Cultural values and training practices and human capital as antecedents of facets of perceived employability among European Employees

Abstract

Since change in companies is a daily phenomenon that occurs on a global scale and such changes are quite often associated with job loss, employability for those people already employed is increasingly relevant for academics. Stemming from Perceived Employability as a concept to study the phenomenon, we focus on different facets of employability: basic and aspiring employability –that is, the expectation of obtaining and remaining in employment and of ‘upward mobility’, respectively; and internal and external employability –that is, the availability of employment opportunities with the current employer or with another employer. In particular, the current study aims to examine the impact of national cultural values and firms’ training practices, beyond the effect of human capital variables, on different facets of employees’ perceived employability. Linear regression models tested the proposed hypotheses on a sample of 32,339 employees from 31 European countries. Results confirm the importance of national values of ‘masculinity’ and training practices –i.e., training paid for or provided by the employer, on-the-job training, and training paid for by the employee–, beyond human capital –i.e., individual’s level of education and work experience–,to the perceived employability of European employees. In addition, different effects of such antecedents on the facets of perceived employability are found. Post-hoc analysis also shows that the ‘person-job fit’ is an important issue that moderates the influence of human capital, social values of masculinity and training practices on employees’ employability. Discussion and practical implications of the work are provided.