The importance of the future work self for newcomers’ integration and performance

In this paper, drawing on research on “possible selves” (Markus & Nurius, 1986) and relational identity (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007), we intend to examine how the newcomers’ future work self, defined as the individuals' mental representation of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming in their work domain (Strauss, Griffin, & Parker, 2012), and future relational self, defined as the individuals’ mental representation of the future relationship that they would like to establish with the new supervisor, can influence the proactive behaviors that newcomers assume during the onboarding process, namely their sensemaking process (information and feedback seeking), relationship building, positive framing, and job crafting, and ultimately their in-role and extra-role performance.