Dorien Vanhercke

Defining perceived employability: a psychological approach

– The purpose of this paper is to define employability within the psychological literature with a focus upon perceived employability. , – To achieve the aim, the paper defines five objectives as follows. First, the paper discusses how employability is interpreted in the psychological literature. Second, the paper defines perceived employability within this literature. Third, the paper goes one step further by comparing the perceived employability approach to other approaches in the psychological field, namely, approaches based on competences and dispositions. The paper concludes with an integration of the three approaches into a process model to demonstrate their interrelationships, which the authors see as the fourth objective. With approach, the paper refers to a specific view on employability, including both definitions and measures, which share significant common ground. Finally, the paper highlights some implications. , – The paper concludes that each approach comes with specific advantages and disadvantages. Researchers and practitioners should use an approach according to the general research question one aims to address. , – The authors believe to contribute to the employability literature in the following ways. First, the paper raises awareness that not all psychological notions of employability are equal, though they are often treated as such in the literature. Second, the paper highlights how perceived employability is tied to competences and dispositions. That is, though all notions are clearly different, they are also related.

Perceived Employability and Psychological Functioning Framed by Gain and Loss Cycles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the gain and loss cycle ideas from the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory with regard to perceived employability and psychological functioning among employed workers and unemployed job seekers, respectively. Design/methodology/approach – More specifically, the authors argue that perceived employability may trigger a gain cycle toward well-being among employed workers (H1), while ill-being may trigger a loss cycle toward reduced (perceived) employability among unemployed job seekers (H2). The authors test these ideas with cross-lagged analysis. Findings – Results confirm the hypotheses: perceived employability at Time 1 positively affects well-being at Time 2 among employed workers and ill-being at Time 1 negatively impacts perceived employability at Time 2 among unemployed job seekers. Research limitations/implications – Future research should study the gain and loss cycles with more than two waves of data as this allows for a more adequate test of these ...