https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507618820711 Management Learning 1–20 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1350507618820711 journals.sagepub.com/home/mlq Learning to become manager: The identity work of first-time managers Pernilla Bolander , Ingalill Holmberg and Elisabeth Fellbom Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden Abstract Taking a managerial position involves not only taking on managerial tasks and responsibilities but also developing an identity as manager. Recent work on manager learning thus proposes that identity work is a significant part of learning to become manager. This work has, however, rarely focused on first-time managers and, despite the emphasis on process, has rarely examined identity work over time. Against this background, we present a longitudinal study of six newly appointed managers. Adopting a Ricoeurian perspective, we construct “small stories” to explore how they made sense of themselves and how to relate to others in light of new experiences in their everyday lives as nascent managers. The study provides insight into the process through which they were learning to become managers. Specifically, it highlights how the manager’s identity work oscillated over time by pointing to the ongoing dialectic between continuity and change, progress and stand-still, knowing and not-knowing, and excitement and despair. Keywords Becoming manager, first-time manager, identity work, manager learning, narrative, Ricoeur Introduction Scholars have shown that entering into the management occupation involves not only taking on managerial tasks and responsibilities but also establishing an identity as manager (Hill, 1992). Identity is here understood as “the meanings that individuals attach reflexively to their selves as they seek to answer questions such as ‘How shall I relate to others?,’ ‘What shall I strive to become?’ and ‘How will I make the basic decisions required to guide my life?’” (Brown, 2015: 21). Such an identity is not fixed, nor is it ever established once and for all (Watson and Harris, 1999). As Watson (2001: 222) famously puts it, “there is no obvious point at which one suddenly ‘becomes’ a manager”; instead, managers are emergent, always in the process of becoming (Parker, 2004; Segal, 2017). With such a view on what becoming a manager involves, our notions of what manager learning entails and how it can be facilitated change. An important implication is that manager learning Corresponding author: Pernilla Bolander, Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, Stockholm SE-113 83, Sweden. Email: pernilla.bolander@hhs.se 820711MLQ 0 0 10.1177/1350507618820711Management LearningBolander et al. research-article 2019 Original Article