Training Organizational Soldiers: Leadership and Control in Trainee Programs

Abstract: Title: Training Organisational Soldiers: Leadership and Control in Trainee Programs Authors: Anna Piela and Annika Theiss Supervisor: Jens Rennstam Submission Date: May 22, 2015 Purpose: The purpose of our research is to provide a more critical perspective on leadership and leadership development within the context of trainee programs. Therefore we aim to understand how leadership is constructed in trainee programs and how companies make use of trainee programs to control trainees. Methodology: We based our research on a qualitative research design and combined an interpretive and a critical stance. Theoretical Perspective: As a theoretical background for our study we provided an overview of the existing literature on trainee programs in connection to leadership, identity and control. Empirical Foundation: The empirical material for this thesis was mainly generated by eight semi-structured interviews with trainees from a trainee program in a globally operating retail organisation located in Sweden. Furthermore, we added survey answers, company documents and notes from conversations with the HR team to our empirical basis. Main Findings: We found that leadership is constructed as something solely positive in the trainee program and that the leadership discourse is used to trigger the trainees’ identity work. This discourse can, on the one hand, be supportive of the trainees’ identity work and, on the other hand, lead to struggles and uncertainties. In both cases it functions as an organisational control mechanism which de- and reconstructs the trainees’ identities in accordance with the organisational objectives.