Employability in the context of career change: Utilizing social cognitive career theory

Abstract

As organizations transform, they adapt to unstable, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous conditions. This study intends to explore the influence of self-efficacy and work values in determining employability using the choice model of the social cognitive career theory. The purpose of this paper is to investigate affective commitment as an outcome variable in relation to self-efficacy and intrinsic and extrinsic value support mediated by perceived internal and external employability. This paper uses data from 286 employees; the hypotheses were evaluated using partial least squares structural equations modeling. The results of this study support the employability paradox that states that perceived internal employability mediates a positive effect between self-efficacy and affective commitment, while perceived external employability has a negative effect on affective commitment. This study provides further evidence in the literature on employability that self-efficacy and perceived external employability have a significant role in the context of a career change. Intrinsic values support has a detrimental influence on perceived external employability. Extrinsic work values positively affect perceived internal and external employability, while intrinsic work values negatively affect perceived external employability. AcknowledgmentThis study was funded by MBKM Project, Education and Higher Education Ministry, Indonesia. The Human Resources Management and Behavioural Research Group Faculty of Economy, Universitas Negeri Padang, also supported it.