Employer’s investments in hospital workers’ employability and employment opportunities

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employer’s investments (through job characteristics and managerial support) and employees’ employment opportunities, with employability, conceptualized as perceived up-to-date expertise and willingness to change, as a mediating variable. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling on survey data collected from 1,626 employees of three Dutch hospitals. Findings – Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that job characteristics and managerial support are indirectly related to employees’ beliefs on employment opportunities, with the relationship mediated by up-to-date expertise and willingness to change. Further, managerial support is directly related to employees’ employment opportunities. Practical implications – This paper shows that employers, by providing an attractive and challenging job in combination with adequate supervisory support, can enhance their employees’ employability and employment opportunities. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by elaborating a consistent conceptualization and measurement of employability, by incorporating as antecedents both job characteristics and managerial support, and by examining to what extent employability mediates between these antecedents and employment opportunities. Previous studies refer to the same definition of employability but conceptualize this in different ways, and focus on either job characteristics or managerial support, and so fail to provide a systematic and comprehensive examination.