Enhancing employability of public sector professionals: organizational dimension

The changes of the public sector reduce the employment safety of workers, and, on the other hand, increase demands on employees. Additionally, it is typical to assess professionals of public organizations as less competent... [ view full abstract ]

The changes of the public sector reduce the employment safety of workers, and, on the other hand, increase demands on employees. Additionally, it is typical to assess professionals of public organizations as less competent than their market counterparts. Therefore enhancing employability or career potential of public sector professionals is of a fundamental meaning. This topic is particularly important in the light of unemployment and underemployment that the economy is facing today.
Employability is defined as a “form of work specific active adaptability that enables workers to identify and realize career opportunities” (Fugate, Kinicki, Ashfort 2007). Individuals with high levels of employability are predicted to adapt more actively and in consequence find new position in the same organization or change the job. The main contribution to our knowledge on employability is informed by research on individuals and their attributes. A well known approach is the competence-based approach (e.g. Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006). At present little is known on how organizational efforts (e.g. structure, design, culture, policy, monitoring system) enhance employability (Saha, Van der Heijden, Gregar, 2013).
Thus, we have conducted empirical research in this topic that aims in enriching our understanding of employability by adding evidences about the organizational dimension. The first phase of our research which was explorative in nature, was based on interviews with managers of Polish public variety of organizations delivering social services, including schoolsWe asked respondents questions about factors determining employees’ employability as well as actions that are taken to enhance employability in their organizations and their view on variety of organizational factors that may be important in this process. In result we are going to present results of data analysis gathered from eight interviews conducted with public schools’ managers and the empirical model which will be tested in the second phase of our research.