Is What’s Past Prologue? A Review and Agenda for Contemporary Employability Research
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Academy of Management in Academy of Management Annals
- Vol. 15 (1), 266-298
- https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0171
Abstract
Employability, commonly conceptualized as one’s ability to realize job opportunities within and between employers over time, has attracted considerable attention from diverse academic disciplines for decades. Research in these disciplines has largely evolved independent of the others, thus limiting the accumulation, validation, advancement, and utility of employability. Two central stakeholders in much of this research are employers and employees, yet the vast majority of studies since the year 2000 fails to explicitly consider this interdependence, and it instead is characterized by an overwhelming emphasis on the employee and individual agency. Conversely, the comparatively limited research examining the employer perspective often excludes consideration of the employee. Our review highlights these characteristics, along with outlining other common critical issues and recommendations for overcoming them. We also articulate how Social Exchange Theory (SET) can serve as an underlying mechanism to integrate research within and between disciplines, and we also present the strategic employability architecture (SEA) framework based on strategic human resource management to facilitate integration of employer and employee perspectives.Keywords
This publication has 140 references indexed in Scilit:
- Communicating Employability Enhancement Throughout the Life-Span: A National Intervention Program Aimed at Combating Age-Related Stereotypes at the WorkplaceEducational Gerontology, 2013
- Strength in adversity: The influence of psychological capital on job searchJournal of Organizational Behavior, 2012
- Cross‐lagged associations between perceived external employability, job insecurity, and exhaustion: Testing gain and loss spirals according to the Conservation of Resources TheoryJournal of Organizational Behavior, 2012
- Employment Outcomes and Plant Closure in a Post-industrial City: An Analysis of the Labour Market Status of MG Rover Workers Three Years OnUrban Studies, 2011
- Unpacking the misery multiplier: How employability modifies the impacts of unemployment and job insecurity on life satisfaction and mental healthJournal of Health Economics, 2011
- The moderating role of employability in the association between job insecurity and exit, voice, loyalty and neglectEconomic and Industrial Democracy, 2010
- Understanding the factors that promote employability orientation: The impact of employability culture, career satisfaction, and role breadth self‐efficacyJournal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 2009
- Employability and the psychological contract in European ICT sector SMEsThe International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2008
- Labour Underutilisation in Metropolitan Labour Markets in Australia: Individual Characteristics, Personal Circumstances and Local Labour MarketsPublished by SAGE Publications ,2008
- The boundaryless career: A new perspective for organizational inquiryJournal of Organizational Behavior, 1994