Learning and Employability: A matter of bounded agency?

Employability (i.e., the individual's chance in the labour market) is often advanced as a critical asset in the current labour market and central in debates on labour market flexicurity (i.e., how to combine the employer's need for flexibility with the employee's desire for security). To foster individual employability, policy-makers often advance learning as the key mechanism. Yet, the existing evidence on the relation between learning and employability is rather inconclusive. Furthermore, the underlying assumption is fairly agentic, with the idea that all individuals are equally able to enhance their employability. We question this assumption and highlight the notion of bounded agency in relation to work-related learning and employability. Bounded agency entails that agency is influenced by the interplay of boundaries that individuals encounter (Desjardins & Rubenson, 2009): If specific groups experience more or stronger boundaries than others, the relation between work-related learning and employability might be less strong for them. With the four studies in this dissertation, we aimed at providing a clearer image of the relation between learning and employability (Objective 1), while also considering bounded agency (Objective 2). In Study 1, we challenged the assumed one-to-one relationship between work-related learning and employability. Our meta-analysis showed that the relation was less strong than is generally assumed. In Study 2, we investigated the reciprocal relation between (formal and informal) work-related learning and perceived (internal and external) employability (i.e., the individuals' estimation of their employment chances with their current employer or elsewhere). The relations were not significant, with one exception: A positive and reciprocal relation between formal work-related learning and perceived internal employability was found. This signals again that the relationship is not that straightforward and that the picture is somewhat complex: The reciprocal relation might give rise to a growing inequity between higher and lower perceived internally employable workers might establish over time. In Study 3, we investigated whether educational level functions as a boundary that inhibits the agentic relation between work-domain learning goal orientation (i.e., one's orientation toward seeking development opportunities) and the development of perceived external employability. We found that work-domain learning goal orientation only influenced the initial value (but not the development) of lower (but not higher) educated workers' perceived external employability. In Study 4, we approached boundaries using the concept of workplace lock-in (i.e., high mobility willingness in combination with low perceived external employability), which may represent strong boundaries for working individuals. We probed, and found, four different profiles of high versus low perceived external employability and mobility willingness, and concluded that they all differed in terms of career satisfaction and learning patterns.

Jaar van publicatie:2020

Toegankelijkheid:Closed