Judith H. Semeijn

Enhancing perceived employability

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of employees’ willingness to invest in training and development and willingness for mobility on the relationship between human resource (HR) management practices and employability. As such, the study takes an interactionist perspective, building on human capital theory and social exchange theory. Investigating possible interaction effects is highly relevant as little is known yet on how organizational efforts (i.e. policies and activities) and individual effort of employees might strengthen each other in their aim of enhancing employability. Design/methodology/approach – Analyses were based on a sample of 1,346 respondents from 91 primary school locations in the Netherlands. Hypotheses were tested using regression analyses controlling for nesting of the data. Findings – The results indicate that HR activities and employees’ willingness are positively related to employability. Furthermore, only employees’ willingness for mobility str...

Master Thesis Supervision

An increasing number of educators are actively involved in master thesis supervision as part of their daily responsibilities. Master of Science degrees are becoming increasingly popular, with a master thesis required for the completion of the degree program. As a result, the supervisory staff involved in the supervision process at universities and institutes of higher learning is broadening and includes people with limited supervisory experience.

Sustainable labour participation and sustainable careers

Changing economic and social circumstances, as well as changing demographics are leading to a growing interest in sustainable labour participation of workers. In terms of business considerations, sustainable labour participation refers to people value, or more social value, of business practice and involves a longer term perspective. This chapter provides a conceptual framework for (micro-level) individual sustainable labour participation, in terms of its components: employability, vitality and workability. Next, an overview of important antecedents (at micro-level and meso-level) will be given, building on the theoretical notions of, especially, the Job Demands–Job Resources model. The chapter also serves a practical aim: insight in stimulating versus hindering antecedents can contribute to a better understanding of what employers (meso-level) and employees (micro-level) can do to realize more sustainable organizational practices. The relation with and consequences for sustainable careers are therefore discussed, resulting in several recommendations for future research and for organizational practice.

How Should Service-Dominated Logic Be Applied to Business Education?

Service-Dominated (S-D) Logic has far-reaching implications for how business is conducted and how programs of higher business and management education can prepare for it. In this chapter we apply S-D Logic conceptually to three different types of business education: full-time, part-time and executive MBA. The educational value created through different types of business programs appears dependent on the parties involved in value creation, the time horizon for evaluation and the different parties evaluating, the students’ desire to learn and subsequent effects on organizational learning. Empirical support is foreseen through a comparison of different types of business students, enrolled in a full-time program, part-time distance learning program or executive MBA program, or recently graduated from these programs, about the value of their master-level business education. Implications of the use of S-D Logic for business education are formulated.

Home-to-work spillover and employability among university employees

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Originality/value 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.

Career control, career dialogue and managerial position: How do these matter for perceived employability?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine three-way interactions among career control, career dialogue and managerial position in predicting perceived employability. The authors expected that participation in career dialogue strengthens the positive relationship between career control and employability. Furthermore, the authors expected that managers benefit more from career dialogue than employees. Hence, the relationship between career control and employability was expected to be strongest when employees engage in career dialogue and hold a managerial position. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in 2014 conducting a cross-sectional survey among managers (n=206) and employees (n=254) at a Dutch location of a large science-based multinational. Moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Career control was positively related to perceived employability. This relationship was significantly stronger for the managerial group that did participate in a career dialogue than for the managerial group that did not engage in a career dialogue. For the non-managerial group of employees participation in a career dialogue did not strengthen the relationship between career control and perceived employability. Practical implications Career control is beneficial for enhancing perceived employability among employees regardless of their position in the organization. Hence, training employees to master this competency may be a fruitful starting point for enhancing employability. Originality/value This is the first study to investigate whether the relation between career control, career dialogue and employability differs for employees with a managerial and a non-managerial role.

Home-to-Work Interference and Employability Among University Employees

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between positive and negative home-to-work interference upon employability among university employees. Multivariate analyses techniques were used to test our research hypotheses. Building upon the theoretical framework regarding the work-home resources model (Ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012), and in line with our assumptions, the results of our study indicated that negative home-to-work interference was indeed associated negatively with employability. However, no significant differences were found for the association between positive home-to-work interference and employability. Moreover, we have not found support for our interaction effect that hypothesized a stronger relationship between both positive and negative home-to-work interference for support staff in comparison with academic staff. This contribution ends with a reflection upon the outcomes, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research, and practical implications for ma...