A Theory of Work Role Transitions

A Theory of Work Role TransitionsAuthor(s): Nigel NicholsonSource: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Jun., 1984), pp. 172-191Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Johnson Graduate School of Management,Cornell UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393172 .

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A Theory of Work Role Transitions

Nigel Nicholson

This paper presents a new theory of work role transitions, linking personal and organizational adjustment outcomes with the characteristics of the person, the role, and the organization. The need for theory is argued in a brief overview of the field, and a conceptual framework for analyzing modes of adjustment to transition is presented. The main body of the theory for predicting adjustment modes is set out, and the implications and predictions of the theory for changing patterns of adjustment over work histories and lifetime careers are discussed.

It could be argued that the underlying dynamics of social process are mosttellingly revealed at points of discontinuity and change. This paper focuses on the change to a new work role, and it is argued that work role transitions can have profound significance for the future development of individuals and their organizations. Thus the theory addresses two questions of perennial and perhaps increasing importance in organizational science: (1) How are change and stability interrelated? and (2) How does the interaction between individuals and social systems affect either?

The outcomes of transitions between work roles are treated here as individual effects, behavioral and dispositional, which are referred togenericallyas "adjustment." The reason forthis individualistic focus is the central premise of the theory that

Prior Occupational Socialization and Organizational Induction-

Motivational Orientation Socialization Processes Role Requirements

Modes of Adjustment: Replication Absorption

Determination Exploration

Figure 1: Schematic summary showing relationships of determinants in the theory of work role transitions.

individual differences in the characteristics of people and the transitions they undergo mediate the relationships of change vs. stability and individual vs. situational adjustment. The aim in developing the theory is to specify some of the principal variables and to generate testable propositions about their influence on modes of adjustment. Briefly summarized, the predictor variables fall into the following groupings: (1) the requirements of the roles between which the person is moving, i.e., role requirements; (2) the psychological dispositions and motives of the person, i.e., motivational orientations; (3) the character of the person's past socialization into previous work roles, i.e., prior occupational socialization; and (4) the form of any current organizational induction or socialization practices that shape the person's adjustment to the new role, i.e., the

172/Administrative Science Quarterly, 29 (1984): 172-191

? 1984 by Cornell University. 0001-8392/84/2902-01 72/$1 .00

This paper has benefited from invaluable advice and encouragement from many sources. Among these an especial debt is owed to my colleagues, John Arnold, Bev- erly Alban-Metcalfe, and Tupper Cawsey; to otherscholars in the field, including John Van Maanen, Michael Frese, Jeanne Brett, and Tim Hall; and to the editors and anonymous reviewers of ASQ. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Paul Nicholson.



induction-socialization process. The theory relates these variables to two outcomes of individual adjustment: personal development to absorb new demands, and role development to redesign situational demands. Figure 1 presents these variables in a schematic diagram of the theoretical framework.

In the theory, long-term work histories are analyzed as shifts between modes of adjustment broug ht about by changes in the predictor variables, which are represented by the feedback arrows in Figure 1. The theory provides a new perspective on issues in life-span development, careers and work socialization, and organizational change.

DEFINING THE FIELD

Work role transitions are here defined as any change in employment status and any major change in job content, including all instances of "status passages" (Glaser and Strauss, 1971), forms of intra- and interorganizational mobility (Louis, 1980a; Watts, 1981), and other changes in employment status (e.g., unemployment, retirement, reemployment). The theory therefore not only contributes to thinking about the consequences of mobility, but also relates to the outcomes of job redesign and instances of organizational change in which the work is radically reshaped by changes in organizational goals or structure.

The need for theory in this field may be argued on grounds of social relevance and gaps in current theory. High levels of labor mobility are a characteristic feature of complex industrial societies (Harrisand Clausen, 1966; Guerrierand Philpot, 1978), and transitions are ubiquitous outcomes of technological change, organizational retrenchment, capital accumulation, and demographic change. The study of transitions, therefore, should tell us about the evolution of society and its organizational institutions. Furthermore, to assess the significance of the continual processes of role succession and change we need to look not just at their antecedent causes, but also at how transitions are experienced and managed and what their outcomes are.

The present theory contributes to existing theory in three bodies of thoug ht: life-span development, organizational change, and occupational socialization. First, in the field of life-span development, there has been much descriptive theory about the relative impact of age-graded, history-graded, and nonnormative life events on psychological functioning (Schaie, 1965; Baltes, Hayne, and Lipsitt, 1980; Featherman, 1982; Baltes, 1982), but with little specific evaluation of the impact of changing work role experiences. Even the literature on careers has tended to take a macroscopic descriptive approach to the patterning within the life span of occupational choices and opportunities (Osipow, 1973; Watts, Super, and Kidd, 1981). The experience and psychological consequences of work role changes have been generally neglected.

Second, the many writings on organizational change have concentrated almost exclusively on change as a function of environmental interaction (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978; Weick, 1979) or as an outcome of behavioral science intervention (Alderfer, 1977). The effects of role transitions have been largely ignored, and the small body of writings on management succession seems generally to discount it as a source of

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Work Role Transitions

organizational change. Instead succession is seen as underwrit- ing organizational control, image management, and pattern maintenance(Grusky, 1963; March, 1981; Brown, 1982). Yet the failure of these studies to show clear links between succession patterns and organizational performance does not rule out the possibility that role changes trigger major shifts in organizational ideology and practice (Starbuck, Hedberg, and Greve, 1977) or contribute more subtly to the evolution of organizational cultures. Succession, no matter how carefully managed and controlled, is a key element in the process of exchange between the cultures of organizations and their environments and, therefore, potentially at the center of organizational "learning" processes (Hedberg, 1981).

Third, in the large and mainly theoretical literature on the processes of organizational socialization, Schein (1971 a, 1971 b, 1978) has been one of the first to draw attention to the possibility that organizational change, via the "role innovative" behaviors of new job incumbents, is a potentially important outcome of socialization practices. Van Maanen (1976, 1978, 1980) described how these practices operate at the workplace, and Van Maanen and Schein (1979) offered predictions about the relationship between socialization strategies and outcomes, though these await systematic empirical investigation. Others have written revealingly on the cognitive task of sense- making in new work settings (Louis, 1980b), coping with the stress of transition (Brett, 1980a), and the personal consequences of success and-failure experienced in careers (Hall, 1976). Nevertheless, several issues remain underdeveloped. Few specific inferences have been made about how individual differences might mediate or control organizational socialization processes and outcomes. Moreover, there has been little consideration of how outcomes might be a function of job characteristics and demands, as distinct from role learning, which is primarily mediated by the social environment. The remainder of this paper seeks to address these issues.

MODES OF ADJUSTMENT TO TRANSITION

The literature on transitions and organizational socialization has drawn attention to three types of outcomes: (1) affective states and their consequent coping responses in those treatments that show transitions as sources of stress (Brett, 1980a; Frese, 1982); (2) identity changes, in which newvalues, skills, and dispositions emerge as outcomes of the search for new personal meanings to match new situational demands (Strauss, 1959; Brim, 1966; Hall, 1971); and (3) behavioral outcomes: adaptations to new settings that either reinforce or transform elements of the organizational culture (Van Maanen, 1976; Schein, 1978; Van Maanen and Schein, 1979). The possible interdependence of these outcomes has not been sufficiently recognized.

The first principle of the theory of work role transitions is concerned with the last two of these. The question of affect is taken up subsequently. This principle is that the process of adjustment poses for the person the fundamental alternatives of adapting to meet environmental requirements or manipulat- ing the environment to meet personal requirements. As George Bernard Shaw expressed these options: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in

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trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Most research on transitions and organizational socialization has placed chief emphasis on human reasonableness. Perhaps the persistence of stable organizational forms despite continual role transitions justifies this emphasis, but at the same time too little is known about how much organizational change is a function of human unreasonableness.

On the one hand, a person's adjustment to role transition can be considered as a kind of personal development, in which change is absorbed through the person altering his or her frame of reference, values, or other identity-related attributes (Strauss, 1959). According to the nature of the new demands, personal development can vary in its centrality to the person's identity, a range encompassing changes in self-concept, values, skills, and life-styles. On the other hand, a person's adjustment strategy can be proactive: when the person tries to change role requirements so that they better match his or her needs, abilities, and identity. This strategy, which can be labelled role development, is implicitly an incipient form of organization development. Role development varies according to the constraints and opportunities of the role and the needs and expectations of the person. The person may initiate changes in task objectives, methods, materials, scheduling, and in the interpersonal relationships integral to role performance.

These two kinds of adjustment strategies can be considered to be independent, and, moreover, it should be noted that, on either dimension, developmental change can be retrograde, reactionary, or destructive. Furthermore, both forms of development are theoretically dimensional rather than categorical. In the interests of clarity of exposition, however, the two dimensions are dichotomized. Dividing each into classes of high or low development allows extreme cases or types to be characterized and generates outcomes spanning the four adjustment modes shown in Figure 2.

Affect

+ _ _ _ _ _ _ +

Replication Absorption low

ROLE DEVELOPMENT

III IV Determination Exploration

high

low high

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Figure 2: Modes of adjustment to transitions resulting from personal and role development.

Replication (cell 1) represents those transitions that generate minimal adjustment to personal or role systems. The new incumbent makes few adjustments in his or her identity or

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behavior to fit into the new role and makes no changes in role requirements. The person performs in much the same manner as in previous jobs and also in much the same manner as previous occupants. For example, an assembly worker transferred from one plant to a similar job in another plant continues well-practiced skills in a role whose fixed parameters are undisturbed by the change of occupancy. However, replication is not confined to technologically determined roles, as Brett's (1980b) study of salesmen moving from one work bureau to another illustrates. Replication is also evident in the cultural transmission of occupational values and expectations between generations (Goodale and Hall, 1976; Willis, 1977). The outcomes of transition are ones that replicate and maintain existing personal, organizational, and sociocultural forms.

Absorption (cell I1) represents transitions in which the burden of adjustment is borne almost exclusively by the person, who does little to modify the parameters of the new role. In short, absorption has the predominant characteristic of role learning. Common examples of this are workers transferred between functionally dissimilar shop-floor jobs or a manager moving to new offices in which the tasks and social environment are in sharp contrast to previous experience. The person's energies are mainly devoted to the task of assimilating new skills, social behaviors, and frames of reference to meet the requirements of the new situation. The examples of this in Hall and Schneider's (1973) investigation of the career progressions of priests and Becker et al.'s (1961) study of the socialization of medical students demonstrate how powerfully transitions can transmute personal qualities through the absorption of new demands. Cells I and II together are roughly equivalent to Schein's (1971 b) concept of "custodianship."

Determination (cell 111) representsthose instances in which the incumbent's adjustment to the demands of role transition leaves the person relatively unaffected but alters the new role; the person actively determines elements in the content or structure of the role. There are almost no documented studies that explicitly focus on this process, though this kind of organizational or role development is implied by the findings of some case and longitudinal studies (Schein, 1971 b; Toffler, 1981). Nonetheless, there is evidence from less systematic investigations that determination is a significant outcome of transition, notably in the succession of political leaders to new offices (Burns, 1978) and the career progressions of entrepre- neurs (Steiner and Miner, 1977). In both cases the occupants imprint the stamp of their identity and unique skills upon the role and its surrounding milieu.

Exploration (cell IV) represents cases in which there is simul- taneous change in personal qualities and role parameters. Some reciprocation of this kind is indicated in the work of Kohn and Schooler (1973, 1978, 1981,1983) and Osherson's (1980) case histories of midcareer change and may be expected to be a characteristic response to managerial interorganizational transfer. The middle manager is recruited because the organization wants to capitalize on his or her previous experience in other organizations, and the manager chooses to make the move to further the development of his or her professional skills. These processes are likely to be especially characteristic of jobs in which "social contracting" (Cummings and Srivastva, 1977) and

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interpersonal role negotiation (Strauss, 1978) are central fea- tures. The two-way nature of these processes simultaneously shapes both the person and the role. The conceptual content of cells Ill and IV is approximately equivalent to Schein's notion of "role innovation."

The actor's affective reactions can be added (Figure 2) as an independent third dimension, with poles that are strong positive or negative sentiments and with a midpoint that is affective neutrality. The independence of this dimension can be illus- trated by considering how each of the categories represented by cells l-IV is equally able to carry positive or negative connotations. Positive feelings in the mode of replication, for example, would be associated with favorable perceptions of preservation and stability, as in cases when valued skills and experiences are maintained through the transition. Negative feelings from replication would carry associations of restriction, helplessness, and obsolescence, as when the person feels trapped "in a rut" thatallows little scope for change of any kind. Positive sentiments in the absorption mode are those associated with satisfaction from learning and the enlargement of personal capacities. Negative counterparts would be feelings of skill degeneration, the disconfirmation of valued self-images, and anomie. Positive feelings in the determination mode are those associated with satisfaction from a sense of one's own capacity for innovation, inspiration, and reform, as in cases in which a newcomer successfully redirects the efforts of others. Negative instances would include;Gases in which attempts to reshape the role are judged by the actor to have failed, destroyed valued elements of the social order, or to have signalled his or her own inadequacy. When the practice of leadership is examined within this framework, rigidity and fixation can be seen as the negative counterparts of charisma and initiation of structure, while both are behavior styles in the determination mode. Finally, the positive experiences of the exploration mode are the pleasures of sensing one's growth or successful travel through cycles of thoughtful experimentation, feedback, and change. Negative counterparts are the confusion and anxiety experienced by the person who has lost his or her internal and external bearings, and for whom self- controlled experimentation has given way to an incoherent turmoil of experience and behavior.

Interaction effects among these outcome dimensions are to be expected, since transition is above all else a process through time, and outcomes can be expected to shift from one adjustment mode to another. Individual differences in motives and affective reactions will play a major part in mediating these shifts.

PREDICTING OUTCOMES OF WORK ROLE TRANSITION

The central purpose of the theory is to explain and predict the range of adjustment modes defined by personal development and role development (Figure 2).

Role Requirements as Predictors of Adjustment

Two characteristics of roles have a direct bearing on adjustment to a change of role: discretion and the novelty of role demands. Discretion is conceived here as a multidimensional construct, having as many dimensions as there are elements to a role.

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Work roles can be viewed as networks of goals and means- ends relationships involving both people and materials. The arrangement of these relationships, e.g., nested, sequential, variable, constitutes the task characteristics of the role; i.e., dealings with people and materials that are integral to task content may be distinguished from people and materials as part of the task context. Discretion constitutes the incumbent's opportunities to alter these components and relationships. This usage has parallels with "choices" in Stewart's (1982) model of managerial behavior. Typical dimensions of discretion are the capacity to choose goals, the means for achieving these, the timing of means-ends relationships, and the pattern of interpersonal communications, influence, and evaluation surrounding them. The literature on discretion is limited, but it appears (1) that discretion is directly related to occupational status (Fox, 1974; Jaques, 1976); (2) that high discretion is a feature of long and complex operational cycles (Jaques, 1957); and (3) the patterning of discretion throughout an organization is determined by how uncertainty is perceived and controlled (Thompson, 1967). Ina newcomer's transition into a role, discretion, at its high and low extremes, will determine the scope for role development. Low discretion roles, such as machine-paced operations, allow little latitude for the new operator to change the work. Con- versely, high-discretion roles, such as entrepreneurial management roles, make it impossible simply to conform to job specifications, role descriptions, or the practices of previous incumbents: newcomers lack adequate data on which to base any such conformity; therefore some degree of role development is inevitable. Thus low-discretion roles prescribe replication or absorption as outcomes, and hig h-discretion roles prescribe determination or exploration. The novelty of job demands - defined as the degree to which the role permits the exercise of prior knowledge, practiced skills, and established habits-will usually be a function of how generally similar the new role is to roles previously occupied. Novelty is predicted to relate to the dimension of personal development. Under conditions of low novelty, e.g., the transition of a technical specialist from one company to a similar organization, there is little scope or pressure for change in the person's job-related skills or professional identity. Under conditions of high novelty, as in lateral or functional transfers within large organizations, there may be little opportunity for the person to reproduce familiar styles and well-practiced routines, so that some personal development is inevitable. Therefore, low novelty of job demands prescribes replication or determination, and high novelty prescribes absorption or exploration. Combining the predictions for discretion and novelty of job demands makes it possible to predict across the range of outcomes on the two principal dimensions of Figure 2 as follows:

Low discretion + low novelty I . Replication Low discretion + high novelty II. Absorption High discretion + low novelty Ill. Determination High discretion + high novelty > IV. Exploration

At first sight, these relationships appear tautological, e.g., low scope for change results in low change. However, these

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variables are operationally distinct and can be distinguished empirically, using independent measures in field settings. Fur- thermore, people show individual differences in their propen- sity to exploit or challenge the degree of scope or constraint in their roles. Finally, role constraints to change or not to change only operate with near-axiomatic force at extreme values of the predictors (Figure 2). Most occupations show a middle-range "bounded discretion" (Simon, 1957), and most confront the newcomer with a moderate degree of novelty. According to the theory, role requirements exert the most influence at extreme values, and at other values, the other variables become more influential.

The details of how key concepts might be operationalized and measured can only sensibly be specified within the framework of particular research designs or objectives, but some general comments can be made. First, perceptions of discretion or novelty will differ according to the perceiver. Subjective discretion and novelty may be discrepant with objective or consensual discretion and novelty, i.e., with how job requirements are assessed by outside observers.1 An essential feature of the theory is that it is person-centered; what is operationally important is a person's subjective perceptions of job requirements (following the reasoning that what is perceived as real is real in its consequences). Second, the measurement of outcomes will be a function of the measurability of change on the two principal dimensions, and it is open to a number of approaches. Most satisfactory would be longitudinal designs that allow personal change to be traced, through repeated measures on standardized instruments, from before to after the experience of transition, combined with measures that compare the role performance of previous and new incumbents. Self-reported personal change after transition, and self- perceptions of role innovation and initiative may also be valid indicators in carefully designed survey research. These strategies are currently used by the author and colleagues at the University of Sheffield (Nicholson et al., 1984) in empirical studies based on the theory.

Induction-Socialization Processes as Determinants of Adjustment

In the transition into roles of medium discretion, e.g., most white-collar and a good many skilled blue-collar occupations, incumbents have some initiative in how roles are performed, but little room for changing task or organizational goals. In Schein's (1971 b) terms, there are more possibilities for "content innovation" than for "role innovation," and he pointed to induction processes or socialization practices as determinants of innovatory vs. "custodial" responses. Van Maanen and Schein (1979) developed these ideas further in their theory of organizational socialization, which linked these outcomes to specific combinations of socialization strategies. The value of their theory for generating testable propositions about outcomes cannot be overstressed. Their treatment differs from the present theory, however, in its focus on different types of role development. They made no separate predictions about personal development, but their taxonomy of socialization processes could be adapted for this purpose, as it is here.

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Discrepancies between subjectively perceived and independently assessed role requirements are theoretically important in understanding how modes of adjustment to transition may change over time. It may be predicted, for example, that the higher the discrepancy the more likely that socialization processes and motivational orientations will hasten shifts from one adjustment mode to another.




It may be hypothesized that personal development is more likely when induction processes and socialization mechanisms (1) are sequential, i.e., involve cumulative learning; (2) are serial, i.e., there are role models; and (3) involve divestiture, i.e., the abandonment or redefinition of status or attributes. Role development is more likely when induction and socialization (1) are random, i.e., without cumulative learning; (2) are disjunctive, i.e., without role models; and (3) involve investiture, i.e., the affirmation of identity. More tentatively, it may be proposed that formal socialization will favor personal development, and informal socialization will favor role development. These hypotheses are based on the presumption that cumulative, role-modeled, divesting, and formal mechanisms limit discretion and emphasize the need to adapt to novel demands. In Van Maanen and Schein's remaining categories of socialization forms - fixed vs. variable and collective vs. individual- predictions could be made in either direction, according to the content of role learning. For example, adjustment outcomes are likely to be mediated by the kinds of feedback that a person gets on successes and failures in his or her early learning and performance.

Nonetheless, the capacity of organizational induction and socialization processes to determine a person's responses should not be overemphasized. People undergoing role transitions differ in their motives, expectations, and feelings. Prior occupational socialization and motivational orientation, in particular, can exert powerful iRdependent influences over adjustment outcomes.

Influence of Prior Occupational Socialization

From their longitudinal research, cross-validated in various cultures, Kohn and Schooler (1983) have concluded that occupational experience cumulatively shapes psychological functioning. For example, inurement to work of low complexity has been found to limit intellectual flexibility and the capacity for self-direction, while more demanding and challenging jobs have the opposite effect (Kohn and Schooler, 1983). These effects, argued Kohn (1981), are cyclically linked with occupational status and social class positions. Thus people are differ- entially socialized to adapt to jobs of correspondingly differ- entiated scope and demand (Frese, 1982). Other longitudinal research (Mortimer and Simmons, 1978; Mortimer and Lor- ence, 1979) indicates that both selection and socialization processes lead to consistency between psychological dispositions and role demands. These findings point to prior socialization as a potentially important force in shaping a person's adjustment strategy. It is therefore proposed that the likelihood of personal or role development will depend on whether the person's predominant prior occupational socialization has been in roles of hig her or lower discretion than the role he or she is entering. The theory predicts that at high or low extremes of discretion a person's mode of adjustment is constrained by the imperative force of these role requirements, and that it is in medium-discretion roles that prior socialization will be influential; what concerns us here is whetherthe person moves into a medium-discretion role from above or below, that is, from a previous role of hig her or lower discretion. Longitudinal research supports the prediction that prior socialization to low- discretion roles (i.e., when transition results in an upward shift

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in discretion), by reinforcing responsiveness to external loci of control (low "self-direction," in Kohn's terminology), predisposes the newcomer toward personal development; prior socialization to high-discretion roles predisposes the newcomer to role development. Thus when a medium-discretion role constitutes a significant increase in discretion, i.e., an upward discretionary shift, the person will orient toward replication or absorption. When a medium-discretion role constitutes a significant decrease in discretion, i.e., a downward discretionary shift, the person is more likely to orient toward determination or exploration. Combining these predictions with the analysis of the novelty of job demands yields the following predictions for transition into medium-discretion roles:

Upward discretionary shift + low novelty > 1. Replication Upward discretionary shift + high novelty > 11. Absorption Downward discretionary shift + low novelty > 111. Determination Downward discretionary shift + high novelty-> IV. Exploration

Category I could include some cases of job redesign and promotion, in which there is an increase in job scope that does not require the learning of new skills. In these cases, newcomers are predicted to strive initially to replicate former work experiences and practices. This is consistent with the claim that job redesign often fails to achieve its goals because, through their inurement to low-discretion roles, workers do not really want enlarged jobs (Schrank, 1974; Strauss, 1974; Fein, 1976). It also helps to explain how the orderly upward progression of managers into tasks that offer some increase in discretion but little scope for new learning builds organizational stability upon the well-socialized risk aversion found in many incremental promotion systems. Managers replicate the behaviors that they have evidently been rewarded for practicing in the past (Grusky, 1964; Moore, 1969; Kanter, 1977; Lewicki, 1981).

In category 11 are those transitions that involve passage into more unknown territory: sudden election or appointment to higher ranking positions, some instances of radical job redesign, and many upward managerial promotions that involve a change of function. The transformation of identity through processes of absorption has been frequently noted in published studies of disjunctive transitions (Becker and Strauss, 1956; Hall, 1968; Bray, Campbell, and Grant, 1974). Lieberman's (1956) study of how attitudes change as a function of transition between the shop-steward and foreman roles is a classic example.

Instances in category Ill are less com monly recorded, but would include demotions and reductions of job discretion through changes in organizational ownership and control. Decreased discretion is, paradoxically, also a feature of much upward mobility, where increased institutional status is accompanied by more complex or compelling constraints. This phenomenon is common in political systems when elevation, for example, from the floor of the House to Cabinet rank, entails an exchange of freedom for responsibility. It is also observable in people promoted from entrepreneurial middle-management roles to positions of executive responsibility. In such cases, attempts to remake the new role to fit the person's own requirements can often be observed, though such attempts can also often be

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seen to fail because of immovable or irresistible institutional forces (Sofer, 1970; Faulkner, 1974).

Category IV includes some cases of midcareerchange, lateral or functional mobility within large organizations, and recruitment of college graduates to industry (Keenan and Newton, 1982; Nicholson et al., 1984). Many college graduates entering the business world find less discretion than they enjoyed in their student days and a highly novel set of task demands. While they acquire their new professional identities, they are also motivated to exploit opportunities to shape role requirements to their own ends (Bailyn, 1980; Toffler, 1981).

There are dangers to overgeneralizing the effects of prior socialization (Wrong, 1961), however. Indeed, almost all of the studies cited here have noted variations in response that can be attributed to individual differences in personality, values, or motives (Bray, Campbell, and Grant, 1974; Bailyn, 1980). Van Maanen and Schein (1979: 254) have expressed the same thought, by adding to their theory the important qualification that outcomes such as role innovation "will probably only occur when an individual who is innovative in orientation at the outset encounters an essentially benign socialization process." In short, socialization shapes adjustment by transmuting cogni- tions, feelings, and behaviors, or what may be collectively called motivational orientations.

Motivational Orientatibns and Work Role Transitions

In treating individual differences as a directive influence on adjustment, the theory takes up the neglected theme in the socialization literature (Jones, 1983) of how person- environment interactions affect outcomes. The core constructs of the theory are essentially concerned with the constraints and opportunities that surround the person making a transition. It is in roles of medium discretion and moderate novelty, and in the absence of other constraints, that a person has most capacity to exercise will or choice over adjustment outcomes. To do so requires only the motive and appropriate skills. The issue of skills is beyond the scope of this paper, for clearly the skills needed will depend on the personal resources, in a given context, to achieve or avoid either personal or role development. The issue of motive can also only be briefly considered, but the directive influence of will or motive may be analyzed in parallel terms with those that have characterized role requirements and outcomes.

Two constructs may be derived that distinguish orientations to experience and environment: first, desire for control, relating to the causal axis of discretion and role development, and second, desire for feedback, on the axis of novelty and personal development. The psychology of individual differences has numerous examples of analogous concepts such as locus of control (Rotter, 1966), need for power (McClelland, 1975), learning style (Kolb and Plovnick, 1977), and field dependence (Witkin, 1978). It is proposed that individual differences in preferred mode of adjustment will depend on how strong or salient a person's desire for control or feedback is at the time of the transition. Counterposing these two dimensions predicts the range of outcomes as follows:

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Low desire for control + low desire for feedback I. Replication Lowdesireforcontrol + highdesireforfeedback II. Absorption High desire for control + low desire for feedback III. Determination

High desire for control + high desire for feedback-- IV. Exploration

Individual differences in the strength or salience of these motives may be a function of stable personality traits or a more transitory counterpart to temporary desires, plans, and expectations.

When motivational types reflect relatively stable underlying personality dimensions, the theory provides a way of exploring how work role transitions might play a part in personality change and ego development (Dabrowski, Kawczak, and Piechowski, 1970; Dabrowski and Piechowski, 1977). Here it will only be noted that mismatches between the kind of adjustment demanded by the situation and by the person could catalyze lasting changes. When, for example, role requirements and induction-socialization practices press for absorption, a person with hig h desi re for control and low desi re~for feedback could submit to the demands for a change of orientation, and the resulting mismatch could represent the first step toward personality change if the shift in motivational orientation be- comes established as a stable disposition through long-term practice and adaptation. Alternatively, a person may radically alter the role requirements, or, if that proves impossible to achieve, exit fora better fit elsewhere. Of course, a person may do neither, but remain fixed in a person-role mismatch and endure the negative psychological consequences (Van Harri- son, 1978; French, Caplan, and Van Harrison, 1982).

More transitory anticipations and experiences surrounding the event- particular expectations, emotions, purposes, and plans

will also influence how the new role is construed, selectively attended to, and enacted. For example, people with low desire for feedback and high desire for control will have sanguine perceptions of discretionary scope (Burnstein, 1963), while those with low desire for control and a high desire for feedback will have exaggerated perceptions of the imperative character of situational demands (Gowler and Legge, 1975) and will respond accordingly.

The tensions created by such mismatches are an important source of affective responses to transitions and are likely to be instrumental in adjustment (Lofquist and Dawis, 1969; Bruggemann, Groskurth, and Ulich, 1975). Of all affective states likely to be experienced at transitions, anxiety and frustration have the greatest impact on adjustment outcomes. Anxiety is here defined as the feeling of not having an adequate response repertoire to meet situational demands. Sudden and major increases in role discretion can provoke anxiety (Brewin, 1980; Korman, Wittig-Berman, and Lang, 1981) and favor a reactive coping strategy of personal change over the psychological risks of a more proactive role development. Anxiety thus mediates the link proposed earlier between upward discretionary shift and personal development. Frustration, here defined as the feeling of not having adequate opportunities to utilize one's response repertoire, often accompanies downward discretionary shifts (Jaques, 1976). Frustration thus mediates the link between downward discretionary shift and role development. Individual differences are to be expected in people's

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thresholds for the arousal of anxiety and frustration, e.g., through emotionality, and the capacity to tolerate anxiety and frustration (Frenkel-Brunswik, 1 949; Eysenck, 1960; Spiel- berger, 1966; Organ, 1975).

DYNAMIC CHANGES IN THE OUTCOMES OF TRANSITION

Temporal Shifts in Adjustment Mode

A mode of adjustment following transition may shift into other modes in the long term as a result of changing qualities of experience and action. Such shifts may be of the following types: toward greater personal development (i.e., replication-- absorption, and determination -> exploration); toward greater role development (replication -> determination, and absorption -> exploration) and away from development of either type (exploration -> absorption, and determination -> replication). Shifts of the last type will be referred to as "stabilization." Each of these shifts can be predicted to follow from evolutionary changes in each of the four determinants considered.

Changes in role requirements are likely in most jobs. The novelty of role demands persists until the limits of role learning are reached and adjustment stabilizes. In some roles, this may be over a very long period; in others, stabilization and personal development can be seen to occur cyclically, as periodic fresh inputs bring new role demands, e.g., structural changes in salesmen's markets or new case law requiring lawyers to acquire fresh skills and perspectives. Changes in discretion are more difficult to analyze. Stabilization occurs when a person finds his or her initial perceptions of discretionary scope are exaggerated, i.e., as limitations to job scope are learned. Conversely, shifts toward greater role development occur when a person learns that the superordinate organizational controls limiting role discretion may themselves be open to challenge and subsequently attempts to alter them. The most common medium for changes in discretion is through the changing climate of superior-subordinate relationships. Deter- mining subordinates' role discretion is a major element in leader-member "social contracting" (Fulk and Cummings, 1984), and whether stabilization occurs or role development increases will often be a function of changes over time in interpersonal influence and trust between the person and significant others at work.

The impact of most induction-socialization practices is likely to decrease with time, or at least institutional mechanisms are likely to be supplanted by informal ones. Thus stabilization can be expected as role models outlive their usefulness, as struc- tured learning concludes, and as divestiture processes are completed. The adjustment mode may shift, however, toward greater personal-and role development with the increasing salience of new role models, informal sources of learning and influence, and investiture processes (Van Maanen and Schein, 1979; Van Maanen, 1980).

Changes in motivational orientation may arise through influences quite external to the workplace. Various life events and the aging process itself will bring changes in personal dispositions and work-related motives (Eichdorn et al., 1981; Rychlak, 1982). It is well documented that early success in a job can be a powerful catalyst for heightened achievement motivation and

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career development (Berlew and Hall, 1966) and that failure can stabilize desires and adjustment to a minimalist satisficing, without personal or role development (Sofer, 1970; Faulkner, 1974). The literature on organizational commitment also bears on this point. If commitment is to be identified as an outcome of socialization processes (Feldman, 1976), then the theory of work role transitions says that at least two distinct types of commitment need to be considered: (1) stabilized commitment, in which future personal or role development is avoided, and (2) progressive commitment, in which shifts to greater role or personal development are sought. This distinction is analogous to the job satisfaction types of Bruggemann, Groskurth, and Ulich (1975) and McKelvey's (1969) taxonomy of outcomes to role adjustment. It is also in accord with the findings of several empirical studies of the socialization-commitment process (Sheldon, 1971; Buchanan, 1974; Mowday, Porter, and Steers, 1982). This analysis of how the four sets of determinants can change permits the likely shifts in modes of adjustment to be anticipated.

Replication. With no further significant change in the person or the environment, replication is likely to be the most steady state, though even in this case, experience of a new role cannot be identical in all respects to previous experience, and over time there will be some day-to-day evolution of personal wants, conditions of work, social relations, and so on. However, to the extent that these are imperceptible or peripheral to the central task of role adjustment, replication can be treated as a steady state. Shifts toward greater role or personal development are likely to arise from mismatches between role requirements and motivational orientations. A strong desire for personal control or constructive negative sentiments about the situation will stimu- late attempts to change the role, or, failing that, motivate the person to leave the field (Bray, Campbell, and Grant, 1974; Porter, Crampon, and Smith, 1976). Quitting, then, within the framework of the theory, can be seen as a kind of determination. This parallels Hirschman's (1970) use of the concept of "exit" as a functional alternative to "voice." When role development or quitting is blocked, "voice" may be found in acts of collective determination, as through trade-union agitation or deviant behaviors. When the person is motivated to seek more personal development than the new role allows, absorption may be found in the novelty of other roles outside the work setting, e.g., in external educational undertakings and leisure activities. One predictable effect of this will be the lessening of the life-centrality of work roles, in line with the compensatory hypothesis that unfulfilled aspirations in the work sphere can become counterbalanced by investments outside the work sphere (Wilensky, 1960; Miller and Weiss, 1982).

Absorption. As novelty wears off and a stabilized inurement to replication follows early role learning, absorption will predictably diminish. A person who is resistant to this stabilization may attemptto enlarge the role horizontally or shift life interests and personal change away from the work sphere. Shifts toward determination or exploration follow when the absorption phase endows the person with skills and knowledge that point toward role development and when successes and recognition supply the motive. The same shift can arise when negative experiences arouse heig htened desire for control, for example, when

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a person finds that learning the rules of the game does not yield expected rewards (psychological or material) and concludes that it is the rules themselves that need to be changed.

Determination. This will not be an enduring mode of adjustment, since a person stabilizes role requirements as soon as the limits of desirable or feasible change have been reached, e.g., a newcomer's instituting structural changes and then imposing control systems to maintain the new structure. Shifts to replication may occur when pressures for role development run contrary to personal motives or when determination produces consequences that are perceived as painful, conflictual, or dangerous. A person will then seek refuge in a minimalist interpretation of role requirements. Shifts to absorption can follow from fruitless or painful striving to reshape the new work role and its surrounding milieu. Then a person searches for personal change by, for example, fixing attention on a new role model. More positively, shifts to absorption are likely as declin- ing role development releases energy and attention for greater personal development, as can be seen when political leaders, after initial policy revolutions, undergo transformations of style, skill, and approach. Another way of interpreting this shift is that innovators are often unaware of the full implications of the changes they make, and having made them, then have to absorb them. When this occurs, determination can be seen as a time-lagged form of exploration.

Exploration. Paradoxically, exploration can be an almost steady-state mode when transition is into a role with continual renewal of discretionary possibilities and recurring novelty of job demands. Exploration is a characteristic feature of occupations in which learning and creative enterprise are core elements, e.g., in entertainment, the arts, sports, scientific research, and business entrepreneurship. Indeed, one could say that occupancy of such roles is tantamount to a permanent state of role transition. However, even in these cases some stabilization is to be expected with time, with reductions in role and personal development occurring for the reasons already discussed.

Life-Span and Career Development

Shifts in adjustment modes may provide a fresh perspective on life-span development and occupational careers. Work histories can be viewed as sequences in which the continuities and discontinuities are shifts brought about by changing role requirements and motivational orientations. For example, Katz (1980) proposed a general model of job longevity with three stages: socialization, innovation, and adaptation. This sequence is functionally equivalent to the sequence, absorption -- determination -- replication, in the present theory. Although this pattern may typify many careers, in which early personal development provides the groundwork for subsequent role development that later stabilizes, other patterns are equally possible (Hopson and Adams, 1976; Dalton, Thompson, and Price, 1977). For instance, it is not difficult to imagine how a sequence such as: replication-- determination -> absorption-- replication might arise. This sequence would fit the hypotheti- cal case of an office supervisor who, after a period of routine performance in a new job, initiates changes in the system of

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work, then discovers new opportunities for learning, and finally settles down again to the new stabilized pattern of working. From the more macroscopic perspective, Katz's (1980) phase model accords with the literature on careers and life-span development (Super, 1957; Levinson et al., 1978). Absorption is most intense at early career stages, when occupational inexpe- rience guarantees that the novelty of role demands will be hig h and when openness to experience and desire for feedback have high functional utility for constructing social identities. Determination is more characteristic of people who have the established identities, practiced skills, high self-confidence, and desire for control inspired by partly fulfilled career plans, and who are aware that they have the time and energy to pursue future challenge, i.e., people in midcareer and middle life. In later career and life stages one may expect to find these desires more muted and an increasing preference for the stability of replication. Phase models are, however, open to the charge of oversimplic- ity and overgeneralization. More dynamic and dialectical models of life-span development (Riegel, 1975; Gergen, 1980; Lerner and Busch-Rossnagel, 1981) are needed to account for the numerous instances of dramatic deviation from normative stage behaviors, such as the diversity of orientations of midcareer managers observed by Rapoport (1970) or the catalogue of creative achievements in later life described by McLeish (1976).

Changes in external family and community involvements can also influence adjustment cycles and career patterns. "Life- space" changes can activate or inhibit the motives and opportunities that influence the changing course of careers (Super, 1980). Nonwork variables can be a stabilizing influence on adjustment to transition, acting as a buffer against the pressures for personal or role development by providing an alternative focus for central life interests (Dubin, Hedley, and Taveggia, 1976). Conversely, these pressures can also be amplified by external involvements. For example, when a work role transition includes a change of geographical location, problems of family adjustment (spouse's occupation, children's schooling, and the like) can heighten affective reactions and motives (Pinder, 1977, 1981; Brett, 1980b) and, consequently, acceler- ate shifts between adjustment modes.

CONCLUSION

| able , summarizes the modes of adjustment resulting from the interaction of various determinants. Subsequent shifts in modes of adjustment have been discussed in terms of recur- sions of these influences, represented by the feedback arrows in Figure

At a more general level it may be proposed that more extreme values on any of the proposed determinants of adjustment will take precedence over less extreme values. For example, close constraints on discretion, high novelty of demands, compulsive induction processes, deeply ingrained prior socialized dispositions, powerfully activated motives, or highly charged affective reactions will predominate over weaker influences. More de- tailed specification of weightings and interaction effects must await empirical test in research incorporating these variables.

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Table 1

Modes of Adjustment from Individual and Organizational Determinants

Determinants Replication* Absorptiont Determinationt Exploration?

Role requirements Discretion low low high high Novelty of role demands low high low high

Induction-socialization processes sequential random serial disjunctive divestiture investiture

Prior occupational socialization Discretionary shift upward upward downward downward Novelty of role demands low high low high

Motivational orientation Desire for control low low high high Desire for feedback low high low high

*Low personal development, low role development. tHigh personal development, low role development. tLow personal development, high role development. ?High personal development, high role development.

Research designed to achieve this objective is currently ongo- ing at the MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Psychology Unit, University of Sheffield (Nicholson et al., 1984).

Finally, the intended range of the theory may be considered. The theory proposes a conceptual framework that links personal and situational causes with individual and organizational outcomes. Moreover, it shows how transitions, according to their characteristics, can sustain continuity or engender evolutionary or revolutionary change in personal and social systems. Although it has been developed to explain status passages in work and careers, nothing prevents its application to a wider range of transitional events. With minor conceptual modifica- tion it could yield predictions about the outcomes of retirement, redundancy, reemployment, geographical migration, and other life-space transitions. What contribution it may make in these areas is for practitioners in these fields to assess. At the least, it is hoped that the theory helps to explain how role transitions can be potentially pivotal events for the evolution of the individual and the organization.

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A Theory of Work Role Transitions

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