Professor Helena Cooper-Thomas

I became interested in how new employees adjust through my own experiences of being new. I am originally from the UK and, having completed my Bachelors in Psychology at Durham University, I went to the University of Saskatchewan for my Masters in Applied Social Psychology (focusing on people’s behaviour at work). While I appreciated that the Canadian prairies would be quite a different experience, I hadn’t realised how much it would make me feel I was different. I didn’t dress the same as locals, I didn’t speak the same as locals, and I felt like I always stuck out! So that got me interested in how people transition into organisations when they are new, a process called organisational socialisation. I was interested in questions such as: what do organisation actually do to socialize new employees, perhaps using current insiders, and what works well versus poorly? And what do new employees themselves do that is more or less helpful to their adjustment?

I’ve looked into these and other questions relating to organisational socialisation for quite a few decades now. In the main, transitions go more smoothly when new employees are proactive in seeking to understand and fit into their new environment, when insiders provide advice and support, and when organisations provide a more structured experience. That all sounds sensible, but the reality often fails to meet this, and in my recent research I’ve increasingly looked at less than ideal organisational socialisation processes. For example, new employees have expectations (possibly exacerbated by overselling at recruitment) that mismatch reality; insiders are less collegial than anticipated, perhaps seeing newcomers as a drain on their time or even a source of competition; and organisations tend to plan best for big cohorts of new employees but provide less support when experienced and senior or elite new employees join in a more random manner.

In my talk I will be discussing a project on elite newcomers – specifically new Members of Parliament (MPs) entering New Zealand’s House of Representatives. I have conducted the research with Jo Silvester (Loughborough University) and James Greenslade-Yeats (Auckland University of Technology – AUT). Very little organisational socialisation has focused on elite newcomers, yet they are critical decision makers in organisations and society. We interviewed new MPs and also collected archival data (e.g., Parliamentary records, media articles) to understand their experiences. We found these elite newcomers faced a hostile socialization environment which rendered them reputationally vulnerable. In turn, they used a range of strategies to maintain and improve their position. We argue these elite newcomers experience socialization into a tournament environment – winners survive and continue on to subsequent terms in Parliament whereas losers either leave during their first term or fail to get re-elected. This harsh socialisation experience has ethical and practical implications which I’m looking forward to discussing with those attending my talk!