Vocational Identity Formation, HRM Socialisation, and Early Career Outcomes Among Young Nigerian Graduates: A Longitudinal Narrative Investigation

This study investigates vocational identity formation, HRM socialisation practices, and early career outcomes among young Nigerian graduates entering formal employment for the first time, using a longitudinal narrative methodology across a three-year study period. The early career period is theoretically significant as a formative window in which individual vocational identity, shaped partly by HRM-mediated socialisation experiences, becomes anchored and begins to influence career investment, commitment, and trajectory decisions. The study follows 60 Nigerian graduates across six sectors including banking, healthcare, manufacturing, NGO, public service, and technology from their first week of employment through to their third anniversary, collecting data through bi-annual narrative interviews, journal entries, and supervisor perception surveys. Longitudinal narrative analysis and Identity Process Theory provide the interpretive framework, while HRM Socialisation Theory and Emerging Adulthood Theory provide contextual theoretical grounding. Findings reveal four vocational identity formation pathways among Nigerian graduates: proactive foreclosure in structured corporate environments, moratorium-to-achievement trajectories in ambiguous or under-supported contexts, diffusion maintained in under-investing employers, and exploratory achievement in supportive, development-rich environments. HRM practices, particularly the quality of early performance feedback, developmental assignment design, and manager relationship support, are identified as the most powerful organisational predictors of which pathway graduates follow. The study also documents that identity formation is significantly shaped by the interaction between individual agency and HRM context quality. Original contributions include the Nigerian Graduate Vocational Identity Pathway Model, an HRM Socialisation Quality Index for Early Career Contexts, and longitudinal recommendations for HRM investment timing. Keywords: Vocational Identity, HRM Socialisation, Graduate Careers, Early Career, Longitudinal Narrative.