ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the formation of group identity was a key strategy adopted by graduate accountants and an accountancy firm during the initial stages of assimilation of newcomer graduates into the occupation. It draws on a sociological, ethnographic study of graduate accountants in an accountancy firm. The account makes use of the concept of the 'group perspective' as a mechanism for exploring how new graduate accountants in an accountancy firm develop a collective identity, pursuing group strategies in response to perceived problems. The chapter demonstrates while the necessary preconditions existed to provide group responses to perceived, shared problems, ultimately the individual and organizational goals of successfully completing the training were dominant. It presents the adoption of a group perspective as complex and contradictory, suggesting that such a strategy is limited in the pursuit of individual, organizational and professional success. The individual success was more important than collective responsibility for these particular graduate accountants.
