Enhancing perceived employability: An interactionist perspective on responsibilities of organizations and employees
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of employees’ willingness to invest in training and development and willingness for mobility on the relationship between human resource (HR) management practices and employability. As such, the study takes an interactionist perspective, building on human capital theory and social exchange theory. Investigating possible interaction effects is highly relevant as little is known yet on how organizational efforts (i.e. policies and activities) and individual effort of employees might strengthen each other in their aim of enhancing employability.
Design/methodology/approach
Analyses were based on a sample of 1,346 respondents from 91 primary school locations in the Netherlands. Hypotheses were tested using regression analyses controlling for nesting of the data.
Findings
The results indicate that HR activities and employees’ willingness are positively related to employability. Furthermore, only employees’ willingness for mobility strengthens this relationship, not their willingness for training and development. These results indicate that both organizations and employees are responsible for enhancing employability.
Practical implications
Both HR activities and employee willingness appear to play a significant and interactive role for enhancing employability. Therefore, explicit cooperation between employee and organization in light of optimizing employability seems warranted.
Originality/value
This study extends current research on enhancing employability, by theorizing and testing the combined efforts of organizations and employees from an interactionist perspective.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was part of a larger study commissioned by Dutch primary schools and was aimed at improving the workability, employability and vitality of employees in the participating schools. Loyalis Kennis and Consult conducted the research. The authors would like to thank the Dutch primary schools for participating in this study and Loyalis Kennis and Consult for collecting the data and supporting the research.
Citation
Veld, M., Semeijn, J. and Vuuren, T.v. (2015), "Enhancing perceived employability: An interactionist perspective on responsibilities of organizations and employees", Personnel Review, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 866-882. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2014-0100
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited