Employability, empowerment and employers, between debunking and appreciating action: nine cases from the ICT sector

Abstract

An important strand in the literature promotes the idea that investment in employability, specifically in marketable skills and talents, self-presentation efficacy, actual levels of skill, knowledge and experience, will go a long way in addressing the problems caused by creative destruction. The paper examines employability policy and employees' perceptions of their employability in nine information and communication technologies (ICT) companies, located in Germany and in the Netherlands. In all these companies, sustained employability was problematic. Together, they form a critical case for testing some of the assumptions of employability thinking. Beyond this, the paper explores the space for action. Some of the companies pioneered sophisticated, high organizational involvement forms of employability enhancement, while others highlighted the interplay of employability and employee protection as a mechanism that can help create security.

Keywords:

• consultants
• employability
• employers
• ICT
• software companies

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Julie McMullin of the Workforce Ageing In The New Economy team for sharing the data that made this paper possible and for inviting me to London, Ontario and the Social Sciences Centre of the University of Western Ontario for hosting me. I am grateful to Emily Jovic for her kind assistance and to Maria Fleischmann, Pascal Dérogée and one of the anonymous reviewers for their extremely valuable comments. This work was supported by the Stichting Instituut GAK.

Notes

1. For more information on the WANE project, see www.wane.ca.