Outplacement as identity work regulator of individuals in professional transitions: an analysis of outplacement practices.

Abstract

As periods of transition are nowadays common in individuals’ careers, these pivotal moments can hit the individual’s identity and generate an identity work that can be influenced and regulated by the discourses and practices to which the individual is exposed. In the context of professional transition, outplacement services can be offered to the concerned individuals in order to help them cope with the transition. The aim of this study is to bring to light the possible regulator effects of outplacement services, and specially the tools and practices mobilized, on the individuals’ efforts to work on an identity destabilized by the job transition. Our findings rely on a documentary study of 22 individual outplacement services presentations, triangulated with ten semi-structured interviews of French outplacement professionals. A “free-floating attention” reading of the material, coupled with a thematical and a theoretical coding, allows us to see the outplacement process as a regulator of the individuals’ identity work when coping with job transition. An individual exposed to specific social identities during the outplacement process, through the promotion of particular discourses and precise practices, may question the outplacement services as normalization tools reducing the individuals’ freedom in their identity work. The limits of this study being the focus on to the practices as mobilized by the outplacement professionals, longitudinal case studies of outplaced individuals can deepen our understanding of the effects of outplacement services on identity work during professional transitions.