21 Years • Female • Caucasian • Retailing and consumer sciences major	Rita has 3 years of full-time work experience and has had two internships throughout college. She is hoping to work in the advertising industry on graduation.
Tom • 25 Years • Male • African American • Communication and French majors	Tom has searched for full-time jobs before and has over 3 years of full-time work experience, but he has not had any internships. He is hoping to find a job where he can help people and make a difference in the world, particularly by working for a nonprofit organization.
Tyler • 24 Years • Male • Asian/Pacific Islander • Aviation management major and business administration minor	Tyler served in the army and is now a member of the Army Reserve. He has not searched for a full-time job before despite his 3 years of full-time work experience in the army. He is hoping that job searching will help him figure out which industry is best suited to his skills.
Vince • 25 Years • Male • Caucasian • Communication major and anthropology minor	Vince has searched for full-time jobs before and has had four full-time jobs within the past 3 years. During college, he has had two internships. Vince is torn between attending law school and finding a full-time job after graduation.
Wyatt • 21 Years • Male • Caucasian • Communication major and marketing minor	Wyatt has searched for a full-time job before and has 1 year of full-time work experience. He has also had an internship. On graduating, he is hoping to move to a large U.S. city and work in a casual and happy environment.

After securing approval from the university’s institutional review board, potential participants were screened through an online survey to identify and purposively recruit a sample of the typical case. Once participants were identified, structured qualitative interviews and qualitative data analysis were conducted to answer the research questions. Interviews were appropriate for this context because they allowed participants to explore their job-searching process in narrative detail and discuss how their expectations and experiences changed over time. A structured interview guide (see theappendix) was used to ensure that every participant was asked the same questions and had a very similar interview experience to other participants (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). This facilitated comparison and consistency across interviews, which was useful for the data analysis and demonstrating dependability. All interviews were conducted via Skype and lasted no longer than 30 minutes. The interviews were recorded for accuracy and to create verbatim transcripts for data analysis. Throughout the interviewing process and data analysis, many steps were taken to ensure the trustworthiness of the data using the criteria outlined byLincoln and Guba (1985; seeTable 2).

Table 2.

Trustworthiness Criteria.

Trustworthiness criteria^a	Description of criteria^a	Methods to meet criteria^b
Credibility	Truth value in interpretations is established	Member checks of interview transcripts for accuracy
Transferability	Interpretations are able to be transferred to other similar cases	Thick description, purposive sample, and linking findings to previous research and theory
Confirmability	Findings observable to others outside of locale	Detailed data management and recording
Dependability	Consistency between researcher/researched	Audit trail and participant confidentiality protection

Adapted fromLincoln and Guba (1985).^bThis column describes methods used in the study to ensure that the criteria were met.

Analysis Procedures

Data analysis occurred using the following procedures. First, an electronic, transcribed, verbatim copy of each interview was made within 2 weeks of the interview. A verbatim copy of the interviews provided a sufficient level of detail required for analysis, such as preserving exact language, noting pauses, and capturing how things were said (J. Bailey, 2008). The transcripts were then reviewed to increase familiarity with the data (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011), and then open coding of the data began. Open coding occurs when “the researcher examines the text . . . for salient categories of information supported by the text” (Creswell, 2007, p. 160). The unit of analysis for this study was a complete thought within the interview, where a clear beginning, middle, and end could be identified. During open coding, labels were assigned to the data, but the data were not categorized. Categorization began in the second phase, axial coding.

The axial coding phase required an understanding of how communication was operationalized in this study.Burgoon and Jones (1976)defined communication within EVT as messages that are intentional or have the potential to be interpreted as intentional by the receiver. However, in this study, communication was operationalized as both a sender- and receiver-oriented message process. Within EVT and subsequent EVT research (seeAfifi & Burgoon, 2000;Afifi & Metts, 1998), communication was operationalized as the feedback received by job seekers throughout their job search, which includes both positive and negative messages sent to job seekers (Research Question 2). However, within this study, the operationalization of communication was adjusted. In Research Question 1, communication was operationalized as the intentional strategies, tactics, and methods that young job seekers use to obtain information about jobs. Research Question 2 positioned the job seeker as the receiver of messages from potential employers via numerous channels (face-to-face, email, phone, and text). Within Research Question 3, communication was operationalized to position the job seeker as the sender of messages via multiple channels (face-to-face, email, phone) in response to the positive and negative messages they received (Research Question 3).

During the axial coding phase, data were “played with” through grouping, deleting, editing, and merging open codes. This stage helped identify themes present in the data to answer the research questions.Owen’s (1984)guidelines of recurrence, repetition, and forcefulness were also used to help determine themes. Following the recommendations ofStrauss and Corbin (1998), axial coding continued until theoretical saturation occurred and no new themes emerged consistently from the text. Thus, when observable patterns and subthemes did not result in any new categories, the axial coding stage concluded and the final stage of interpretation began. The interpretation phase is when data are transformed to create new meaning (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). EVT was used in this stage to help theoretically interpret the data to further explain patterns.

Findings

Expectancy Formation

The findings for Research Question 1 were gathered during the initial interview when participants were beginning their job search. These findings are important because they demonstrate that expectations are formed with little to no prior experience job searching. The findings presented outline how job-searching expectations are formed among recent college graduates before the process of job searching begins.

Vicarious Learning Through Friends and Family

Eleven participants discussed how their job-searching expectations were formed through the experiences of their friends and family. This included hearing stories about how their recently graduated friends searched for and found jobs, watching how friends and family have searched for jobs, and hearing input from their family, including their siblings. Expectations are formed vicariously through the experiences of friends and family, and are not influenced by people outside of an interpersonal network. Family was integral in forming some participants’ expectations about finding a job and shaping their career expectations. Amy said,

I think a lot of my expectations are based off of my parents and my upbringing, I guess. Just seeing family members and what they go through, and I have an older brother, so watching his development and growth, after graduation, I think I have kind of formed an idea for me that’s ideal and comfortable, and know the right process and steps to take.

Other participants attributed their expectations to both friends and family influences. For example, Jim said, “Talking to people I’m close to that just graduated, and they had the same background as I do, and the stuff they care about, my family. All of that has made my expectations what they are.”

Not all participants mentioned family in their formation of expectations; instead, some relied on learning vicariously through the experiences of their friends. David explained, “Seeing some of my older friends graduate, it was kind of like a reality check for them and for me. It made me realize that I have a lot to prepare for because those guys weren’t prepared.” More specifically, some participants formed expectations about which communication strategies to use for job searching based on what has worked for their friends. One participant said,

I think I base my expectations off of people I know that have gotten jobs or internships, and kind of how they looked and what they went through and were looking at, so just kind of not my own experience, but others’ experience.

It is evident that the role of friends and family was central in forming job-searching expectations for recent college graduates in this study. Hearing about and watching close friends and family members apply for, accept, and change jobs created a vicarious learning environment for expectations to be formed.

Direct Internship and Classroom Experiences

In addition to forming expectations based on the experiences of others, seven participants mentioned how direct internship and classroom experiences have shaped and influenced their job-searching expectations. In essence, this theme is based around using previous professional experiences to form expectations about future careers. For example, some college majors are more applied than others and require students to have internships and participate in “real-world” experiences in the classroom. Experiences like these have helped shape career-related expectations for college students preparing to graduate. Rita said, “My major instilled a lot of my expectations. It’s very pressing about getting a job, because it’s retail, so you can have a retail job while being in school and work your way up, so that’s molded my expectations.” Some participants have had negative direct internship and classroom experiences, which have created more negative career expectations for the future, because people have considered their previous experience to be the norm. Caty explained, “It was really hard for me to find an internship, and when I found one, I hated it. Makes me nervous to job search.” Conversely, some participants have had positive work and classroom experiences, which have shaped more positive expectations about job searching and entering the full-time workforce. Vince said,

I think my experience in getting dressed and going out and asking for the hiring manager, shaking their hand, introducing yourself, look ’em in the eye, I feel that stuff has definitely, that’s an edge I have for job searching.

Direct internship and classroom experience played a role in how some recent college graduates formed their job-searching expectations, in both positive and negative directions.

Expectations Formed Through Mass Media and Observation

Six participants discussed how the mass media have influenced their expectations. Observation refers to seeing and watching the job search and other career-related elements portrayed by media outlets such as social media, TV, and movies. Mass media have formed expectations in ways such as hearing reports about the job market, Millennials, and the values and burdens of a college education. Adam explained,

I think social media, the news, there’s just so much, I mean every day it’s how bad the economy is, how bad everything is. It’s just story after story of people who can’t get a job. Nobody wants anyone with no experience, but it’s like, how do you get the experience?

Andie echoed how mass media influences her expectations through her love of reading. She said, “I’ve formed my expectations through reading a bunch ofHuffington Postarticles (laughter). I like to read a lot, so I’d say it was that.” Finally, Courtney explained how she has used the mass media for observation of the job-searching process. She stated, “Even in the media and movies and stuff you see people applying for jobs, so I would say that has formed my expectations.” Although observation of mass media was not the most widely discussed way of forming expectations, the examples above illustrate how the media influenced the job-searching expectations of recent college graduates.

Expectancy Violations and Responses

Data pertaining to Research Questions 2 and 3 were gathered during the follow-up interviews, 3 months after the first interview, with the same 20 participants. At the time of the follow-up interviews, seven participants had secured full-time, postgraduate employment, while the remaining 13 participants were unemployed, with some participants continuing their job searching and some participants considering other options, such as graduate school.

Job-Searching Expectancy Violations

The goal of Research Question 2 was to understand the communicative violations that happened to recent college graduate job seekers throughout their job search. EVT was central to interpreting and analyzing the job-searching violations participants reported. Specifically for Research Question 2, the interpretation and evaluation phases of EVT guided the analysis of participants’ experiences. This culminated in six total themes, three of which report positive violations and three that describe negative violations that occurred throughout the job search process for these college graduates. The positive expectancy violations will be presented first, followed by the remaining three negative expectancy violation themes.

Positive feedback from potential employers

Within the second interview, participants were asked to describe some experiences of job searching that were better than they expected. The responses participants provided helped determine what unexpected experiences participants evaluated as positive. Positive feedback from potential employers is categorized as a positive expectancy violation because participants reported being “pleasantly surprised” and “happy” to receive this type of feedback from potential employers, who are seen as highly rewarding individuals within this context, consistent with EVT. Some participants considered receiving an email containing information acknowledging the submission of an application and a hiring timeline to be positive feedback. Tom explained,

It’s really nice when I apply to a job and, after I apply, they send me an email letting me know my application’s been received and will be reviewed in however much time, like the next month or something. Some places send those emails, and I didn’t expect that. I really like it.

For others, positive feedback from potential employers included complimenting the job seeker’s skills or personality, even when attached to bad news, such as the position no longer being available or the candidate not being selected. One participant who expected to be rejected from a lot of jobs due to a lack of experience and being a young candidate said, “It’s definitely positive when I interview, a lot of people say they like my personality, which is good to hear. It’s good to be a person they wanna be around.” Participants who received this type of feedback noted how this made them feel good, and they appreciated the extra time a potential employer took to extend a few kind words.

Potential employers provided information about other available opportunities

Some participants applied for jobs even though they were not ideal candidates. While most of these job seekers expected to receive frequent rejections throughout their job search, they did not expect to receive information about other opportunities from potential employers. Some participants were turned down for the jobs they initially applied for, but following the rejection, potential employers reached out to the applicants to tell them about other opportunities within the organization for which they were more qualified. Participants considered this a positive expectancy violation because it was unexpected, in a good way, and encouraged a positive response from the job seeker. Mary said,

A rejection letter said “you didn’t fit, but we have this position that we think you should apply for.” So that was nice. It wasn’t just like a “no,” but it was you might be better suited for this position.

Help from interpersonal connections

Although several participants (n= 15) planned on using interpersonal contacts to help them find a job, many of them (n= 5) were surprised by how much their interpersonal connections helped them find available job opportunities. For example, Caty explained,

It’s pretty great. Our family friends own the company, so honestly that’s how I got the job, and it’s really nice because my boss, I know her. They’re good family friends, and she’s all about making sure everything’s ok for me. It definitely happened fast, I mean, I started in mid-September, so that was like really unexpected, because I didn’t even think I would get a job, and definitely not that fast! It was really easy, actually.

Help from interpersonal connections was not only a positive violation for participants who secured employment but also for participants who were still job searching. Three participants mentioned how much more their interpersonal networks were helping them than they initially expected. This included recommending participants for positions, passing along contact information to both potential employers and job seekers, and putting a résumé in the right hands. Amy explained, “My job search has gotten a lot better because I’ve talked to a lot of family members and it was like really successful. I got a lot of references, which is really nice.” Rita also mentioned how her interpersonal connections have helped her more than she originally anticipated, demonstrating how her expectations regarding networking changed throughout her job search. She said,

Job searching is a lot more of a referral process, I’m realizing. Like people will give me someone’s number and I’ll go through them. It just kinda goes like that, so I’m glad I have people who can help me!

Lack of feedback/follow-through from potential employers

Participants were also asked to discuss job-searching experiences that were worse than they originally expected. The majority of participants (n= 16) noted how shocked they were by a lack of feedback or follow-through from potential employers. Participants used adjectives such as “frustrating,” “stressed,” and “annoying” to describe not hearing back from potential employers, illustrating the negative valence assigned to these expectancy violations. Several participants discussed the problem of not hearing any information from a potential employer after applying for a job, including a receipt of an application submission, or a notification that they have not been selected for a job. David explained,

I expected not to hear much from employers, but I mean an email or something would be nice. It’s really frustrating not knowing what’s going on, like have they even looked at my résumé yet? Have they moved on? I’d just like to know where I am in the process, even if it’s bad news, because not hearing anything sucks.

Other participants were unpleasantly surprised that potential employers did not follow through on promises they made, such as calling someone at a certain time or following up with more information. In some instances, potential employers asked for a reply email to a fake email account, causing the email to bounce back to the sender, or provided a dead phone number for job seekers to call. Although Evan expected job searching to be hard, he did not expect to be misled throughout the experience. He said,

For one company, I drove to Phoenix to interview, and they did not follow up. I didn’t end up getting the job, but they were supposed to reimburse me for my mileage, and then never followed up. I mean, they followed up to tell me I didn’t get the job, but then failed to reimburse me like they promised. I was a little bitter that didn’t happen.

False information from potential employers and organizations

A handful of participants (n= 6) also discussed their frustration and disappointment because some potential employers and organizations provided them with false information. Participants described these experiences when discussing what was worse than expected and used language such as “disappointing,” “rude,” and “frustrating” to describe these experiences, demonstrating the negative valence job seekers assigned to them. Some violations experienced were misleading job postings, false job descriptions, postings for jobs that had already been filled, and inaccurate location or salary information. Other participants received false information from potential employers regarding the interview process and timeline for hiring and starting the job. For example, one participant was hired to start work in mid-January, but after accepting the job, the employer changed the start date to mid-March without an explanation, contrary to the original information. She said, “My start date was supposed to be in January, and now it’s March, but I still don’t know when in March. So that’s frustrating since I don’t know and it seems like they don’t know either.” Finally, some participants felt that organizations misrepresented themselves during the recruiting and hiring process, which was not originally expected at the beginning of the job-searching process. For example, Evan was hired by a restaurant group as a manager, but later learned he would be a manager for anewrestaurant group, not the one for which he interviewed. These participants expressed negative emotions such as anger and frustration related to these experiences and, therefore, evaluated the situations and employers negatively.

Time commitment of job searching

Overwhelmingly, participants (n= 17) said that searching for and applying to jobs was far more time-consuming than they had initially expected. Participants expressed feelings of discouragement, stress, and confusion over the time required to find a job, indicating their negative interpretations and evaluations of the job-searching process. One participant said, “It’s really a lot harder and more time-consuming than I thought it would be. It’s stressful. I feel like I’m never going to get a job!” Participants spent more time job searching than initially anticipated, with over half of the participants spending as many as 15 hours per week job searching, compared with the initial expectation of between 2 and 9 hours per week. Together, these findings indicate that searching for and applying to jobs was more time-consuming than job seekers anticipated.

Communicative Responses to Expectancy Violations

The findings of Research Question 2 demonstrate that recent college graduates experience both positive and negative expectancy violations throughout their job search. Research Question 3 was asked to determine how recent college graduates communicatively respond to expectancy violations throughout their job-searching process. EVT argues that there are two communicative responses to violations: compensating and reciprocal responses (Floyd & Voloudakis, 1999). Compensating responses move in the opposite direction of the violator’s behavior, while reciprocal responses mirror the behavior of the violator or help maintain the status quo. In this study, those who experienced positive violations only responded reciprocally. However, participants responded to negative violations with both compensating and reciprocal strategies (seeFigure 1).

Figure 1.

Expectancy violations theory within the context of job searching.

Compensating responses

Within this study, negative expectancy violations elicited only compensating communication strategies from participants in an effort to overcome the violation. Two main compensating responses emerged: an increase in their job-searching efforts and the addition of one or more job-searching strategies. When job-searching expectations were negatively violated, some participants (n= 9) increased the amount of time they spent job searching. They described this as a “natural” response that “made sense” since they were not hearing from potential employers. Jim said, “I mean, obviously I don’t have a job yet, so I’m spending more time searching for jobs and talking to people. I don’t think I spent enough time before, so hopefully being more dedicated will work out.”

Some of these same participants (n= 6) also employed additional job-searching strategies following negative expectancy violations. For example, several participants who primarily searched for jobs online started networking as an additional job-searching strategy. Jane explained,

I started networking to find a job. I might want to start my own business one day, so I’ve been talking to a lot of, like, local business owners around town and seeing if they can help me at all.

Kim said, “My network hasn’t really found me anything, at least not yet, so I’m looking online for jobs now too, just on big sites.” In sum, the objective of adding new job-searching strategies was not only to get a job but also to increase the amount of feedback received from potential employers.

Reciprocal responses

Both positive and negative expectancy violations elicited reciprocal responses in this study. When job seekers’ violations were positively violated, they either ended their search by accepting a job or decreased the amount of time they spent job searching. This decrease in the amount of time spent searching happened because receiving positive feedback made job seekers believe that what they were doing was working, and they wanted time to follow through with their job leads rather than chase down other opportunities that may not work out. Vince said,

I’m in the final rounds of interviews at two places, so I’m not searching anymore. I think, between them, I’ll get one, if not both jobs, so I don’t want to look for more jobs until I know for sure.

Some participants also responded to negative expectancy violations with a decrease in the amount of time spent searching. The decision was described as “sad” and “frustrating.” This represents a reciprocal response because participants were responding to a lack of feedback with decreased communication. Participants interpreted the lack of feedback from potential employers as rejection, and rather than push forward with their job search, some chose to pull back on their search efforts to reevaluate their strategies, expectations, and future goals. Emily explained,

It’s kinda overwhelming. I definitely started withdrawing because I was content with what I had applied to, but I’m not hearing back or, I guess, not hearing what I want back, so I just stopped applying for the time being to really get everything else together and figure it all out.

A few other participants said they were putting their search efforts on hold to consider other options, such as graduate school or moving to a new location, and would resume their job search once they finalized the time frames for those plans.

Discussion

The findings from this study illustrate how recent college graduates form their job-searching expectations and use communication to respond to violated expectations during their job search, as explained through the mechanisms of EVT. The research question findings build on each other to help understand the progression of how expectations are formed, the violations that occur throughout the job search, and how recent college graduates alter their communication following a violation. Each research question makes a unique contribution as this study extends EVT into the organizational and job-searching context. First, this research indicates that anticipatory socialization might happen earlier than presumed, when the job seekers are forming their expectations. Second, the findings highlight that expectations and responses to violations change over time, in contrast to what EVT has posited. Finally, this study demonstrates the behavioral adaptations following expectancy violations in a noninterpersonal context and with asynchronous communication channels.

The sources of expectations identified within this study (interpersonal contacts, direct experience, and mass media observations) suggest implications for a shift in thinking about the formation of organizational and job-searching expectations. This is especially important for understanding and expanding anticipatory socialization research, which has argued that expectations are formed throughout the career recruitment process (Dubinsky, Howell, Ingram, & Bellenger, 1986;Major, Kozlowski, Chao, & Gardner, 1995). Since recent college graduates are mostly first-time job seekers, they have not had the opportunity to form career-related expectations through a formal recruitment process. Instead, recent college graduates rely on their previous experiences and interpersonal contacts to form their expectations about job searching and their future careers. These sources of expectation formation likely provide young job seekers with unique career-related expectations compared with others in the workforce. However, the formation of expectations through sources other than recruitment is present among all job seekers during the early stages of their job search, before recruitment with an organization begins. Thus, job seekers, especially recent college graduates, rely on interpersonal relationships, previous experience, and the media to form general career expectations, which simultaneously begins the anticipatory socialization process even though formal recruitment with an organization has not begun. Anticipatory socialization continues once formal recruitment of a candidate has started, and this helps the job seeker form expectations specific to an organization. Therefore, anticipatory socialization research should consider the cumulative impact of the job-searching and employment process on the formation of expectations, especially as it concerns recent college graduates.

Within the context of job searching, every participant experienced both positive and negative expectancy violations, and their evaluations of those experiences can be explained through EVT. EVT has posited that when potential employers provide positively valued messages, job seekers evaluate the interaction as rewarding, and when a potential employer provides negatively valued messages, job seekers evaluate the interaction as punishing (Burgoon, 1978). In contrast to EVT, in this study, positive information was evaluated as rewarding and bad news was sometimes evaluated positively. Participants considered information that provided no affirming information, such as the receipt of an application, to be positive feedback, because that information made them feel secure and relieved. Additionally, participants noted how their expectations were positively violated when receiving bad news, like not getting a job, followed by information relating to other available opportunities. Participants evaluated these experiences positively because they expected to receive no news regarding their applications; thus, they evaluated this information as rewarding even when it contained bad news. The most likely explanation for this finding is that even bad news from a highly rewarding source during the job search helps reduce uncertainty. The findings of this study parallel those ofAfifi and Metts (1998), which demonstrated that in interpersonal relationships, people prefer information that reduces uncertainty, even if it confirms negative traits about their partner. Similarly in this study, negative information was preferred over no information at all, because it reduced uncertainty. These findings suggest that job seekers do not consider “no news to be good news,” as is often suggested, but prefer to receive bad news, or confirming news, than no news at all.

While EVT research has indicated that most negative violations increase uncertainty (Afifi & Burgoon, 2000), the only negative violation experienced by participants in this study that produced increased uncertainty was the lack of feedback/follow-through from potential employers, because job seekers did not know if they were still being considered for the job. However, the other two themes illustrate that negative violations do not always produce uncertainty, in contrast to what some EVT research has demonstrated (Afifi & Burgoon, 2000). Instead, the negative violations that participants experienced provide insight into how any communication—in the forms of feedback, encouragement, and advice, for example—can buffer the disappointment and help job seekers manage their expectations throughout their job search. All job seekers who had their expectations negatively violated discussed how communication from potential employers would help ease their frustration and reduce their uncertainty. Additionally, the frustration job seekers feel following negative expectancy violations may be buffered by supportive, emotional communication from interpersonal sources (Holmstrom, Russell, & Clare, 2013).

The findings also demonstrated how recent college graduates change their communication strategies over a 3-month period as a result of expectancy violations (seeFigure 1). Interpreting the findings through EVT’s compensation and reciprocation mechanisms shows how participants adjusted their communication and job-searching behavior after a violation occurred. Whether a negative or positive expectancy violation occurred, all participants changed the amount of time they spent job searching. When job-searching expectations were positively violated—for example, by receiving interview requests sooner than anticipated—participants reduced the amount of time they spent job searching. This demonstrates a reciprocal response toward the interested employer(s), because the job seeker adjusted his or her attention to the opportunity at hand and responded positively to the interest from the potential employer. Thus, this finding is supported by EVT’s assertion that communicators will reciprocate attempts to increase involvement (Floyd & Voloudakis, 1999), even in a noninterpersonal context.

When job-searching expectations were negatively violated, the communicative responses were mixed and included both compensatory and reciprocal adaptations. This is an interesting finding within the lens of EVT, because it demonstrates that people do not always respond to negative violations with compensatory behavior, even with highly rewarding communicators (potential employers). For example, some participants increased the amount of time they spent job searching when they were not receiving any interest or interview requests, while others withdrew from the job search and reevaluated their plans.

Within the context of job searching, EVT is helpful in understanding how expectancy violations are interpreted and evaluated, and how people communicatively respond to violated expectations. Although EVT can help understand the communicative progression of first-time job seekers, the theory does not provide a truly comprehensive understanding of the changes that occur throughout communicative encounters (i.e., the job search) and does not account for changing expectations based on the cumulative effect of communication experiences. The findings of this study begin to fill that gap and demonstrate the potential importance of expectations and expectancy management over time, across cumulative interactions in the job-searching context.

Implications

The findings from this study present many implications for teaching undergraduate students about the labor market, job searching, and their future careers. Students often learn about job searching directly and indirectly in multiple courses throughout their collegiate career, and not specifically within business communication. Thus, instructors should make an effort to provide opportunities for students to gather more information, like directing them to the career center on campus, for example. This will help centralize the amount of information that students receive about job searching and their careers, which could help establish more realistic job-searching expectations and strategies. However, this type of information within business communication courses should supplement, rather than replace, important information such as interpersonal skills, soft skills, teamwork, and social media (Clokie & Fourie, 2016;Moshiri & Cardon, 2014).

Another implication from these findings demonstrates that students learn through multiple channels, including internships, classroom experience, and their social networks. Institutions and departments should encourage, if not require, each student to complete an internship prior to graduation. Internship experience can help students with anticipatory socialization and give them a test run of job searching. Internship experience may help reduce the work expectation-reality gap that so many college graduates experience (Barnett, 2012). Moreover, instructors should utilize guest speakers or immersion-style-learning techniques as much as possible. For example, rather than an instructor presenting a case study to the class, the instructor should bring in a professional to discuss a case study from a real organization. Students learn from hearing the stories of others, so guest speakers can be valuable tools to help students understand how to search for, secure, and find success in their postgraduate careers. Providing job-searching and career resources to students, utilizing guest speakers, and encouraging internship experience can help undergraduates have more knowledge of the current labor market, which has the potential to positively influence their job search.

Limitations

This study has two main limitations. The first limitation is the transferability, which refers to the applicability of the findings to other contexts (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Transferability was optimized in this study by providing a thick description in the transcription and data-analysis procedures. However, the case-to-case transferability is limited to other similar groups, namely college-educated, recent graduates, of similar socioeconomic backgrounds. The findings of this study would likely not transfer to a more experienced cohort, or a mixed-age sample that includes recent college graduates, full-time workers in their 30s, and middle-aged people. Transferability may be difficult with a more diverse sample because the participants could use their previous job-searching experiences to better inform their job-searching expectations related to the amount of time it will take them to secure a job and the strategies they use to job search and apply for opportunities. Additionally, the sample included only first-time, full-time, graduate job seekers, and their expectations, interpretations, and evaluations of violations may not be transferable to job seekers who have more experience with the labor market because this is their first time looking for postgraduate employment.

The second limitation was the lack of focus on met expectations. Although the goal of this study was to understand the expectations and expectancy violations that occur to recent college graduates during their job search, this study did not explore the role that met expectations play in a job search. While every participant experienced expectancy violations, more attention and discussion could have centered on met expectations throughout the follow-up interviews. This is a limitation because it is unclear whether job seekers’ communication strategies or responses change when expectations are being met. Likely, the communication strategies of job seekers would not change under the circumstances of met expectations, because met expectations maintain the status quo and, therefore, do not produce arousing situations. However, understanding met expectations could provide an avenue for further interpreting the reciprocal and compensatory communication responses of EVT and management of expectations over time.

Conclusion

This study was guided theoretically by EVT to help understand how recent college graduates evaluate and respond to expectancy violations throughout the job search. One important finding was that bad news, when coming from a highly rewarding source such as a potential employer, can be evaluated positively because it helps reduce uncertainty. The compensating and reciprocating responses enacted by young job seekers in response to potential employers’ communication, or lack thereof, were also noteworthy. These findings highlight that EVT alone cannot explain all of the communication responses participants use throughout their job search.

Footnotes

Appendix

Author’s Note

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of The University of Arizona. Participant comments are reproduced by permission. Pseudonyms were used to ensure the confidentiality of each participant.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biography

Stephanie A. Smithis an assistant professor of public relations in the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech. She studies millennial communication and job-searching strategies for postcollege graduates.

References

Afifi

W. A.

Burgoon

J. K.

(2000).The impact of violations on uncertainty and the consequences for attractiveness.Human Communication Research,26,203-233.

Afifi

W. A.

Metts

(1998).Characteristics and consequences of expectation violations in close relationships.Journal of Social and Personal Relationships,15,365-392.

Aune

R. K.

Ching

P. U.

Levine

T. R.

(1996).Attributions of deception as a function of reward value: A test of two explanations.Communication Quarterly,44,478-486.

Bailey

A. A.

Bonifield

C. M.

(2010).Broken (promotional) promises: The impact of firm reputation and blame.Journal of Marketing Communications,16,287-306.

Bailey

(2008).First steps in qualitative data analysis: Transcribing.Family Practice,25,127-131.

Barnett

(2012).Student interns’ socially constructed work realities: Narrowing the work expectation-reality gap.Business Communication Quarterly,75,271-290.

Brack

Kelly

(2012).Maximizing Millennials in the workplace. Retrieved fromhttps://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/executive-development/custom-programs/~/media/DF1C11C056874DDA8097271A1ED48662.ashx sa=U ved=0ahUKEwjtrqy_3tvTAhUW24MKHSXABxkQFggEMAA client=internal-uds-cse usg=AFQjCNGEj55o7deLxrUu9YY2GBpdKgbUDA

Burgoon

J. K.

(1978).A communication model of personal space violations: Explication and initial test.Human Communication Research,4,129-142.

Burgoon

J. K.

(1993).Interpersonal expectations, expectancy violations, and emotional communication.Journal of Language and Social Psychology,12,30-48.

10.

Burgoon

J. K.

Hale

J. L.

(1988).Nonverbal expectancy violations: Model elaboration and application to immediacy behaviors.Communication Monographs,55,58-79.

11.

Burgoon

J. K.

Jones

S. B.

(1976).Toward a theory of personal space expectations and their violations.Human Communication Research,2,131-146.

12.

Burgoon

J. K.

Le Poire

B. A.

Rosenthal

(1995).Effects of preinteraction expectancies and target communication on perceiver reciprocity and compensation in dyadic interaction.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,31,287-321.

13.

Carvajal

M. J.

Bendana

Bozorgmanesh

Castillo

M. A.

Pourmasiha

Rao

Torres

J. A.

(2000).Inter-gender differentials between college students’ earnings expectations and the experience of recent graduates.Economics of Education Review,19,229-243.

14.

Clokie

T. L.

Fourie

(2016).Graduate employability and communication competence: Are undergraduates taught relevant skills? Business and Professional Communication Quarterly,79,442-463.

15.

Coffey

A. J.

Atkinson

P. A.

(1996).Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary research strategies.Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

16.

Creswell

J. W.

(2007).Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches(2nd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

17.

Deloitte. (2016).The 2016 Deloitte Millennial survey: Winning over the next generation of leaders. Retrieved fromhttps://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-millenial-survey-2016-exec-summary.pdf

18.

Dubinsky

A. J.

Howell

R. D.

Ingram

T. N.

Bellenger

D. N.

(1986).Salesforce socialization.Journal of Marketing,50,192-207.

19.

Floyd

Voloudakis

(1999).Affectionate behavior in adult platonic friendships: Interpreting and evaluating expectancy violations.Human Communication Research,25,341-369.

20.

Gardner

P. D.

Lambert

S. E.

(1993).It’s a hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard world.Journal of Career Planning & Employment,53,40-49.

21.

Hale

J. L.

Burgoon

J. K.

(1984).Models of reactions to changes in nonverbal immediacy.Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,8,287-314.

22.

Holmstrom

A. J.

Russell

J. C.

Clare

D. D.

(2013).Esteem support messages received during the job search: A test of the CETESM.Communication Monographs,80,220-242.

23.

Kalman

Y. M.

Rafaeli

(2011).Online pauses and silence: Chronemic expectancy violations in written computer-mediated communication.Communication Research,38,54-69.

24.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Guba

E. G.

(1985).Naturalistic inquiry.Beverly Hills, CA:Sage.

25.

Lindlof

T. R.

Taylor

B. C.

(2011).Qualitative communication research methods(3rd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

26.

Major

D. A.

Kozlowski

S. W. J.

Chao

G. T.

Gardner

P. D.

(1995).A longitudinal investigation of newcomer expectations, early socialization outcomes, and the moderating effects of role development factors.Journal of Applied Psychology,80,418-431.

27.

Moshiri

Cardon

(2014).The state of business communication classes: A national survey.Business and Professional Communication Quarterly,77,312-329.

28.

E. S. W.

Schweitzer

Lyons

S. T.

(2010).New generation, great expectations: A field study of the Millennial generation.Journal of Business and Psychology,25,281-292.

29.

Owen

W. F.

(1984).Interpretive themes in relational communication.Quarterly Journal of Speech,70,274-287.

30.

Patton

(1990).Qualitative evaluation and research methods(2nd ed.).Newbury Park, CA:Sage.

31.

Perrone

Vickers

M. H.

(2003).Life after graduation as a “very uncomfortable world”: An Australian case study.Education + Training,45,69-78.

32.

Pew Research Center. (2014,March 7).Millennials in adulthood: Detached from institutions, networked with friends. Retrieved fromhttp://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/

33.

Rynes

S. L.

Lawler

(1983).A policy-capturing investigation of the role of expectancies in decisions to pursue job alternatives.Journal of Applied Psychology,68,620-631.

34.

Strauss

A. L.

Corbin

J. M.

(1998).Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory(2nd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

35.

Vansteenkiste

Lens

De Witte

Feather

N. T.

(2005).Understanding unemployed people’s job search behaviour, unemployment experience and well-being: A comparison of expectancy-value theory and self-determination theory.British Journal of Social Psychology,44,269-287.

36.

Wendlandt

N. M.

Rochlen

A. B.

(2008).Addressing the college-to-work transition: Implications for university career counselors.Journal of Career Development,35,151-165.

37.

White

C. H.

(2008).Expectancy violations theory and interaction adaptation theory: From expectations to adaptation. In Baxter

L. A.

Braithwaite

D. O.

(Eds.),Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives(pp.189-202).Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

38.

Yen

C.-L.

Cooper

C. A.

Murrmann

S. K.

(2013).Exploring culinary graduates’ career decisions and expectations.Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism,12,109-125.