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

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  2. Department of Marketing, Innovation and Organisation, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Mieke Audenaert, Beatrice Van der Heijden, Saskia Crucke & Adelien Decramer

  3. Open University of The Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  4. University of Kingston, London, UK

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  5. Hubei University, Wuhan, China

    Beatrice Van der Heijden

  6. School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK

    Neil Conway

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  1. Mieke Audenaert
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Correspondence to Mieke Audenaert.

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Audenaert, M., Van der Heijden, B., Conway, N. et al. Vulnerable Workers’ Employability Competences: The Role of Establishing Clear Expectations, Developmental Inducements, and Social Organizational Goals. J Bus Ethics 166, 627–641 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04140-9

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