Organizational predictors of employability and the moderating impact of boundaryless career attitude: A multi-wave study among Italian employees

Abstract

Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm and the Human Resource Architecture (HRA) model, this study aimed to overcome the agency perspective in scholarly work on employability, and to extend prior research by considering the role of organizational resources and career attitudes for its development. In particular, we examined the mediating role of perceived organizational support for competency development (POSCD) on the association between (perceived) employability culture and self-perceived employability, also considering boundaryless career attitude (BCA) as a moderator. We sampled 422 Italian employees across two-time points over a period of four months, and we analyzed results by means of multi-group structural equation modeling. We found that POSCD fully mediated the association between (perceived) employability culture and self-perceived employability. As for moderation effects, the association from POSCD to employability was positive only at lower BCA values, impacting on the mediated effect of employability culture. Our findings contribute to the RBV of the firm by highlighting the importance of aligning the organizational culture with concrete actions (i.e., POSCD) to enhance employability. Moreover, by highlighting the moderating role of BCA, we contribute to the HRA model by suggesting that organizations should also take into account employees' differences as regards their career attitudes. As for the employability literature, we stressed the predictive role of contextual factors (e.g., POSCD) hence counterpoising the predominant agency perspective. Our study offers implications for HR practices, advocating tailored competency development that considers individual career attitudes and emphasizes the importance of developing an organizational culture that supports employee involvement and growth, hence suggesting that both horizontal and vertical integrations are needed for delivering beneficial HR bundles.