Purpose -Employability concerns the extent to which people possess the skills and other attributes to find and stay in work of the kind they want. It is thought by many to be a key goal for individuals to aim for in managing their careers, and for organisations to foster in workforces. The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of a self-report measure of individuals' perceived employability. It also seeks to examine its construct validity and correlates. Design/methodology/approach -Based on the analysis of relevant literature, this study developed 16 items which were intended collectively to reflect employability within and outside the person's current organisation, based on his or her personal and occupational attributes. This study administered these items by questionnaire to 200 human resources professionals in the UK, along with established measures of career success and professional commitment, as well as questions reflecting demographic variables. Findings -This article retained 11 of the 16 items for assessing self-perceived employability. Concludes that self-perceived employability can usefully be thought of as either a unitary construct, or one with two related components -internal (to the organisation) and external employability. The measure very successfully distinguished employability from professional commitment, and fairly successfully from career success. Only slight variations in employability could be attributed to demographic characteristics. Research limitations/implications -This research has begun to address the gap in the literature for a brief yet psychometrically adequate measure of self-perceived individual employability. Practical implications -This author believes that the scale can be applied to other occupational groups, in organisational consultancy, and in individual career development. It can be used either as one scale or two, depending on the purpose of the investigation. Originality/value -Concludes that this research represents a psychometrically adequate contribution in an under-researched field, and will lead to future research with other occupational samples, and in other settings.

No abstract

This study aimed to investigate outcome in adults with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) at 1 week and 3 months postinjury and to identify factors associated with persisting problems. A total of 84 adults with mild TBI were compared with 53 adults with other minor injuries as controls in terms of postconcussional symptomatology, behavior, and cognitive performance at 1 week and 3 months postinjury. At 1 week postinjury, adults with mild TBI were reporting symptoms, particularly headaches, dizziness, fatigue, visual disturbance, and memory difficulties. They exhibited slowing of information processing on neuropsychological measures, namely the WAIS–R Digit Symbol subtest and the Speed of Comprehension Test. By 3 months postinjury, the symptoms reported at 1 week had largely resolved, and no impairments were evident on neuropsychological measures. However, there was a subgroup of 24% of participants who were still suffering many symptoms, who were highly distressed, and whose lives were still significantly disrupted. These individuals did not have longer posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) duration. They were more likely to have a history of previous head injury, neurological or psychiatric problems, to be students, females, and to have been injured in a motor vehicle accident. The majority were showing significant levels of psychopathology. A range of factors, other than those directly reflecting the severity of injury, appear to be associated with outcome following mild TBI. (JINS, 2000, 6, 568–579.)

Providing an information booklet reduces anxiety and thereby lowers the incidence of ongoing problems.

No abstract