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Anticipatory Socialization and the Construction of the Employable Graduate: A Critical Analysis of Employers’ Graduate Careers Websites

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  • Karen Handley

Abstract

A discourse of employability saturates the higher education sector in the UK. Government and employers call on universities to produce employable graduates who are attractive to the labour market and can sustain their future marketability by taking responsibility for protean self-development. While the neoliberal assumptions behind this call have attracted robust critique, the extent to which employers shape graduating students’ subjectivities and sense of worth as (potentially employable) workers has escaped scrutiny. Inspired by Foucauldian analyses of human resource management (HRM) practices, this article examines employers’ graduate careers websites and explores the discursive construction of the ‘employable graduate’. The article contends that these websites function as a mechanism of anticipatory socialization through which HRM practices extend managerial control into the transitional space of pre-recruitment, with the aim of engaging students’ consent to particular norms of employability.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Handley, 2018. "Anticipatory Socialization and the Construction of the Employable Graduate: A Critical Analysis of Employers’ Graduate Careers Websites," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(2), pages 239-256, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:32:y:2018:i:2:p:239-256
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017016686031
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ronald W. McQuaid & Colin Lindsay, 2005. "The Concept of Employability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 197-219, February.
    2. Bogdan Costea & Kostas Amiridis & Norman Crump, 2012. "Graduate Employability and the Principle of Potentiality: An Aspect of the Ethics of HRM," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 25-36, November.
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