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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of protean-related traits and attitudes in the development of international mobility (expatriation) and entrepreneurial intentions among early career professionals. Career mobility is of increasing relevance to achieving career success in the era of protean and boundaryless careers, and in the present day highly globalized labor market. International mobility provides opportunities for work in organizations (corporate expatriation) as well as in entrepreneurship (expat entrepreneurship).

This paper reports two studies examining the role of “protean career personality,” conceptualized as consisting of personal initiative and flexibility on entrepreneurial and expatriation intention, looking at career orientation attitude as the mediating mechanism. In study 1, the impact of personal initiative and flexibility on the two career mobility paths is explored using a sample of 442 German undergraduate students. Study 2 replicates these relationships among a sample of 100 early career professionals who graduated with a diploma in psychology.

Results indicate that for the sample of undergraduate students, flexibility and career orientation were positively related to expatriation intention. However, the mediation path was non-significant. On the other hand, personal initiative and career orientation were essential for entrepreneurial intentions, with a significant mediation path. For the early career professionals in contrast, only flexibility turned out to be resourceful for both expatriation and entrepreneurial intentions.

Suggestions for supporting early career professionals to develop interest in working abroad or in entrepreneurship are provided. Particularly, the results indicate that protean traits affect mobility intentions differently. To strengthen intentions for expatriation work, attention should be paid enhancing the ability for staying flexible when it comes to career choices. This applies to both undergraduate students and early career professionals. However, a strong career orientation is also essential to the development of expatriation intention among current students. On the other hand, enhancing proactivity could strengthen entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students.

This study applies protean-related traits and attitudes; and how they work together in the development of mobility intentions among undergraduate students and early career professionals. The study reveals differential roles of these traits and attitudes among these groups, with regard to expatriation and entrepreneurship. This is important for career guidance.

Suggests that commitment and flexibility have often been identified as important outcomes of HRM practice. However, the relationships between different facets of employee commitment and flexibility have not been extensively studied, while most attention has been given to organizational and labour market flexibility rather than personal flexibility. Argues that flexible organizations require senior managers who display both personal and strategic flexibility. Points out that these qualities are likely to be positively associated with some forms of commitment rather than others, at a time when there is much discussion about employability and the changing nature of psychological contracts. Presents an evaluation of a major senior manager development programme in a UK National Health Service region which was designed to enhance organizational and personal flexibility. Puts forward evidence on its impact on various facets of employee commitment, using a longitudinal/control group research design.

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.

This study introduced a focus on work flexibility-worry and intended to test whether work flexibility-worry would weaken the strengthening power of work flexibility-willingness on the relationship between work flexibility-ability and work–family conflict from the perspective of person–situation interaction.

Participants were 924 employees recruited by the snowballing technique. They completed questionnaires about demographics and work flexibility. Multivariate stepwise regression was used to analyze the collected data.

Results showed that work flexibility-ability can reduce work-to-family conflict. However, this effect is most pronounced only among individuals with a high work flexibility-willingness who simultaneously experience low work flexibility-worry.

For organizations that want to provide work flexibility benefits to employees, they should not only pay attention to employees' personal preference for work flexibility but also create a climate in which all employees are allowed to use the flexibility supply without criticism from coworkers and without impacting organizational evaluations, which can benefit employees' functioning in both their work and family roles.

This study clarified the joint role of willingness and worry in predicting the extent to which work flexibility-ability reduces work–family conflict, which helps organizations to better understand the conditions under which work flexibility can better reduce work–family conflict.

Illustrates how the implementation of a major information technology (IT) system within the Norwegian Army affected the way the employees perceived their flexibility and personal involvement in their work. By employing Taylor’s initial works, this paper illustrates how the introduction of this IT system was perceived by some of the employees. Shows how, instead of increasing employees’ work engagement, the IT system had the opposite effect. Demonstrates that the new IT system contributed to a deskilling of the employees, to a more task‐oriented approach to their work, and to increased employees’ interdependence. Instead of increasing employees’ personal flexibility and involvement in their jobs, the research shows how the new IT system in fact contributed to a reduction in the freedom to choose when and how quickly to do their jobs.

This study demonstrated that women EMBA graduates experience broadened perspectives. They “think more broadly”, “understand more comprehensively” and report the “life changing” outcomes expected by their sponsoring organizations. The focus was on the development of women managers from specialist perspectives to a more integrated generalist perspective. Personal development, and career development literatures provided the theoretical basis for this study. Data were collected using invited essays, and semi‐structured interviews. Evidence of change appeared in the essays and the interviews. The essays indicated graduates experienced increased confidence, cognitive flexibility, and broadened perspectives. The interviews indicated: greater self‐determination, more flexible approaches to roles, greater value of self and time, more process‐oriented, increased understanding of self and others, the meaning of success was competence, and that competence was valued over political gamesmanship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and employee outcomes, i.e. job satisfaction and affective commitment, and to propose ways of increasing the positive effects of high-performance work systems on firm performance.

The data were collected from 370 employees in the Chinese manufacturing industry during 2010. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) method was used to test each of the eight hypotheses deriving from the conceptual framework.

The paper finds that: employee perspectives of high-performance work systems have a positive effect on both job satisfaction and affective commitment; and breadth of behavioural script and level of autonomy mediate the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and their attitudes towards that organisation (job satisfaction and affective commitment); however, skill variety did not mediate the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and employees’ attitudes in the data set used.

The findings of the paper suggest that managers can improve employees’ attitudes by integrating effective high-performance work systems in their working environment. Even more interestingly, it appears that by encouraging broad behavioural scripts or allowing employees more freedom to apply their skills, managers can improve employees’ attitudes more significantly than by encouraging employees to acquire a variety of skills.

Using signalling and psychological-contract theory, the paper shows the dominant influence of employees’ perceived high-performance work systems on employees’ attitudes via behavioural scripts and autonomy.

Demonstrates that EMBA graduates experience broadended perspectives. They “think more broadly”, “understand more comprehensively” and report the “life changing” outcomes expected by their sponsoring organizations. Focuses on the development of managers from specialist perspectives to a more integrated generalist perspective. Personal development and career development literatures provided the theoretical basis for this study. Data were collected using a triangulation design. Methods included survey, invited essays, and interviews. Evidence of change appeared in the surveys, 85 per cent of the comments indicating changes on the personal dimension. Essays indicated that graduates experienced increased confidence, cognitive flexibility, and broadened perspectives. Interviews indicated: greater self‐determination, more flexible approaches to roles, greater value of self and time, more process oriented, increased understanding of self and others, the meaning of success was competence, competence was valued over political gamesmanship, and disappointment with how employers used their talents after graduation.

Changing career patterns and the erosion of job security have led to a growing emphasis on employability as a basis for career and employment success. The written and psychological contracts between employer and employer have become more transactional and less relational, and loyalty is no longer a guarantee of ongoing employment. Individuals are thus expected to take primary responsibility for their own employability rather than relying on the organisation to direct and maintain their careers. The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine the assumptions underpinning the concept of employability and evaluate the extent to which employability has been adopted as a new covenant in the employment relationship.

Through a review of relevant literature the paper discusses current research on careers and employability and examines the available evidence regarding its adoption as a basis for contemporary employment relationships.

The paper finds that the transfer of responsibility for employability from organisation to individual has not been widespread. There is still an expectation that organisations will manage careers through job‐specific training and development. Employability has primarily benefited employees with highly developed or high‐demand skills. Employability is not a guarantee of finding suitable employment.

Employers can assist their employees by clarifying changes to the psychological contract, highlighting the benefits of career self‐management, and providing training and development in generic employability skills.

The paper questions underlying assumptions about employability and explores issues of relevance to human resource managers, policy‐makers, employers and employees.

Few studies have sought to explore the issue of entrepreneurial intention (EI) within refugees, despite wide recognition of refugee entrepreneurial potential. The purpose of this paper is to explore EI among recently arrived Syrian refugees in the UK, including the role that their migration experience plays in shaping these intentions.

This paper follows an interpretive phenomenological research approach, contextualised within the EI literature. It draws on data collected from in-depth interviews with nine Syrian refugees, five of whom arrived independently and four of whom arrived via the UK Government’s Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme.

All participants were found to have strong perceptions of desirability towards entrepreneurship. Individuals who arrived independently demonstrated more confidence in their abilities, and in turn somewhat stronger start-up intentions. The findings indicate that the personal development of independent refugee arrivals linked to their migration experiences may help shape the intention to engage in entrepreneurship.

As this paper draws on a small sample in a single geographic location, the findings presented are phenomenological, context specific and not necessarily applicable to other spatial locations or to other (refugee) groups.

A number of practical and social implications are provided. Support interventions focussed on strengthening the perceived abilities and capabilities of refugees would be of considerable benefit.

This paper provides new and important insight into the nature of EI within a novel focal group. It makes a valuable contribution to the literature by considering the issues of context and process, specifically the relationship between personal forced migration experience and the perceived capability to start a business.