It takes work: How micro-processes of socialisation construct newcomers’ dentification in teams

Abstract

As all organisations must face the socialisations of their newcomers, increasingly they too must ensure that individuals come to identify with the working group they belong to. By a longitudinal ethnography over a two-and-a- half-year stretch in two knowledge-intensive organisations, I explore how newcomers’ identification process are implicated in processes of socialisation in two self-managing teams. The study demonstrates how the distance between newcomers and experienced team members make newcomers engage in ‘identification work’; participatory behaviours that make them more like their fellow experienced team members and fosters identification with their team. Existing team members correspondingly engage in ‘socialisation work’, behaviours that either hinder or foster the socialisation process of newcomers. Reflecting the norms and values in the teams, the team also determines acceptance mechanisms, by which newcomers become considered as full team members. Together, these relational micro-processes of socialisation construct how newcomers’ come to identify with their team. This research adds to and holds implications for the existing literatures on identification and socialisation by showing that they are inextricably intertwined in demonstrating the practices team members collectively engage in when constructing newcomers’ identification in teams.