Organizational socialization as kin-work: a psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job

Gilmore, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3556-2532 and Harding, Nancy 2022. Organizational socialization as kin-work: a psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job. Human Relations 75 (3) , pp. 583-605. 10.1177/0018726720964255

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Abstract

Socialization, the transition from newcomer to embedded organizational citizen, is an inevitable feature of organizational life. It is often a painful and traumatic experience, but why this is so, and how its difficulties can be ameliorated, is not well understood. This article addresses this issue by developing a new person-centred model of socialization. We introduce the concept of kin-work, i.e. the replication of one’s first experiences of becoming part of a family, to explain how ‘successful’ socialization is achieved. Drawing on the methodology of memory work and psychoanalytical theories of object relations, we illustrate how entry into new jobs involves the unconscious re-enactment in adult life of the infant’s initiation into the family. On entry as a stranger to a new organization, one’s sense of self is fractured; processes of kin-work knit the pieces back together and one develops a sense of personhood and being at home. However, there is a sting in this tale: the homely contains its uncanny, unhomely opposite, so socialization is always ambivalent – one can never be at home in this place that feels like home.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0018-7267
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 January 2021
Last Modified:	04 Dec 2024 18:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137400

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