Should Employers Invest in Employability? Examining Employability as a Mediator in the HRM – Commitment Relationship

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between perceived investments in Human Resource (HR) practices and workplace commitment, from the perspective of social exchange theory. An innovative feature is that we introduce perceived employability as a potential mediator, thus bringing in a career perspective: our argument is that perceived investments in HR practices promote feelings of employability, which then create workplace commitment. Based on a 6-week follow-up sample ( N = 437) and a 1-year follow-up sample ( N = 127), the results of structural equation modeling analyses mostly provided support for our hypotheses. Participation and communication practices were linked to commitment via employability (in both samples), and training and development only in the short term (6-week sample). Performance feedback and reward practices, however, were unrelated to commitment via employability. Overall, our findings show that employees bring in career considerations, employability concerns in particular, in the exchange with their employer. In addition, we contribute to filling the HRM “black box” by showing that employability might be an explanatory mechanism in the HR practices – outcome relationship.

To Leave or Not to Leave? A Multi-Sample Study on Individual, Job-Related, and Organizational Antecedents of Employability and Retirement Intentions

“…As regards the organizational level, Akkermans et al (2019) already identified employability as an explanatory mechanism in the HR practices – outcome (i.e., organizational commitment) relationship. In a similar vein, De Coen et al (2015) showed that self-awareness and adaptability negatively relate to older workers’ intention to retire via multiple paths, including enhancing self-directedness that, in turn, leads to a higher self-perceived employability.…”

“…We take the opposite point of view by focusing on why people want to work until their official retirement age instead of retiring early. In addition to studying the effects of factors at the individual (training/education) and at the job level (learning value of the job) respectively, we decided to include a factor at the organizational level (organizational career management practices) as well, as prior research has shown that organizational HR practices may influence employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (Guest, 1999; Gratton and Truss, 2003; Akkermans et al, 2019).…”

An Open Time Perspective and Social Support to Sustain in Healthcare Work: Results of a Two-Wave Complete Panel Study

“…This length of time lag is in line with the recommendations of Dormann and Griffin (2015) of a relatively short time lags in survey research focusing on psychosocial work characteristics and worker outcomes. Moreover, a time lag of 6 months was considered appropriate as previous studies have demonstrated that the outcomes included in this study can fluctuate in rather short periods (De Lange et al, 2004;Zacher et al, 2014;Akkermans et al, 2019;Rudolph and McGonagle, 2019;Rudolph and Zacher, 2020). The first questionnaire (T1) was sent to the participants between November 2017 and the end of January 2018, the second questionnaire (T2) between June 2018 and the middle of August 2018.…”

Healt promotion in the work context, beyond a healthy organizational model

“…Another relevant concept is professional development, which refers to employees "perceptions of their employment possibilities in the internal and/or external work market [38] " . This configures in function of a norm of reciprocity between the organization and the individuals or work groups, according to the resources invested by them.…”

“…Pride is one of the pillars most perceived by employees [30]. • The concept of development: a set of practices for the social exchange of work (resources) between employees, work teams and the organization for the benefit of the skills required by the working environment [38].…”