Career control, career dialogue and managerial position How do these matter for perceived employability?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine three-way interactions among career control, career dialogue and managerial position in predicting perceived employability. The authors expected that participation in career dialogue strengthens the positive relationship between career control and employability. Furthermore, the authors expected that managers benefit more from career dialogue than employees. Hence, the relationship between career control and employability was expected to be strongest when employees engage in career dialogue and hold a managerial position.

Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected in 2014 conducting a cross-sectional survey among managers (n = 206) and employees (n = 254) at a Dutch location of a large science-based multinational. Moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings - Career control was positively related to perceived employability. This relationship was significantly stronger for the managerial group that did participate in a career dialogue than for the managerial group that did not engage in a career dialogue. For the non-managerial group of employees participation in a career dialogue did not strengthen the relationship between career control and perceived employability.

Practical implications - Career control is beneficial for enhancing perceived employability among employees regardless of their position in the organization. Hence, training employees to master this competency may be a fruitful starting point for enhancing employability.

Originality/value - This is the first study to investigate whether the relation between career control, career dialogue and employability differs for employees with a managerial and a non-managerial role.