Anticipatory Socialization and the Construction of the Employable Graduate: A Critical Analysis of Employers’ Graduate Careers Websites

an article by Karen Handley (Oxford Brookes University, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 32 Issue 2 (April 2018)

Abstract

A discourse of employability saturates the higher education sector in the UK. Government and employers call on universities to produce employable graduates who are attractive to the labour market and can sustain their future marketability by taking responsibility for protean self-development.

While the neoliberal assumptions behind this call have attracted robust critique, the extent to which employers shape graduating students’ subjectivities and sense of worth as (potentially employable) workers has escaped scrutiny. Inspired by Foucauldian analyses of human resource management (HRM) practices, this article examines employers’ graduate careers websites and explores the discursive construction of the ‘employable graduate’.

The article contends that these websites function as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization through which HRM practices extend managerial control into the transitional space of pre-recruitment, with the aim of engaging students’ consent to particular norms of employability.

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Casting for a sovereign role: Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum

an article by Ryan K. Beasley (University of St Andrews, UK) and Juliet Kaarbo (University of Edinburgh, UK) published in European Journal of International Relations Volume 24 Issue 1 (March 2018)

Abstract

This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty.

This nexus has three components:

• sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor;
• the sovereign role is entangled with the substantive foreign policy roles the actor might play; and
• the sovereign role implicates the substantive foreign policy roles of other actors.

The Scottish debate on independence provides an effective laboratory to develop and explore these theoretical dimensions of pre-socialisation, revealing the contested value and meaning of sovereignty, the possible roles that an independent Scotland could play, and the projected implications for the role of the UK and other international actors.

Our analysis of the Scottish case can provide insights for other cases of pre-socialisation and is more empirically significant following the UK’s 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.

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Dreams meeting reality? A gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences in early adolescence and actual occupation in adulthood

an article by Susanne Alm (Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, Sweden) published in Journal of Youth Studies Volume 18 Issue 8 (2015)

Abstract

On the basis of longitudinal data from Sweden (n = 15,211), the article offers a gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences during early adolescence and actual occupations in adulthood. Theoretically the study is based on socialisation theory and devaluation theory.

The analyses show that preferences for one’s future occupation were stronger among those who came to make gender-typical choices, than among those who chose a gender-atypical occupation. However, a gender difference was also found in that girls who came to choose a male dominated occupation showed a stronger preference for their future occupation in adolescence, than boys who came to choose a female dominated occupation.

Results also showed that at a general level, the occupations in adulthood were even more gender segregated than the preferences in adolescence. This was particularly true for girls, who in adolescence expressed a stronger preference to work in a male dominated occupations, than they would later actually do.

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What do families of the 'professional and managerial' class educate their children for? The links between happiness and autonomy

an article by Jordi Collet-Sabé and Antoni Tort (University of Vic (Barcelona), Spain) published in British Journal of Sociology of Education Volume 36 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Based on a qualitative study involving 124 professional and managerial class families in Catalonia (Spain), this paper describes the aims and objectives these families have for the education of their children.

During the fieldwork, when asked what they were aiming for in the education of their children, almost all of the parents replied ‘for them to be happy’. But what kind of happiness are they talking about? What kind of education might lead to happiness?

Drawing principally on the work of Kellerhals and Montandon and their ‘contractual model of education’ and Bauman’s concepts of ‘secondary security’ and ‘homo eligens’, although also taking into account the related contributions of Lareau, Vincent and Ball, Stefansen and Aarseth, and Kusserow, the paper aims to demonstrate the strong connection these families make between happiness and ‘absolute’ autonomy, understood as two sides of the same coin and seen, by the participants, as the guiding principle that should shape the way they bring their children up.

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The Psychic Cost of Doing Wrong: Ethical Conflict, Divestiture Socialization, and Emotional Exhaustion

an article by John D. Kammeyer-Mueller and Lauren S. Simon (University of Florida) and Bruce L. Rich (California State University, San Marcos) published in Journal of Management Volume 30 Number 3 (May 2012)

Abstract

Many employees feel ethically conflicted at work, but research has yet to identify the specific mechanisms that give rise to this sense of ethical conflict.

The authors propose that ethical conflicts occur when companies encourage employees to behave counter to their own sense of right and wrong during the process of organizational socialization. Employees who are subject to these pressures experience psychological distress.

The authors’ study of 371 early career lawyers found that divestiture socialization was positively related to ethical conflict and that ethical conflict was related to higher emotional exhaustion and lower career fulfilment. Ethical conflict partially mediated the relationship between divestiture socialization and emotional exhaustion.

Narrative comments provided by respondents reinforced the relationship between divestiture socialization and ethical conflict.

Hazel’s comment:
I wasn't sure about the phrase “divestiture socialization” and found this article by Van Maanen, J. and E. H. Schein from 1979 helpful. I hope you do to (or maybe you didn’t need it!)

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