IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v166y2020i3d10.1007_s10551-019-04140-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vulnerable Workers’ Employability Competences: The Role of Establishing Clear Expectations, Developmental Inducements, and Social Organizational Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Mieke Audenaert

    (Ghent University)

  • Beatrice Heijden

    (Radboud University
    Ghent University
    Open University of The Netherlands
    University of Kingston)

  • Neil Conway

    (University of London)

  • Saskia Crucke

    (Ghent University)

  • Adelien Decramer

    (Ghent University)

Abstract

Using an ethical approach to the study of employability, we question the mainstream approach to career self-direction. We focus on a specific category of employees that has been neglected in past research, namely vulnerable workers who have been unemployed for several years and who have faced multiple psychosocial problems. Building on the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity model, we examine how establishing clear expectations, developmental inducements, and social organizational goals can foster employability competences of vulnerable workers. Our study took place in the particularly relevant context of social enterprises, which have a primary goal to enhance the employability competences of vulnerable workers. Multilevel analysis of data from 38 CEOs of social enterprises, 121 leaders and 594 workers, demonstrated that establishing clear expectations and developmental inducements enable vulnerable workers to anticipate and optimize their employability competences. Furthermore, a positive association was found between establishing clear expectations and the balance dimension of employability, yet only in social enterprises that prioritize social organizational goals, suggesting the need to recognize the extent organizational goals shape opportunities for vulnerable workers. Establishing clear expectations and developmental inducements can therefore enhance vulnerable workers’ employability competences in supportive contexts; however, there may be detrimental side effects to drifting away from social organizational goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Mieke Audenaert & Beatrice Heijden & Neil Conway & Saskia Crucke & Adelien Decramer, 2020. "Vulnerable Workers’ Employability Competences: The Role of Establishing Clear Expectations, Developmental Inducements, and Social Organizational Goals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 627-641, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:166:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04140-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04140-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-019-04140-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-019-04140-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michelle Greenwood, 2013. "Ethical Analyses of HRM: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 355-366, May.
    2. Van Buren, Harry J., 2003. "Boundaryless Careers and Employability Obligations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 131-149, April.
    3. Brent D. Beal & Marina Astakhova, 2017. "Management and Income Inequality: A Review and Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 1-23, April.
    4. Tommaso Ramus & Antonino Vaccaro, 2017. "Stakeholders Matter: How Social Enterprises Address Mission Drift," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(2), pages 307-322, June.
    5. Saskia Crucke & Mirjam Knockaert, 2016. "When Stakeholder Representation Leads to Faultlines. A Study of Board Service Performance in Social Enterprises," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 768-793, July.
    6. M. Guerci & Giovanni Radaelli & Elena Siletti & Stefano Cirella & A. Rami Shani, 2015. "The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices and Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Ethical Climates: An Employee Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 325-342, January.
    7. Michelle Greenwood & Harry J. Van Buren, 2017. "Ideology in HRM Scholarship: Interrogating the Ideological Performativity of ‘New Unitarism’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(4), pages 663-678, June.
    8. Mats Ehrnrooth & Ingmar Björkman, 2012. "An Integrative HRM Process Theorization: Beyond Signalling Effects and Mutual Gains," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(6), pages 1109-1135, September.
    9. Elizabeth Chell & Laura J. Spence & Francesco Perrini & Jared D. Harris, 2016. "Social Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics: Does Social Equal Ethical?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 619-625, February.
    10. Beatrice I.J.M. Van der Heijden & Ans De Vos, 2015. "Sustainable careers: introductory chapter," Chapters, in: Handbook of Research on Sustainable Careers, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Peter CUYPER & Laura JACOBS & Caroline GIJSELINCKX, 2015. "More than Work Integration Strategy for the Delimitation of a Population of Social Economy Actors for a Monitor of the Social economy in Flanders," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(2), pages 267-290, June.
    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. Audenaert, Mieke & Decramer, Adelien & George, Bert, 2021. "How to foster employee quality of life: The role of employee performance management and authentic leadership," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    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. Pradeep Kumar Hota, 2023. "Tracing the Intellectual Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship Research: Past Advances, Current Trends, and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 637-659, January.
    2. Matthijs Bal & Andy Brookes, 2022. "How Sustainable Is Human Resource Management Really? An Argument for Radical Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Piotr Zientara & Joanna Adamska‐Mieruszewska & Monika Bąk, 2021. "Hotel employees' views on fairness, well‐being and collective representation in times of the coronavirus crisis: Evidence from Poland," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 458-475, September.
    4. Elizabeth A. R. Fowler & Betty S. Coffey & Heather R. Dixon-Fowler, 2019. "Transforming Good Intentions into Social Impact: A Case on the Creation and Evolution of a Social Enterprise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 665-678, October.
    5. Claudia Savarese & Benjamin Huybrechts & Marek Hudon, 2021. "The Influence of Interorganizational Collaboration on Logic Conciliation and Tensions Within Hybrid Organizations: Insights from Social Enterprise–Corporate Collaborations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(4), pages 709-721, November.
    6. Wai Wai Ko & Gordon Liu, 2021. "The Transformation from Traditional Nonprofit Organizations to Social Enterprises: An Institutional Entrepreneurship Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 15-32, June.
    7. Hota, Pradeep Kumar & Bhatt, Babita & Qureshi, Israr, 2023. "Institutional work to navigate ethical dilemmas: Evidence from a social enterprise," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(1).
    8. Audenaert, Mieke & Decramer, Adelien & George, Bert, 2021. "How to foster employee quality of life: The role of employee performance management and authentic leadership," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Paolo Esposito & Emanuele Doronzo & Spiridione Lucio Dicorato, 2023. "The financial and green effects of cultural values on mission drifts in European social enterprises," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 1-29, January.
    10. Luca Mongelli & Francesco Rullani & Tommaso Ramus & Tomislav Rimac, 2019. "The Bright Side of Hybridity: Exploring How Social Enterprises Manage and Leverage Their Hybrid Nature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 301-305, October.
    11. Claudia Savarese & Benjamin Huybrechts & Marek Hudon, 2020. "The Influence of Interorganizational Collaboration on Logic Conciliation and Tensions Within Hybrid Organizations: Insights from Social Enterprise–Corporate Collaborations," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/311573, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Francesco Di Lorenzo & Mariarosa Scarlata, 2019. "Social Enterprises, Venture Philanthropy and the Alleviation of Income Inequality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 307-323, October.
    13. Andrew Lynn, 2022. "Ethics, Economics, and the Specter of Naturalism: The Enduring Relevance of the Harmony Doctrine School of Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 661-673, July.
    14. Vijayasingham, Lavanya & Jogulu, Uma & Allotey, Pascale, 2020. "Chronic illness and sustainable careers: How individuals with multiple sclerosis negotiate work transitions in a middle-income country," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    15. Robert E. Till & Mary Beth Yount, 2019. "Governance and Incentives: Is It Really All about the Money?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 605-618, October.
    16. Reeti Kulshrestha & Arunaditya Sahay & Subhanjan Sengupta, 2022. "Constituents and Drivers of Mission Engagement for Social Enterprise Sustainability: A Systematic Review," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 31(1), pages 90-120, March.
    17. Kaifeng Jiang & Riki Takeuchi & David P. Lepak, 2013. "Where do We Go From Here? New Perspectives on the Black Box in Strategic Human Resource Management Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1448-1480, December.
    18. Maria Järlström & Essi Saru & Sinikka Vanhala, 2018. "Sustainable Human Resource Management with Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 703-724, October.
    19. Joep P. Cornelissen & Rodolphe Durand, 2014. "Moving Forward: Developing Theoretical Contributions in Management Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 995-1022, September.
    20. Gregorio Sánchez-Marín & Gabriel Lozano-Reina & Mané Beglaryan, 2022. "HRM Policies and SMEs Performance: The Moderating Role of CSR Orientation," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2022(1), pages 85-110.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:166:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04140-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.