Den anställningsbara individen : En studie om identifikationsprocessen i jobbcoachning

Sammanfattning: This study analyzes the personal identification process that takes place in the actual meeting of a job coach and a job seeker, with the purpose of making the job seeker employable. The empirical data consists of observations during nine job coach meetings, and interviews with four job coaches. The analysis is based on a social constructionist perspective. The findings point to contradictions in the construction of the employable individual through job coaching. The identification process follows a certain pattern, where several roles and identities are constructed along the way to employability. The coaches offer techniques that encourage the job seekers to examine their own identities - how they perceive themselves (internal identities), as well as how others perceive them (external identities). This knowledge constructs an identity - the right image of the self - that is presumably founded on facts and reliably results. However, this identity is not yet complete for the job seeking process. The next step in the identification process is to make this identity a sellable image of the self in order to match the job seeker’s identity with the demands of the labour market. The external identity is given more significance than the internal identity in the constructing of the right image of the self as well as the sellable image of the self. Moreover, the job seekers are trained to communicate their sellable images in the right way. This skill is described as being able to market yourself. The job seekers are encouraged to practice and evaluate their communicative skills, which influences the way they present themselves in the future. Here, important factors are for the job seeker to shine with self-confidence and at the same time to be honest about his or her personal attributes. Nonetheless, ambiguities exist in how to be honest and still be sellable and marketable. It seems evident that job coaching is founded on an individualized perspective. Unemployment is an individual and personal problem. In other words, the unemployed person is without a job because he or she has the wrong image of self. Job seekers with the wrong image of self are assumed to give their internal identity too much importance. The internal image of the self is neither considered reliable nor sellable; consequently, not employable. In sum, job coaching aim to make the job seekers responsible for their own situations, while structural problems and obstacles of the labour market are given less significance.