High-skilled newcomers’ identity: learners or experts?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the negotiation of learner and worker identities in a group of high-skilled newcomers who participate in an introductory and mentoring programme. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the interdependence of learning, work and identity and a constructivist approach to identity as a point of departure. The design is qualitative with semi-structured interviews as the main source of data. Findings – For the learning potential in introductory programmes to be fulfilled, all parties involved must recognise a need for learning. This is especially important in organisations that are knowledge intensive and that demand highly skilled and competent workers, as negotiations of learner identity might be more demanding for this group of employees. Research limitations/implications – The current paper is situated in a specific organisational and national context, and only pays attention to some of the negotiations between expert and learner identities that are relevant if induction programmes and initiatives should be experienced as positive. Connections between identity work, learning and job performance for this group of workers should consequently be empirically investigated by a variety of methods and within several organisational and national contexts. Practical implications – The paper shows that it is vital for organisers and leaders to be sensitive to the significance that the identity work has for learning, when they plan, execute and evaluate induction programmes and initiatives for high-skilled and competent workers. Originality/value – The facilitation of job transitions and induction for high-skilled and experienced workers is underresearched, and the paper shows how identity and learning is closely connected for this group of employees.

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