The aim of the current paper was to empirically test Fugate et al.’s model in a sample of 416 unemployed Australians (n = 126 for longitudinal sample, at a 6-month follow-up), specifically employability in relation to three aspects of unemployment:
(1) self-esteem during unemployment;
(2) job search during unemployment;
(3) re-employment.
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1. Introduktion
"In discussing the concept, many authors use uni-dimensional, outcomebased definitions, labelling an individual as employable based on their ability to gain employment (e.g. Finn, 2000; Ritchie, 2000; Van der Heijden, 2002). Such definitions are tautological http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautologi_(logik) because people who are employed are defined ‘‘employable’’.
"Fugate et al. (2004) present employability as a person-centred, psycho-social construct, decoupled from one’s employment status. This means that one can be employable without necessarily being in employment."
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2. The psycho-social model of employability
(i) adaptability;
"Adaptability refers to the willingness and ability to change behaviours, feelings and
thoughts in response to environmental demands." ... "Adaptable individuals have a high tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity and are comfortable in novel situations and across organisational boundaries (O’Connell (in Press)). Encompassed in the dimension of adaptability is the construct of proactive personality." ... "Proactive personality has been linked to identifying and acting on opportunities, feelings of control, perseverance, self-efficacy, self-direction, coping, and information- seeking (Bateman, 1993; m.m.). Factors such as an internal locus of control, self-efficacy and problem-focussed coping play important roles in gaining re-employment."
(ii) career identity;
"...career identity, represents the way individuals define themselves in the career context, and can be conceptualised as a ‘cognitive compass’ used to navigate career opportunities (Fugate et al., 2004). Career identity reflects the ‘knowing-why’ competencies identified by Defillippi and Arthur (1994). ‘Knowing-why’ competencies encompass attributes such as career motivation, personal meaning and individual values. Given that career trajectories are less externally defined in the new career environment (McGreevy, 2003), the use of an ‘internal career compass’ has become critically important in providing direction, especially when the individual finds him/herself outside of the boundaries of an employing organisation. Hall, Briscoe, and Kram (1997) suggest that, in today’s turbulent career environment, identity needs to be decoupled from a specific job or organisation, instead representing an individual’s personal values, motivations and broader career interests."
(iii) human and social capital.
"Human capital refers to the personal variables that may affect one’s career advancement, including education, work experience, training, skills, and knowledge. Human capital encompasses the ‘knowing-how’ competencies outlined by Defillippi and Arthur (1994)." ...
"Social capital reflects the interpersonal aspect of employability, incorporating Defillippi and Arthur’s (1994) ‘knowing-whom’ competencies concerning formal and informal career-related networks."
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3. Employability and unemployability
"Fugate suggest that employability is particularly applicable to the unemployment context. Specifically, they propose that employable individuals are
(a) less likely to be psychologically harmed by job loss,
(b) more likely to engage in greater job search,
(c) more likely to gain high quality re-employment.
The current studies .. empirically investigating: the relationship between employability, self-esteem & job search during unemployment (study 1); and; the relationship between employability, self-esteem, job search & re-employment (study 2).
3.1. Employability and self-esteem during unemployment
"Research has consistently shown that self-esteem is a key psychological factor that is negatively affected by unemployment "
"Hypothesis 1. Employability (adaptability, career identity, human, and social capital) relates positively to self-esteem during unemployment."
3.2. Employability and job search
"Hypothesis 2. Employability (adaptability, career identity, human and social capital) relates positively to job search during unemployment."
"Hypothesis 3. Employability relates indirectly and positively to job search during unemployment, via its positive effect on self-esteem."
3.3. Employability and re-employment
(Här finner jag egentligen en språklig otydlighet eftersom reemployment kan troligtvis översättas antingen som sysselsättning, eller nyt arbete eller ännu ngt annat och i svensk system är syselsättning inte samma sak som jobb. Men här talas nog om att få anställning tydligen.)
"Hypothesis 4. Employability (adaptability, career identity, human, and social capital) relates positively to obtaining re-employment."
"Hypothesis 5. Self-esteem will be positively related to obtaining re-employment."
"Hypothesis 6. Job search intensity will be positively related to obtaining re-employment."
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4. Methods and results
"The current research was conducted as two studies following the base line sample over a 6-month period using a longitudinal, survey design."
4.1. Study 1: baseline sample
4.1.1. Sample
"The study 1 sample consisted of 416 unemployed people (63% male and 37% female) with a mean age of 33.63 years (sd = 11.17). Respondents reported a variety of education levels: 43.1% had finished high school, 23.5% had completed university, 14.3% had obtained a TAFE (Training and Further Education) qualification, 11.8% had completed part of a university course, and 7.3% had completed an apprenticeship."
4.1.2. Measures
"Adaptability, career identity, human capital, social capital, self-esteem, and job search were all measured in study 1. With the exception of education, all items were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale from (1) ‘strongly disagree’ to (5) ‘strongly agree’. In all scales, a higher score indicated a higher presence of the construct."
4.1.3. Procedure
"Participants were accessed via the JobNetwork system. JobNetwork is an Australian Government initiative which provides unemployed individuals with access to a number of private and community organisations that can assist in the job search process (JobNetwork, 2005). One thousand surveys were placed at the front counter of JobNetwork offices by the researchers, along with a plain language statement (PLS), and pre-paid returnaddressed envelope. Surveys were left in the offices for a 1-month period."
"On completion and return of the survey, respondents were paid $10."
4.1.4. Results
"Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and correlations for all variables assessed in the study."
"The final model is presented in Fig. 2."
"Fig. 2. The relationships between employability, self-esteem and job search during unemployment (study 1 SEM results) (n.s., non-significant)."
" ...indices suggest a strong fit of the model to the data. Analysis of the standardised regression weights indicated that proactive personality contributed the most to employability (0.81), followed by boundaryless mindset (0.70), career self-efficacy (0.68), identity awareness (0.68), networking (0.65), and social support (0.31). Overall, 20% of the variance in self-esteem and 42% of the variance in job search was explained by employability."
4.2. Study 2: longitudinal sample
4.2.1. Sample
"In study 2, 126 of the original 416 people completed the second-wave survey. Thirty nine of these people had gained re-employment, while 87 remained unemployed. In study 2, 126 of the original 416 people completed the second-wave survey. Of the re-employed group, 59% were male and 41% female with a mean age of 33.77 years (sd = 10.92). In terms of education, 38.5% had completed university, 28.2% had finished high school, 17.9% had a TAFE qualification, 10.3% had gained an apprenticeship, and 5.1% had completed part of a university course. Of the unemployed group, 65% were male and 35% female, with a mean age of 35.46 (sd = 12.21). Forty-six percent had completed high school, 18.4% had finished university, 14.9% had a TAFE qualification, 12.6% had undertaken part of a university course, and 8% had completed an apprenticeship."
"The baseline scores for proactive personality, boundaryless mindset, career self-efficacy, identity awareness, networking, social support, job search and self-esteem were also compared between the two groups using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and no differences were found (F(8, 407) = 1.142, p = .334). This pattern of results indicates that the sample did not suffer from attrition bias between study 1 and study 2."
4.3. Measures
"In study 2, survey participants were asked to indicate their employment situation."
4.3.1. Procedure
"Six months after the initial survey, all study 1 participants were contacted by mail with the study 2 questionnaire. Respondents were paid $25 for completion of the follow-up survey."
4.3.2. Results
"SEM was again used to test the study 2 hypotheses. The same variables were entered with the ddition of the binary measure of re-employment. The study 2 model is presented in Fig. 3. ;S. McArdle et al. / Journal of Vocational Behavior 71 (2007) 247–264 257 ; Fig. 3. The relationships between employability, self-esteem, job search and re-employment (study 2 SEM results) (n.s., non-significant).;
Analysis of the standardised regression weights indicated that boundaryless mindset contributed the most to employability in study 2 (0.84), followed by proactive personality (0.77), career self-efficacy (0.60), identity awareness (0.52), and social support (0.31). In total, 16% of the variance in re-employment was explained by employability."
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5. Discussion
"The aim of the current paper was to apply Fugate et al.’s (2004) psycho-social construct of employability to an unemployed sample. "
"Overall, the results of this longitudinal research provide support for Fugate et al.’s (2004) employability model and demonstrate the applicability of employability in an unemployment context."
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Recension för en bok:
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Boken "Personligt Entreprenörskap - att få saker att hända" av Stefan Olsson
och Markus Frödin är en skönt lättläst bok. Det är inget vetenskaplig bok framförallt
av den anlädning att direkta citater och hänvisningar till vetenskapliga artiklar eller
böcker saknas helt och hålet . I Forordet på sidan 13 står det
"Vi har heller inte gjort källhänvisningar på bokens sidor ...
Många av tankarna är universella och kommer från olika håll."
När jag läser Olssons och Frödins boken påminner den mig en amerikansk terapeut
L.Louise Hay och hennes bok "You can heal your life" från året 1984.
Det är samma ideer fast man använder lite anorlunda jämförelse och ordval.
Exempelvis på sidan 55 hos Olsson och Frödin står det "... Vi kallar den universallagen.
Den dyker upp överallt och styr allt som skapas av oss människor i universum.
... allting skapas två gånger, först i fantasin, sen i verkligheten.
" Matsvarande beskrivning finns i "You kan heal your life" på sidan 2:
"... what I believe about myself and about life becomes true för me.
What you choose to think about yourself and about life becomes true för you ."
Det finns också på video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ALzFzsr2Y .
En annan exempel är en fin beskrivning som finns hos Olsson och Frödin på sidan 175:
"Dåliga tankar och negativa tankemönster är som ogräs,
... När negativa tankemönster smyger sig påå får du ta fram din mentala ogräsmaskin
och rensa bort det direkt när det kommer. Hos dig själv och andra,
det är något du alltid kan arbeta med. Om ogräset får växa för länge blir rötterna starka,
stora och säga." Motsvarande beskrivning hittar man hos L. Louise Hay på sidan
" You can just say to them out... whot ever yor negativ bubbel is".
Olsson och Frödin ofta grupperar liknande företeelser för att räkna ut dem i punkter.
Och så har vi bl.a.
7 tryggheter på sidan 24,
3 förutsättningar för att lyckas (bra säljare, bra marknad, bra produkt) på sidan 31,
8 hemligheter på sidan 39,
3 krafterna (ansvarskraft, beslutskraft, resurskraft) på sidan 51,
4 principer på sidan 71,
4 strategierna (klandra..., lämna..., förändra..., acceptera...) på sidan 123,
den fantastiska 4 (kroppen, tanken, kommunikationen, omgivningen) på sidan 140,
och 10 sanningar på sidan 189.
Olsson och Frödin skriver i forordet på sidan 12
"En hel del tankarna kommer från kunskapsfältet NLP,
som sedan länge används för mental träning inom idrott..."
och på sidan 157 beskriver de mental repetition som ofta används av framstående idrotsutövare:
"Tänk på "bästa tillfället" när du gjort det du snart skall göra..."
På sidan 149 presenterar författarna begrepet "karta" :
" Din egen inre bild av hur du uppfattar världen kan du kalla för din "karta"".
Detta begreppet hittar vi inom NLP teorin :
"Att lära sig förstå vilka filmer man ser världen igenom
och vilken karta man har - det vill säga den inre bild man uppfattar som "verkligheten",
men som kan se helt olika ut hos olika personer."
skriver Gabriella Wejlid på
http://www.nlpskolan.se/artikel.pdf .
Andra intressanta saker som tas upp i boken är exempelvis att hjärnan alltid söker bevis
på det man tror på, eller att det är ord som lagras i mine och att vi kan välja positiva
eller negativa ord för en och samma sak.
En annan sak är att bokens huvud begreppet "personligt entreprenorskap"
är beskriven på ett kontroversiell, omtvistad och oskärp sätt.
Det står i forordet på sidan 12 "Vi har själva tagit fram begreppet personligt entrepränorskap".
Men varför valde författarna just sådana ord och get dem ett nytt innehåll.
Ett innehåll som stämmer inte med hur man använder dessa ord i vanliga fal.
Till slut vill jag kritisera begreppet "personligt entreprenörskap".
Den verkar från en sida orolig, felaktig ,
osamt men från andra sida kan ses som en intressant tvärvetenskaplig röra mellan
ekonomi och företagande neurologi, psykologi samt tro som man kan väll placera i
teologin eller religionsvetenskap. Boken nämligen handlar väldigt mycket om vad man tror på ,
hur människan fungerar och lite om företagande.
Som det är nu så ordet entreprenör förknippas med bygg branschen,
med arkitekter, eller med företagande. Dessvärre Olsson och Frödin ger ordet en helt nytt innehåll.
på sidan 10 står det "entreprenörskap - ett lust - och handlingsorienterat förhållningssätt till livet,
att få saker att hända". det tycker jag är helt felaktig .
På samma sidan formulerar de ordet personligt på att lika förvrängt sätt,
dvs helt annat än de flesta förstår detta ordet: De skriver :
"personligt - att ta ansvar och agera själv tillsammans med andra".
Jag tror att boken hade varit mer korrekt om författarna hade
från början erkänt att de ska sammanfatta vad NLP går ut på istället för att anstränga sig
på att få fram begreppet "personligt entreprenörskap" på förklarad på ett mycket subjektivt sätt
som verkar inte riktig stämma med verkligheten.
Om man översätter "personligt entreprenörskap" till engelska så kan man få antingen
"private entrepreneurship" eller "personal entrepreneurship".
http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=12588&postid=1580559
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2mPQe8xMuk
