IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i24p7089-d296550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Work Volition and Career Adaptability as Predictors of Employability: Examining a Moderated Mediating Process

Author

Listed:
  • Jung Eon Kwon

    (Department of Career and Education Consulting, Cyber Graduate School, Joongbu University, 305, Dongheon-ro, Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 10279, Korea)

Abstract

Slow economic growth and cost reduction have caused a global increase in employment insecurity. For university students in the process of preparing for employment, these conditions can be a source of enormous stress. The effort to improve the employability of university students who experience difficulties in seeking a job and developing a career, therefore, becomes consequently meritorious. In order to provide new findings of the key antecedents affecting employability, this study investigates the dynamics of work volition and career adaptability. Employability is predicted by integrating career adaptability, which originated in career construction theory, and work volition, which originated in the psychology of working framework. To test the research hypotheses, survey data were collected from 251 students registered at three universities in South Korea and analyzed using a structural equation model and Hayes’ process macro. Results indicated that the direct effect of work volition on employability and its indirect effect through career adaptability were significant. Next, the mediation effect of career adaptability between work volition and employability was varied positively by work volition. These results provide practical implications for efforts aimed at increasing the employability of university students and, as such, present a foundation for contribution to ensuring sustainable employability.

Suggested Citation

  • Jung Eon Kwon, 2019. "Work Volition and Career Adaptability as Predictors of Employability: Examining a Moderated Mediating Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7089-:d:296550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7089/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7089/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald W. McQuaid & Colin Lindsay, 2005. "The Concept of Employability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 197-219, February.
    2. Paola Magnano & Giuseppe Santisi & Andrea Zammitti & Rita Zarbo & Santo Di Nuovo, 2019. "Self-Perceived Employability and Meaningful Work: The Mediating Role of Courage on Quality of Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Razvan Bologa & Ana-Ramona Lupu & Catalin Boja & Tiberiu Marian Georgescu, 2017. "Sustaining Employability: A Process for Introducing Cloud Computing, Big Data, Social Networks, Mobile Programming and Cybersecurity into Academic Curricula," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Rita Chiesa & Luca Fazi & Dina Guglielmi & Marco Giovanni Mariani, 2018. "Enhancing Substainability: Psychological Capital, Perceived Employability, and Job Insecurity in Different Work Contract Conditions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-10, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chau-kiu Cheung & Cindy Xinshan Jia, 2024. "Law Awareness and Abidance and Radicalism Prevention Among Hong Kong Youth," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(5), pages 2267-2285, October.
    2. Sylwia Wiśniewska & Kamil Wiśniewski & Robert Szydło, 2021. "The Relationship between Organizational Learning at the Individual Level and Perceived Employability: A Model-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Edgermi Gerasta Gingoyon & Ivy Joy M. Omlang & Angeline Mag-aso Pogoy, 2025. "Determinants of skill stability in the workforce among countries," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - SOCIAL SCIENCES, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 15(3), pages 21-34.
    4. Hyung Rok Woo, 2020. "Perceived Overqualification and Job Crafting: The Curvilinear Moderation of Career Adaptability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nazanin Naderiadib Alpler & Huseyin Arasli, 2020. "Can Hindrance Stressors Change the Nature of Perceived Employability? An Empirical Study in the Hotel Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Sylwia Wiśniewska & Kamil Wiśniewski & Robert Szydło, 2021. "The Relationship between Organizational Learning at the Individual Level and Perceived Employability: A Model-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Basheer M. Al-Ghazali & M. Sadiq Sohail & Ibrahim Ali M. Jumaan, 2021. "CSR Perceptions and Career Satisfaction: The Role of Psychological Capital and Moral Identity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Paul Spoonley, 2008. "Utilising a Demand-led Approach in a Local Labour Market," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 23(1), pages 19-30, February.
    5. Miguel Baião Santos, 2010. "Inserção no Mercado de Trabalho e Formação Profissional - Guia Teórico para Decisores," Working Papers wp052010, SOCIUS, Research Centre in Economic and Organisational Sociology at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG) of the University of Lisbon.
    6. Sciences, Research Coach in Social & Dinh, Ngoan-Thi & Hiep, Pham Hung, 2019. "Examining Fresh Graduates’ Perception of Employability in the Information Technology Industry in Vietnam," OSF Preprints 32ghv, Center for Open Science.
    7. Thunyalak Weerasombat & Pongsaya Pumipatyothin & Chaturong Napathorn, 2022. "Understanding Employability in Changing Labor Market Contexts: The Case of an Emerging Market Economy of Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-25, August.
    8. Richard Crisp & Ryan Powell, 2017. "Young people and UK labour market policy: A critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(8), pages 1784-1807, June.
    9. Meriç Ergün & Harun Şeşen, 2021. "A Comprehensive Study on University Students’ Perceived Employability: Comparative Effects of Personal and Contextual Factors," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    10. Monika Mühlböck & Nadia Steiber & Bernhard Kittel, 2022. "Learning to keep the faith? Further education and perceived employability among young unemployed," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 705-725, May.
    11. Andreja Mihailović & Julija Cerović Smolović & Ivan Radević & Neli Rašović & Nikola Martinović, 2021. "COVID-19 and Beyond: Employee Perceptions of the Efficiency of Teleworking and Its Cybersecurity Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-26, June.
    12. Somaya Ahmed Aly Abdel-Mowla, 2012. "Females’ Off-the-Job Search Methods in Egypt: Formal versus Informal Search Methods," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 1(1), pages 21-42, June.
    13. Sergio Firpo & Sandro Carvalho & Renan Pieri, 2016. "Using occupational structure to measure employability with an application to the Brazilian labor market," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Yueh-Min Huang & Ming-Yuan Hsieh, 2020. "An Interdisciplinary Research on Students’ Employability in Technology Education to Advance Higher Education Enrollment Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Colin Lindsay, 2005. "Employability, Services for Unemployed Job Seekers and the Digital Divide," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 325-339, February.
    16. Simon Tranberg Bodilsen & Søren Albeck Nielsen & Michael Rosholm, 2025. "Measuring employment readiness for hard-to-place individuals," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Garrouste, Christelle & Rodrigues, Margarida, 2012. "The employability of young graduates in Europe: Analysis of the ET2020 benchmark," MPRA Paper 49919, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Vanessa Beck & Martin Quinn, 2011. "The Importance of Health in Promoting Employability in the East Midlands," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(1), pages 9-20, February.
    19. Karen Handley, 2018. "Anticipatory Socialization and the Construction of the Employable Graduate: A Critical Analysis of Employers’ Graduate Careers Websites," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(2), pages 239-256, April.
    20. Janice Tripney & Mark Newman & Kimberly Hovish & Chris Brown, 2012. "PROTOCOL: Post‐basic Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Interventions to Improve Employability and Employment of TVET Graduates in Low‐ and Middle‐income Countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), pages 1-53.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7089-:d:296550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.