Transition professionnelle et orientation de rôle dans la fonction de cadre Occupational Transition and Role Orientation in Management Function Transición profesional y orientación de rol en la función de ejecutivo

Résumé

L’article, centré sur les orientations de rôle de nouveaux cadres de l’Action Sociale, prolonge et complète le modèle de la proactivité appliquée aux processus de socialisation organisationnelle. Ce modèle reconnaît au sujet la capacité à agir sur son environnement de travail, à en interpréter les prescriptions; l’orientation de rôle est, dans cette perspective, dépendante des rapports des sujets aux exigences de la tâche, de l’organisation et à celles de son propre développement. Les auteurs estiment qu’elle est également placée sous l’influence de visées et d’engagements afférents aux milieux et activités de socialisation en dehors du travail. Ainsi l’étude empirique qualitative met-elle en évidence les variabilités interindividuelles des modes d’accomplissement du rôle managérial. Elle souligne aussi la nécessité d’une prise en compte de la pluralité des ancrages familiaux, personnels et sociaux des sujets pour rendre intelligibles les processus psychologiques à l’oeuvre dans l’orientation de rôle au cours de la transition professionnelle.

Summary

This article examines the role orientations of new managers working in the Social Action field who are in an occupational transition phase. It extends and broadens the proactivity model developed in writings on organizational socialization. The latter is viewed as an interactive process which depends not only on the organization’s initiatives but also on the capacities of subjects to “clarify,” direct, develop their role and transform the norms of the organization (Morrison, 1993; Nicholson, 1984). Thus, socialization cannot be reduced to the mere result of pressure in the workplace. Our theoretical approach maintains that although role orientation is based on the subjects’ relations with task requirements and the rules and norms of the organization, it is influenced by the aims and commitments related to the socialization environments and activities of these individuals outside work.

The qualitative empirical study presented here focuses on 15 new managers in the Social Action field (a social worker, special-education teachers, a socio-cultural group leader) who have, for 7 to 10 months, been performing managerial duties for the first time in their careers. These subjects underwent semi-structured interviews based on open-ended questions, a number of which dealt with role orientation. Operationally, the latter is characterized by the following indicators: value attached to duties, self-assignment of work objectives, operations related to activity completion or non completion, the aims of the action, time management of work activities, and relations with others inside and outside the workplace.

The corpus established through a complete retranscription of the in-depth semi-structured interviews was processed in two ways: through a computerized lexical discourse analysis, using ALCESTE software, and through a standard theme-based content analysis.

The results highlight inter-individual variabilities in the way the managerial role is performed.

The lexical analysis using ALCESTE brought out four role orientation categories:

• the role as positional construction (category 1)

• the role involving hyperactivity (category 2)

• the innovative role in serving the various Social Action population groups (category 3)

• the innovative role in the territories (category 4)

The theme-based discourse analysis helped to identify three main aims in the work activity:

• relations with the task: in a particularly discriminating way, activities and aims can be distinguished relating to either the environment outside the organization or the subject him/herself, as an actor in the organization.

• relations with others: these mainly involve relations between the managers and their superiors (experienced in the form of trust and cooperation or, on the contrary, in the form of dissatisfaction) and relations with the work team (from whom our subjects expect recognition or on whom they seek to exert their influence)

• relations with self and the time value of the action: these reveal contrasting positions regarding time management and the organization of work time and activities and non-work time and activities.

The results obtained by correlating the data of both analyses show that in the occupational transition phase examined, the subjects engage in and perform their new managerial roles in the organization according to differentiated logics and orientations. The inter-individual variabilities observed in the implementation of these roles demonstrate that the latter are not simply driven by the rules and norms prescribed in the organization or solely by the subjects’ developmental aims within it. They are subject to subjective interpretation and meaning. The orientation the subjects give to their role during their occupational transition is also subordinated to their commitments to socialization environments and time outside work.

Resumen

Focalizado en las orientaciones de rol de los nuevos directivos de la Acción Social, el artículo prolonga y completa el modelo de pro-actividad aplicada a los procesos de socialización organizacional. Este modelo reconoce en el sujeto la capacidad de actuar sobre su contexto de trabajo y de interpretar las respectivas prescripciones ; la orientación de rol, desde esta perspectiva, es dependiente de las actitudes de los sujetos respecto a las exigencias de la carga de trabajo, de la organización y a las exigencias de su propio desarrollo. Los autores estiman que la orientación del rol se encuentra igualmente bajo influencia de las metas y compromisos asociados a los sitios y actividades de socialización fuera del trabajo. Así, el estudio empírico cualitativo pone en evidencia las variabilidades interindividuales de los modos de realización del rol directivo. Se resalta también la necesidad de tomar en cuenta la pluralidad de los arraigamientos familiares, personales y sociales de los sujetos para hacer inteligibles los procesos sicológicos que actúan en la orientación del rol durante la transición profesional.