posted on 2019-09-04, 13:24authored byRanadhir L. Sinha
This thesis studies the organisational socialization of a rapidly growing number of biethnic newcomers adjusting to the workplace in Finland, a country with a high proportion of monoethnic inhabitants. The argument developed here is that, in order to understand a biethnic adjustee's organisational socialisation, it is necessary to study the individual's identity formation; social and communication skills; adjustment motivation and proactivity; upbringing, biethnicity experience, and the organization’s adjustment efforts affect adjustment. This study builds on earlier organisational socialization and identity formation studies to understand how biethnicity gives biethnics a multifarious perspective in organisational socialization. Evidence was gained from 30 biethnic workplace newcomers in Finland through semi-structured interviews. A methodology based on inductive approach with a qualitative research design explored the participants’ experiences, feelings, thoughts and opinions. Research data extracted from interview transcripts and field-notes were analysed thematically. The original insights of this thesis contribute to organisational socialization and advance the knowledge of biethnic identity formation and management in identity studies. The findings rebut academic literature depictions of biethnic individuals not adjusting to working life and society in general as biethnic adults reported adjusting well to the workplace in Finland, mostly through their own proactivity and not due to the organisation’s onboarding efforts, which they considered deficient. Upbringing is recognised as an important factor in the organisational socialization of biethnics; four biethnic identity types emerged, these are not stages as each type can occur at different life stages and no order of progression is implied. Findings indicate that non-Western (e.g., Indian, Japanese, Korean, etc.) personal identity concepts are often present, influencing identity management and socialization efforts of biethnic employees. This thesis argues that the current theoretical understanding of organisational socialization should include upbringing, ethnicity, biethnicity, and non-Western identity concepts.