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The purpose of this chapter is to draw attention to employability being an important social innovation that potentially thrives with transformational leadership, partly depending on certain personal characteristics such as managerial role and personality.

The study was carried out among pairs of employees (314) and immediate supervisors (334) working at a large Dutch company that produces building materials. We made use of Linear Regression and Structural Equation Modeling to test our hypothesis and explore our assumptions with regard to the research model.

We have found that transformational leadership is positively related to employee and supervisor ratings of employability. Furthermore, there is some indication that transformational leadership enhances employability in some situations, demonstrating differences between categories of workers with and without a managerial function. Moreover, it appeared that after controlling for personality, only the positive relationship between transformational leadership and supervisor ratings of employability, remained for the workers not having a managerial function.

Our study design comprised a cross-sectional approach and therefore future longitudinal research is necessary to investigate causal relationships between transformational leadership, personality, and employability.

In terms of individual career development practices, our outcomes should be translated into increased attention for aligning leadership style to meet the requirements of all types of employees across the life-span.

By providing more insight into the increased importance of transformational leadership for certain groups of workers, this contribution is intended to come up with opportunities for increasing the employability for different types of workers.

This chapter draws attention to the fact that transformational leadership can be a useful tool for stimulating employability of workers. Worker characteristics such as personality, work role (e.g., managerial role) and other life-span factors always have to be taken into account for a customized approach, given the uniqueness of each and every employee.

Employability and its components have received a lot of attention from scholars and practitioners. However, little is known about the interrelations between these different components of employability and how employees progress within their employability trajectories. Therefore, a model of such progression was constructed and tested using Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden’s (2006) employability measurement instrument. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The propositions were tested empirically by applying a Rasch model using a sample of 167 Austrian business consultants.

The findings lend some support for the hypothesized progression model of employability. Specifically, the items measuring occupational expertise are largely located in the group of items that were relatively likely to be endorsed. Also, the items of personal flexibility and anticipation and optimization were, in general, less likely to be endorsed than the items of occupational expertise.

The major thrust of this paper is a theoretical one. However, the empirical demonstration tentatively supports the proposed model, which implies that further, more robust longitudinal research in this direction may be a worthwhile endeavor.

By understanding which competences are important at which stage or across which stages of an individual’s career, career advisors and human resource management professionals can give more targeted advice concerning career management practices.

The present study contributes to the literature by investigating how employees may make progress within their employability trajectories.

Building upon a competence-based employability model and a social exchange and proactive perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between learning value of the job and employability among academic staff employees. Moreover, this study also examined whether this relationship was moderated by leader–member exchange (LMX) and a proactive coping style.

An online self-report questionnaire with thoroughly validated measures was distributed among academic staff employees (n=139).

The results partially supported the specific study assumptions. Concrete, learning value of the job was positively related to anticipation and optimization, corporate sense and balance. LMX moderated the relationship between learning value of the job, on the one hand, and all employability dimensions, on the other hand. However, proactive coping only moderated the relationship with anticipation and optimization, flexibility and balance. In all cases, under the condition of high moderator variable levels, the relationship became stronger.

This study extends past employability research by applying an interactionist perspective (person: proactive coping style, context: LMX and learning value of the job) approach for explaining employability enhancement. The results of this scholarly work provide useful insights for stimulating future career development and growth, which is of upmost importance in nowadays’ labor markets.

This study aims to empirically validate an innovative work behaviour-enhancing model of employability in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to examine possible moderating effects of age.

Data have been collected from 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors who worked in 151 SMEs. Structural equation modelling (SEM) has been used to investigate the predictive validity of employability on innovative work behaviour using a multi-source approach. The moderating effect of employee age on the relationship between, on the one hand, self-ratings and supervisor ratings of employability, and, on the other hand, innovative work behaviour has been tested using multi-group SEM.

Results suggest that self-rated employability correlates positively with supervisor-rated innovative work behaviour, and that supervisor-rated employability correlates positively with self-rated innovative work behaviour. Age appeared to have a weak influence on the relationship between employability and innovative work behaviour; more specifically, in case of a higher age, the relationship was stronger.

The cross-sectional design is a limitation of this study. Another limitation relates to the generalizability of the study findings outside the context in which the research has been undertaken. The relational meaning of employee age might be different in other cultures.

Supervisors appear to play an essential role in providing an age-friendly working life for employees. Moreover, as SMEs often do not employ professionals to manage human resources, supervisors themselves have to carry the responsibility to encourage aging employees to develop themselves the enhancing innovative work behaviour.

This study is the first to investigate the predictive validity of employability on innovative work behaviour and the effects of age on this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between positive and negative home-to-work spillover, i.e., home-to-work facilitation (HWF) and home-to-work conflict (HWC) with employability. Moreover, this study also examined whether the relationship between home-to-work spillover and employability varied between academic and support staff employees.

An on-line self-report questionnaire was distributed among academic (n=139) and support staff employees (n=215) working at a Dutch university for distance-learning education. Thoroughly validated measures of home-to-work spillover and employability were used. The employability measure consisted of five dimensions: occupational expertise, anticipation and optimization, personal flexibility, corporate sense, and balance. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multivariate regression analyses including interaction effects.

HWF was positively related to anticipation and optimization only, while HWC appeared to be negatively associated with all employability dimensions. As expected, the relationships between HWF and HWC on the one hand and the specific employability dimensions on the other hand were stronger for support staff employees than for academic staff employees.

This study has extended research on employability, by focusing on the home context of employees as a possible antecedent. So far, studies have largely ignored the home context of employees, when investigating employability outcomes. Another contribution was the focus on both positive (facilitation) and negative (conflict) spillover from home-to-work, whereas previous studies mainly focused on one type of spillover only. Finally, the authors had the unique opportunity to compare support staff and academic staff employees in one and the same study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible differences in the degrees of employability, leader–member exchange (LMX) and innovative work behaviours in a comparison between Belgium and the Netherlands. Although neighbouring countries, disparate national cultures between the two are assumed to influence the amount of employability, LMX and innovative work behaviours among their respective working populations. Furthermore, this paper aims to validate a mediation model across the two countries to test whether employability (partially) mediates the relationship between LMX and innovative work behaviours.

Data from employees and their immediate supervisors working in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Belgium and the Netherlands supported the hypothesized model. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the mediation model using a multi-source approach.

The amount of employability and innovative work behaviours of employees appeared to differ significantly between Belgium and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the results suggested that for both countries a positive relationship with one’s immediate supervisor (LMX) is beneficial in the light of workers’ innovative work behaviours, through its impact on employability, which was found to be a full mediator in this relationship.

Future studies using a longitudinal approach could give more insight into the model relationships. Moreover, the variation in systems, national contexts and managerial practices in the Euroregion calls for more cross-national comparative scholarly research.

SMEs often do not employ professionals to manage human resources, that is, supervisors themselves have to carry the responsibility to encourage employees to further develop themselves and to enhance their innovative work behaviours. This while the challenge of more cross-national cooperation encourages a boost for innovations in the Euroregion.

This study is the first cross-national validation of a mediation model wherein a competence-based measure of employability is incorporated as a possible mediator in the relationship between LMX and innovative work behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that investigates the relationship between organisational factors, Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) and occupational expertise.

A survey was administered among 152 Dutch teachers in secondary education.

Analysis of the data revealed that of the organisational factors, in particular, the availability of organisational facilities contributes positively to the amount of TPD (that is, in training programmes, and social networks). Furthermore, participation in social networks appeared to have a positive influence on the development of occupational expertise.

The study is cross‐sectional (all data have been collected at one point in time), and data have been gathered in one country, i.e. The Netherlands. It would be interesting to examine the proposed model in a longitudinal study, in order to address issues of causality. More research is also needed to explore the extent to which the findings would generalise to other occupational settings and/or to other countries. Owing to the relatively small sample size, a mediation model was not empirically tested. Future research using larger sample sizes is needed in order to test whether participation in learning activities (partially) mediates the relationship between organisational factors and occupational expertise.

It is important that HRM departments and HRD managers in schools offer organisational facilities for teachers. These facilities should focus not only on the traditional formal training activities, but also on creating opportunities for participation in social networks. This study indicates that, particularly, participation in intra‐ and extra‐organisational social networks enhances occupational expertise. Managers can stimulate participation in these social networks by providing enough social support.

Although teachers' professional development is increasingly perceived as being important in school settings, until now little empirical research has been available that investigates the relationship between organisational factors, TPD, and occupational expertise.

In the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understandings of how employees’ occupational expertise is associated with job search intensity, through its assumed relationships with perceived internal and external employability in the internal and the external labor market. The authors thereby tested the research model across three different age groups (young, middle-aged, and senior employees).

The authors conducted a survey among 2,137 professional workers and applied multi-group structural equation modeling.

Perceived internal employability negatively mediated the relationship between occupational expertise and job search intensity, whilst there was a positive mediational effect of perceived external employability. Age had a moderating effect on the association between perceived internal employability and job search intensity.

The findings contribute to the scholarly literature on the management paradox, and the empirical work on employability and age.

Organizations can recoup their investments in expert workers’ employability and enhance their retention by providing opportunities for internal career development.

This study is original by including both internal and external employability. By doing so, the authors thereby shedding new light on how occupational expertise might explain job search and how this relationship differs depending on employee age, thereby using a large sample of respondents.

The dynamic employee engagement framework visually delineates employee engagement from its antecedents and responds to the debates regarding how employee engagement is positioned within the academic literature.

A narrative literature review was conducted.

The new framework visually demonstrates the impact of contextual changes on employee engagement. Additionally, it positions employee engagement as a psychological state (psychological presence) and as a behaviour.

The new framework promotes the study of behavioural engagement when the incorporation of context and/or multiple voices is required. Accordingly, studying behavioural engagement may help scholars understand more about the dynamics of employee engagement within and across different settings, reduce the reliance on self-reported studies and help bridge the employee engagement academic and practitioner discourses.

Human resource management/development practitioners and line managers may use the new structured framework in several ways to help them foster employee engagement.

The new framework extends five integrated employee engagement models by incorporating the macro and micro external context, and repositioning trust and feedback. In doing so, it more accurately conveys diagrammatically the dynamic nature of employee engagement following significant contextual changes. It also visually separates out the antecedents to employee engagement thus respecting construct boundaries and positions employee engagement as a multi-dimensional construct comprised of psychological state (psychological presence) and behavioural engagement. Building on this, we also argue that double-loop learning is an example of behavioural engagement.

Little attention has been paid to the employability of academic staff and the extent to which continuous learning contributes to academic career success. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of formal and informal learning to employability.

Survey data were obtained from 139 academic staff members employed at the Open University in the Netherlands. The questionnaire included employee characteristics, job characteristics, organizational context factors, formal learning and informal learning and employability variables.

Informal learning, such as networking and learning value of the job, appeared to be solid contributors to employability, while the impact of formal learning activities was far less significant. Further, the study revealed the impact of employee and organizational context factors upon informal learning and employability. Age, salary and learning climate appeared to be strong predictors for informal learning, while promotions were shown to be highly positive contributors to employability.

The findings stress the value of informal learning, although human resource policies that encourage both formal and informal learning are recommended.

Academic careers comprise an under-researched area and the same applies to the relationship between learning and employability in the context of these types of careers.