Employability perceptions: Nature, determinants, and implications for health and well-being

Abstract

The general aim of the present thesis is to increase our understanding of perceived employability. Employability perceptions refer to individuals' beliefs about their possibilities of finding new, equal, or better employment. How people perceive their possibilities of getting employment is important in a labour market characterised by flexibility and uncertainty, and the present thesis sets out to investigate the nature, determinants, and implications of employability perceptions, using two population-based samples. In Study I, the aim was to study if employability and self-efficacy are two distinct but related constructs and, along with this, to investigate the nature of their association. The results from this study indicated that employability was distinct from self-efficacy and, furthermore, that employability predicted subsequent self-efficacy. In Study II, the aim was to identify predictors of perceived employability. The combination of situational and individual factors was identified as important for employability perceptions. National economic prosperity, living/working in metropolitan areas, poor physical and good psychological work environments, formal education, and competency development were found to be positively associated with perceived employability. The aim of Study III was to investigate if employability could predict subsequent health and well-being. The results from this study implied that individuals who reported higher levels of employability also reported better global health and mental well-being, but not physical complaints, one year later, after controlling for work environment variables and previous health status. In conclusion, the present thesis has implications for theory as well as practice when it concludes that employability is not primarily a self-evaluation, that it is dependent on individual as well as situational factors, and that it has implications for health and well-being.Keywords: employability, employability perceptions, flexibility, individualisation, changing labour market, self-evaluation, self-efficacy, dual labour market, human capital, health, well-being. SammanfattningVad innebär det att vara anställningsbar? Vilka faktorer påverkar en individs bedömning av sin anställningsbarhet? Handlar anställningsbarhet om en persons allmänna självuppfattning eller handlar det om faktiska kunskaper, meriter och erfarenheter från tidigare arbeten? Vilken roll spelar det sammanhang en person befinner sig i, t ex konjunkturläge eller var i landet man bor? Vilken påverkan har anställningsbarheten på en individs hälsa och välbefinnande? Detta är frågor som står i centrum i denna avhandling.Att vara anställningsbar innebär att man kan skaffa sig ett nytt, likvärdigt eller bättre, arbete när detta är nödvändigt. I takt med att arbetslivet har blivit mer föränderligt och flexibelt blir upplevelsen av att vara anställningsbar intressant att studera, eftersom själva upplevelsen har konsekvenser för hur en person reagerar och agerar på händelser i sin omgivning. I föreliggande...

Sustainable employability – definition, conceptualization, and implications: A perspective based on the capability approach

“…Most definitions of employability stress the individual aspects of the concept (18,(34)(35)(36). Gazier, following a thorough description of the trends over time in conceptualizing employability (37), identified seven trends or phases, five of which focus on the individual.…”

“…This will in turn contribute to health and sustainability and to an individual's choice and ability to take later retirement. This counts for all workers; particularly for specific subgroups of the labor market -predominantly precarious (often low-skilled) workers -for whom, notwithstanding the trends depicted above, there is a tendency towards a deterioration in working conditions, especially since the start of the economic crisis (30-33).In summary, values constitute an important aspect of work, and by extension, of employment and employability.Most definitions of employability stress the individual aspects of the concept (18,(34)(35)(36). Gazier, following a thorough description of the trends over time in conceptualizing employability (37), identified seven trends or phases, five of which focus on the individual.…”

Inseguridad laboral y compromiso organizativo

“…Job security is said to signify 'the continuation of the same job' , whereas employment security is taken to mean that work is available somewhere else in the labour market (Gazier, 2007: 102). Another label used for approximately the same phenomenon is ' employability' (e.g., Berntson, 2008;De Cuyper et alii, 2008;De Cuyper, Notelaers and De Witte, 2009). Previous research shows that employment security involves a reduction in worry of losing one' s job (Berglund, Furåker and Vulkan, 2014).…”

Interpretation dimensions and research course of employability

“…Domestic research on employability starts later, the basis is still weak, and making comprehensive and systematical comment on varied study results is rare [6] . These studies focus upon the significance, concept, factor, level, etc., and introduce the research of foreign employability.…”

“…In the early 1980s, the research on employability turned to enterprise or organization level [6] . Facing variable external environment, enterprise must obtain adequate flexibility to accommodate the changes.…”