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Employability in working life: Graduates’ expectations and possibilities after graduation
Airi Rovio‐Johansson and Stefan Tengblad Gothenburg Research Institute (GRI), School of Business. Economics and Law at Göteborg University Airi.Rovio‐Johansson@gri.gu.se Stefan Tengblad@gri.gu.se th Nordic Academy of Management Conference, Paper presented at the 19 August 9‐11, Bergen, Norway.

Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate graduates’ strategies and attitudes towards employability and career development, and to construct a tentative model of employability by identifying inherent factors. Four theoretical perspectives have been used to discuss the concept employability and the empirical results, i.e., the Human capital theory perspective, Institutional theory perspective, Critical theory perspective, and Actor theory perspective. The research project takes its point of departure in changes of the European and the Swedish labour market during recent years and the ongoing restructuring of Higher Education in Europe. A fundamental principle underlying these movements is the formulation of “Employability” as a thesis that aims at making the European Union the most dynamic and productive Higher Education Area and labour market. A higher degree of “employability” is attainable if the relation between the employee and the employer depend more on market based contracts limited in time, and where the employees are willing to take a higher degree of responsibility for their careers. As a corollary of that principle is the belief that the individual has a personal responsibility to sustain his or her capability and competence in order to be employable. Preliminary results are presented from a questionnaire to 959 graduates, 546 civil engineers who have graduated between 1999/2000 to 2003/2004 from the Faculty of Technology, and 413 business administrators who have studied at the Faculty of Economy. The average response rate was 62 %. These employees have gained one to five years of work experiences in the Swedish labour market. The results indicate that when priority is given by the employees to own professional knowledge development, the graduates have a variety of strategies to be employable and for their career development. There are a number of factors affecting their attitudes to take responsibility for their employability. Some of those factors, based on empirical data from this first survey, are presented in a tentative model of employability, which will be further tested and developed based on survey data from a larger sample of Swedes.

Keywords: employability, higher education, actor theory, graduates.

Acknowledgement The project is financed by a grant for the Swedish Research Council.

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INTRODUCTION Employability has become an established thesis in European labour market and in educational politics during the last decades. The thesis stands for the transformation, democratisation, and modernisation of the relation between employer and employee, with the aim to create a dynamic and productive labour market which to a larger extent is based on time limited and market based contracts between employees and employers, and including extended employee responsibility. Harvey (2000) and Moreau and Leathwood (2006) stated that graduates’ employability is high on the Government agenda in many countries. The expectation is that the graduates’ employment-oriented outcomes can contribute to economic growth, even though the research on employability has indicated contradictory results. A micro-study is missing which relatively unprejudiced investigates to what extent the thesis about employability in reality has had an impact on the practise of the labour market. The aim of the study is to (1) investigate graduates’ attitudes and strategies towards employability and career development, and (2) to construct a tentative model of employability by identifying inherent factors based on survey data. The following research questions investigate the effect of the thesis of employability: 1. What practical meaning has the idea that the employees actively should take responsibility for their attractiveness on the labour market? 2. What kind of responsibility of employability is it? 3. What kind of employees’ strategies and non-strategies of employability are common in the Swedish labour market? 4. How does employability in practise support the European Union’s ambitions to make Europe to a dynamic labour market? The paper is first focused on the research questions one to three. Therefore we investigate employees’ attitudes to their individual employability (Van Dam, 2004). Second, then the paper is aiming at describing to what extent and how graduate from Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Technology are oriented towards employability, and if there are differences in this orienteering in terms of education sex, ethnicity, family and work experiences such as number of years or number of positions or forms of employment. Third, then the intention is to construct a tentative model of employability by identifying inherent factors based on survey data, from the first study (henceforth referred to as Study 1). The results of the Study 1 are expected to give valuable contributions to both theory and practice on employability as well as to educational politics, and labour politics in Sweden and EU. The contributions can support the reorganised European Higher Education due to the implementation of the Bologna reform (Ds 2004:2) and its employability concept as well as the entire European Higher Education Area (EHEA, which come into force from 2010.

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THE FRAMEWORK Employability as a concept Employability as a concept has drawn attention in research, and has already developed norms and practise in working life according to some researchers (Docherty and Huzzard, 2003; Garsten and Jacobsen, 2004). Employability is mainly a normative concept and ought to be regarded as a thesis – a faith aiming to affect action – to reform traditional relations between employees and employers. It is possible to regard the thesis of employability from (a) an organizational perspective. (b) a political labour perspective, and (c) an political educational perspective. In the rhetoric of employability, the concept is given many definitions and meanings, varying from those emphasising individual skills and abilities, and preparedness to be employable to those laying stress on the employee’s qualifications, the demand of labour force, and the employer’s preferences and pattern of selection (McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). Baruch (2001, p. 545) suggests that “the idea of employability” is possible to understand, according to scholars in the management field, as to “offer people a different kind of psychological contract so that they will feel a fair deal exists, so that they will not feel betrayed”. We acknowledge the fact that to be employable depends on both individual factors and external factors. However, in this study we focus on individual factors by mapping which strategies and responses the employees’ have developed to be attractive on the labour market. The focus is on the individuals’ attitudes towards employability for the organization (van Dam, 2004) and for themselves. The individuals’ attitudes towards employability embrace various dimensions such as their willingness and ability to: • be engaged and take responsibility • assess future demands of their profession • make career management • maintain and upgrade knowledge and skills • be integrated in the work at the place of work • accept new offers of work • search for new job offers • work in networks to collect job information, • move and to change profession and career The introduction of the thesis of employability The popularity of the thesis of employability is possible to trace to 80’s. when many American enterprises and companies made great restructuring of the organizations. During the 90’s the thesis of employability and its meaning also become related to the labour market policies. In the last two decades the thesis has became an important part of the European Education Policies through the Bologna reform. In the following, we focus on the three aspects of the thesis of employability Employability as an organizational thesis. In the 80’s American economy was affected by decreasing profitability and an increasing international competition. This was a releasing factor for many well known companies such as IBM and General Electric to reconsider earlier given promises concerning employability. At that time they accomplished extensive reductions of personnel.

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At that time, the value of flexibility seemed to be noticed and a policy of life long employment for most of the employees made the companies vulnerable when changes were needed due to changes in demands, shifts of techniques etc. (Atkinson, 1984). The concept “employability” became linked to new ideas about the importance of flexibility. The book “When Giants Learn to Dance” (Kanter, 1989) exemplifies how traditional big companies were criticised for being too hierarchical organised and incapable to cope with changes. Furthermore, traditional forms of employability and traditional career management were pointed out as important reasons for inability to change. From the organizational perspective, employability means that the staff’s security of employment has to be linked to the ability to be re-employed when needed. That presupposes that staff has extensive opportunities for training and development facilities in order to be attractive for the employer and potential employers (Waterman et al.. 1994; Werhane et al., 2004). The organizational thesis of employability stressed that it is the employees’ responsibility to develop an attractive knowledge profile from the employers’ perspective (Salomonsson, 2003; Garsten and Jacobsen, 2004). A related concept is “self-management”, which stands for an idealized employee who is able to work independently and who is able to take full responsibility for his or her in-service training (Drucker, 2000). Employability as a labour market policy In the struggle to vitalise the labour market of the member states, EU has used employability as a central concept (Price, 2004). In the EU meeting in November 1997 in Luxemburg, the European Employment Strategy (EES, 1997) was launched, in which employability was approved as the first concept, before entrepreneurship, adaptability, and equivalence in the new declaration of the policy of the EU labour market (www.eu.int/comm/employmemt_social/employment_strategy/index_en.htm). The EES from the Luxemburg meeting was followed in March 2000, by a Lisbon European Council meeting, in which the European Union set a strategic goal for the next decade in the “Lisbon Strategy”: “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. The strategy was designed to enable the Union regain the conditions for full employment and to strengthen cohesion by 2010”. The Lisbon Strategy stresses that the employees´ capabilities ought to be strengthen through Life Long Learning, mobility and readiness for adaptation (Official Journal of European Union, 2005). A follow up report in March 2005 of the Lisbon Strategy accentuates the fact that the European labour markets have had difficulties in attaining these target goals. Particularly, the report points out the unsatisfying development of productivity compared to USA and Japan (Council of European Union, 2005). Various ways to bridge this productivity gap are discussed in the report. such as measures to enhance the level and the return on investments in human capital. The emphasis on employability in EU’s labour market policy has implied a strengthen focus on the supply to the labour market, compared to traditional measures to stimulate the demand of work force, for instance by enlarged budgets, tax subventions

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and credit- and interest policies. The new direction implies a try to decrease the gap between the competences of the applicants of jobs and the employers’ wishes, in order to counteract long term unemployment and the exclusion of individuals from the labour market. Jacobsen (2004) points out that the EU Guidelines of Employability emphasises high quality investments in human capital abilities in order to reach a sustainable high economic prosperity among EU’s member countries. This aim and direction of the labour force policy has led to carrots for individuals in terms of various measures and sticks in terms of demands of active job seeking individuals and restricted systems of social security (McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005). Employability as an educational policy The Bologna Declaration (1999) has played an important and contributing role to EU’s political and educational policies in constituting the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) (European University Association, 2001). The Bologna reform implies four overarching goals to characterise European higher education for students and stakeholders, namely, quality, attractiveness, mobility, and employability. EHEA is a global market, where higher education institutions compete to attract the best graduates. Quality assurance systems are built to ensure that undergraduate students and graduates (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, 2005) get the best education, which may lead to outstanding professions (Froment, Kohler, Lewis and Wilson, 2006). The three cycles of the Bologna reform induce new pressure on institutions in the EU member countries. The need for new educational programs is obvious as well as a shift of focus from teacher centred teaching to student centred learning in all modules and programs in higher education throughout the European Higher Education Area. This shift of focus calls for a new educational culture in undergraduate and post graduate higher education. Teachers in higher education need to become aware of the increasing needs to acquire new skills and to change roles from being the authority and communicator of knowledge, to becoming a creator and facilitator of learning and a monitor of new learning possibilities offered to a variety of student groups (Reichert and Tauch, 2005). One of the main features of the Bologna reform is the need to improve the traditional ways of describing qualifications and qualification structures (EUA, 2007). The “learning outcomes” are the knowledge and skills, i.e., what graduates are expected to achieve through their education and graduates are expected to be able to demonstrate that achievement. Learning outcomes are used to define and introduce to the graduates the demands of knowledge and skills of each course and each program at each level of studies. There are two broad divisions: (a) subject specific outcomes, relating narrowly to a defined set of knowledge; and (b) generic outcomes, describing general skills enhancing employability. The curriculum is expected to assure that the program aims, learning outcomes, teaching methods and assessment strategies are all aligned with the Bologna reform and comparable with courses and programs in various EU countries and the system of ECTS-points (European Credit Transfer System). A Diploma Supplement summarises and communicates this information to the outside world for instance to the employers (EUA. 2007). Bologna reform opens possibilities for stakeholders and employers to influence and to get important information about various programs (Rovio-Johansson and Bull. 2006), courses, examinations and degrees earned by graduates (Sursock. 2006).

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Employability is not only a question for newly graduated graduates but also already employed, who need to develop new knowledge, abilities and skills. The thesis of employability means for the individual that he or she has to continuously update knowledge, and actively establish a personal life long learning project (European Qualifications Framework –Life Long Learning, 2006).

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES The concept employability, known since the beginning of the last century, has been re-established as an important thesis of the European working life in the last 10 years. The thesis of employability has a potential and a regulating effect on the modern working life, its actors and the way it functions in terms of economic and social consequences on macro- and micro level. Therefore it is important to further develop theories of the thesis of employability and to collect empirically based knowledge about its social, cultural and economic effects. Research on employability needs a theoretical perspective and to be grounded on empirical data. We need to reflect on four theoretical perspectives, which lead to various understandings of the thesis of employability. These are: (1) Human Capital theory perspective, (2) Institutional theory perspective, (3) Critical theory perspective, and (4) Actor Theory perspective. All four perspectives can be argued as being relevant based on empirical data. Furthermore, we have not found out which perspective seems to be the best of them related to the empirical data. Evidently, more than one perspective can be relevant. The Human Capital Theory perspective According to the “Human Capital Theory” co-workers’ knowledge and competencies are the most valuable assets of the organization (Becker, 1964). Staff training drives ought to be regarded as investments and ought to be carried out to the extent that these contribute to organizational effectiveness and increased economic profit (Flamholtz and Lacey, 1981). An important problem has been that the employer does not “own” the co-workers’ knowledge and they can finish before the employer has taken advantage of the investment in human capital (Jackson and Schuler, 1999). One solution of this problem in order to create loyalty and commitment has been to offer the employees security of employment and possibilities to be promoted. This “psychological contract” (Baruch, 2001) between the employer and the employee was common in big American companies until the 80’s. The following restructuring of organizations led to cut down of staff had the consequence that the “psychological contract” was partly dissolved and the loyalty of the co-workers and their commitment was evidently diminished (Capelli, 1999). According to the human capital theory, in periods of strong pressures of change and competitiveness, it is possible to expect that new formal and informal contract will be established between the employer and the employee in order to secure profitability of the human investments. If the thesis of employability has gain a foothold in the Swedish working life, then there has been a displacement towards more time-limited and market adjusted employment contracts and staff training.

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From the economic perspective, which includes human capital theory, there is a common assumption that markets are functioning optimal if there is a high flow between occupations and employees. In such situations, the employers can get human competencies to the lowest prices, and the employees can get positions at the employers who pay the best salaries. From the individual’s perspective, a changing labour market is on the one hand a threat and on the other hand an opportunity. It is positive for the individual, if his or hers competence does not become “locked inside an organization”, isolated from existing potential employers and work opportunities. In a changing labour market, the risk is greater too loose the job or be replaced by those who have better competence alternatively have lower claim on salary. From a traditional economic perspective, it is common to be positive to the thesis of employability, when changing markets or maybe more effective markets, result in higher competition and higher pressure to do rationalisations, which are supposed to result in more effective production and economic growth. It is quite likely to suppose that this kind of argumentation of employability is a central aspect of the policies of European labour market and European Higher Education. The Institutional theory perspective Institutional theory perspective investigates and explains norms and patterns of behaviour from various grounds of explanations like rational choices and financial effectiveness (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991). Imitation is pointed out as a mean to achieve legitimacy and popularity. For instance, successful companies and organizations which can shape and design norms have been imitated by various organizations, because they want to stand out as equally modern and successful. Such ideals are more like “modes of organising” companies than effective companies from a financial point of view. Research based on institutional theory indicates that on the one hand these “mode of organising” has existed, and on the other hand there have existed stable patterns of actions and “modes of thinking”, which has been taken for granted. In other words, the continuously changing work life can be seen as a slowly moving and developing institution (Tengblad, 2003). However, the institutional theory approach is relevant to apply in complex and symbol loaded occasions. Organizations seem to adjust ritually to external demands and if these demands are disturb core activities in the organization, then the core activities are shut off from these external demands. This form of shut off, de-coupling, leads to discrepancies between what the organization states it is doing and what it actually does, what Brunsson (1985) called “organizational hypocrisy”. From the institutional theory perspective, research on employability indicates differences of meaning of the employability concept, when research from US and Europe has been compared. EU’s labour market policy is an attempt to vitalise the European labour market through achieving better balance between competition and solidarity, between effectiveness and equality, and between flexibility and safety (Jacobsen, 2004). This means that EU is trying to compromise between market oriented policy and a well fare oriented labour market policy. The thesis of employability has been variously applied among EU’s member states. Faurbæck (2004) found for instance great differences between Sweden and Denmark.

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From the institutional theory perspective, it is not surprising that the relation between rhetoric and practise is weak. The rhetoric of employability can in certain cases serves the aim of legitimising more than the financial aim, for instance to indicate for the surrounding world that EU’s institutions have the ability to take actions, even though it sometimes is more talk than action (Brunsson and Olsen, 1993). Svensson (2004) characterises the life-long-learning discourse as being strong but the practice is weak. Maybe, this also applies for the thesis of employability, but in that case it has to be based on empirical data. The critical theory perspective From the critical theory perspective, research has called attention to the fact that the thesis of employability signifies a shift of power, which is a disadvantage for the employees. They are expected to take the risk for employers’ investments. If the investments are not successful, even though these investments have been done because they seemed to be profitable from the employer’s perspective, the risk has to taken by the employees. From a critical theory perspective, to apply risk taking in this way, can be regarded as manipulation of the individuals’ as subjects (Garsten and Jacobsen, 2004; du Gay, 1996). To emphasise that the individual is responsible for its own employability is a manipulative action from the researchers’ perspective. The consequence is that the individuals become easy to control because they start to be self steering due to the intentions of those in power (Garsten and Jacobsen, 2004). The change of the European work policy, from full employment to full employability, means that the priority to define the problem as well as the responsibility, are displaced from politicians and employers to the individuals (Brown et al., 2001; Jacobsen, 2004). Jessop (1994) argues that this is a shift from a social welfare state to a competitive workfare state, in which the social need of the citizens are subordinated questions about how to strengthen the structural competitiveness. Related analysis of the development of the work life emphasise that a new kind of work life is growing and spreading; the new work life is characterised by flexibility, growing demands on the individual’s ability to take responsibility and to have a deep and broad competence (Magnusson and Ottosson, 2003). According to researchers who apply a critical theory perspective, there is a risk that individuals can get a feeling that they can form the destiny and therefore seem to be badly prepared to handle the misfortune (Allvin et al., 1998). Docherty and Huzzard (1998) have pointed out that since the thesis of employability addresses employees as individuals, who have a personal responsibility, the solidarity of the established labour unions can be challenged. Sennett (1998) asserts, in his heavy critic against the thesis of employability, that lack of security of employment and frequent changes of employers may cause dissolution of the character of the employees. There are many researchers who point out the negative consequences of the thesis of employability for instance by making the individuals responsible for handling their employability and making them responsible for the risk of being unable to take that responsibility.

The actor theory perspective The actor theory perspective is grounded in social constructivism, which implies that the individual and the collective actors are predetermined re-producers of the socially

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constructed reality (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). This approach presumes that neither economy as a driving force, institutional norm systems, nor political power structures, define the identity of the individuals, but these forces exert important influence on the individuals’ reflexive and subjective ways of creating their identity (Ingelhart, 1997; Lindgren et al., 2000). From a social constructivist’s perspective, it is of great importance to study the individuals’ action and frame of reference, which guides their behaviour and actions (Silverman, 1970). Taking this perspective as a point of departure, we can argue that it is important to describe how employees remain employed in different areas of the work force market, how they experience their commitments, and what obligations rest on them and on the employers (Capelli, 1999; “psychological contracts”). Such survey can contribute with valuable knowledge about the meaning and content of employability in the Swedish working life. That knowledge can be used to assess the effects of existing political ambitions concerning the higher education and the work life, in which employability is a key concept. An educational and political strategy of life-long-learning must affect a great number of employees in order to be effective on a national level. From an actor theory perspective it is interesting to study responses and strategies from employees or non-responses and non-strategies, which can exist if the thesis of employability is unknown by the employees or if they choose to disclaim from the thesis. For instance, responses and strategies are the employees’ preparedness to change employments, profession and housing estate, and to take responsibility for its learning and to adjust to change of the organization and how to perform the work, as well as responsibility for its health insurance and financial security, if it is demanded. In the critical theory perspective, the individuals are distrusted, and they are not regarded as able to create their own destiny. In the actor theory perspective, the individual is able to examine his or her surrounding world and to find frames of reference for acting, which are rational and make sense from the individual’s context and the individual’s perspective. Consequently, this perspective has an emancipatoric dimension, which means that it is possible for the individual to take responsibility for its own employability and to develop knowledge and skills, which are demanded for a successful professional life. Accordingly, the perspective diminishes the individual’s dependence of the employer and social safety nets. The thesis of employability has already a corollary concept, the “flexicurity”, suggested by EU Commission as a concept for the new labour policy, a development and of the Lisbon Strategy, now aggressed as the European Employment Strategy (EU Commission, 2006; Arnegård Hansen, 2007). “Flexicurity” means briefly: 1. New means to enhance the flexibility of the EU labour market in order to improve contracts and mobility for various groups of workers. 2. New legal actions, labour legislations, to develop new forms of employment contracts. 3. New educational strategies to invest in life-long-learning especially for adult learners. 4. New and varying forms of social security measures in the labour market.”

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METHOD The study is inspired by the actor theory perspective. Therefore we believe that it is important to understand the individuals’ considerations, their dispositions to act and how they are capable to manage the demands of employability. Our standpoint is that we regard it possible for the individual to manage these demands. Design The research project consists of two studies: (1) Survey 1 was conducted during the autumn 2005 and included graduates, between 1999/2000 to 2003/2004 from Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Economy. The average response rate was 62 %. The questionnaire is in Swedish and is not included in the paper. This paper reports a selection of results from this first study. (2) Survey 2 is a large quantitative survey which addressed a sample of 2000 Swedish employees in 2006, varying in age from 24 to 64 and in education, from finished compulsory school (9 years) to academic graduates (PhD level); including about 12 % immigrants who has lived in Sweden about ten years; and about 18% academics. The response rate was 60 %. Results from Survey 2 are not included in this paper. Survey 1: Target groups As has been mentioned, the two following groups of graduates, who graduated between 1999/2000 and 2003/2004, are from (a) the Faculty of Technology at the University of Technology Chalmers in Göteborg, 546 graduates [henceforth referred to as Engineers]; and from (b) the Faculty of Economy and the School of Business, Economics and Law, and the program in Business Administration at Göteborg University, 413 graduates [henceforth referred to Business administrators]. These graduates have earned the degrees of: (a) Master of Science in Engineering; and (b) Master’s degree in Business Administration. The two groups of graduates have finished their studies at the leading Universities in Sweden, in respective fields. These Universities have many Alumni in leading positions in national organizations, especially in the West of Sweden. Survey 1: Collection and processing of data Survey 1 was carried out during the autumn 2005, between October and December 2005. Two reminders were sent out, one in November and the other one in December 2005. The aim of the questionnaire was to achieve more general knowledge about the impact of the thesis of employability and how it was experienced by two graduate groups of graduates having one to four years of work experience in various areas of the labour market. The first aim was to find out what strategies and what response patterns were related to the thesis of employability with regard to years of work experience, education, genus, form of employment and the level of the position in the organization. A second aim was to construct a tentative model of employability by identifying inherent factors grounded in the empirical data. A selection of results from Survey 1 is presented in the following section. SPSS is applied in the analysis.

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RESULTS In the following section, we present some preliminary results: (1) briefly about the target groups, and (2) factors affecting the target groups’ attitudes to employability (from their perspectives). 1. Brief description of target groups: Engineers and Business Administrators The response rate for Engineers was 65% and for Business Administrators 55%. Among Engineers 34.8 % were females and among Business Administrators 61.0 %. It can be noted that the share of female respondents was quite high in both groups, which by tradition is male dominated (Engineers) or has been male dominated (Business Administrators). Table 1. The target groups: Engineers and Business administrators Demographics Response rate Females Males Foreign-born graduates Age below 27 Age between 27 and 31 Age over 31 Engineers 65,0 % 34,8 % 65,2 % 4,6 % 2,9 % 76,4 % 20,7 % Business Administrators 55,0 % 61,0 % 39,0 % 5,7 % 15,0 % 67,9 % 17,1 %

Married 30,7 % 16,2 % Have children 36,9 % 27,3 % ____________________________________________________

According to official statistics, the mobility among graduates has slowly increased during the last decade. However, only 4,6% in Engineers and 5,7 % in Business Administrators were not born in Sweden. The majority of the graduates were between 27 and 31 years of age for both groups at time of the study, but the engineers were some years older. The medium age for the engineers was 30 years compared to 28 for the business administrators. Among engineers, there were more of them who were married and had children. 2. Experience of work and employment forms In Table 2 we find the total number of graduates who finished their studies between 1999 and 2005. Survey 1 comprises the total group of graduates during those years in both groups. We can state that 22 % among Engineers and 15 % among Business Administrators have about six years of work experiences. The next groups from the top have five years and so on.

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Table 2. The target groups’ graduation years Graduation year Engineers 1999-2000 21,9 % 2000-2001 22,5 % 2001-2002 25,4 % 2002-2003 24,8 % 2003-2004 5,1 % 2004-2005 0,0 % Answers missing 0,3 % Total number 100,0 (351)

Business Administrators 15.4 % 17,1 % 25,4 % 24,1 % 13,2 % 3,9 % 0,9 % 100,0 (228)

In the target groups we found that in the group of Engineers 2.8 % and in Business Administrators 3.9 % were actively seeking work (Table 3). This means that 97.2 % respectively 96.1 % were engaged in various forms of work. Out of these 87.7 % among Engineers and 79.4 % among Business Administrators hold permanent positions, and out of the rest 2.6 % Engineers and 2.2 % Business Administrators were self-employed. It can thus be noted that the engineers had obtained more stable relations with their employers than the business administrators. Table 3. The type of employment among Engineers and Business Administrators Positions Engineers Business Administrators Permanent positions 87,7 % 79,4 % Self-employed 2,6 % 2,2 % Time limited work 6,9 % 14,5 % Seeking work 2,8 % 3,9 % ____________________________________________________ Total number 100,0 (351) 100,0 (228) The answers have to be carefully interpreted due to the respondents’ way of interpreting “labels”, such as “permanent positions” or “time limited work”. In the group of Engineers 6.9 % and in the group of Business Administrators 14.5 % were engaged in various works limited in time, for instance, as substitutes for the position holders, or as temporary “project leaders” in various organizations. We conclude that permanent positions continue to be strongly dominant, even for young “knowledge workers”. Thus, we find little support for post-bureaucratic claims that the labour market has entered a phase of rapid change towards temporary employments.

Table 4. Do your work tasks correspond to employees’ education? Degree of correspondence Engineers Business Administrators To a very low extent 6,3 % 5,8 % To a fairly low extent 5,1 % 12,8 % Somewhat 16,0 % 19,5 % To a fairly high extent 38,7 % 37,2 % To a very high extent 32,5 % 22,6 % Answers missing 1,4 % 2,2 % ________________________________________________________ Total number 100,0 (351) 100,0 (228)

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Table 4 (above) shows that about two-thirds of the respondents consider that their work tasks have a high correspondence with their education. However, the engineers were significantly more satisfied. The engineers were also more satisfied in what ways their competence was used, even though there were a larger proportion of business administrators that were very satisfied too (se Table 5 below).

Table 5. In what way do you think that your competence is utilized? Degree of usage Engineers Business Administrators Very poorly 3,7 % 5,3 % Poorly 5,4 % 8,8 % No quite 19,4 % 19,0 % Fairly good 49,9 % 40,3 % Very good 20,2 % 23,9 % Answers missing 1,4 % 2,7 % ________________________________________________ Total number 100,0 (351) 100,0 (228) We noticed, that the engineers were more work integrated with and consequently they got more opportunities to have development talks, discussions about their salaries, more formal training, and more education from their employers (see Table 6).

Table 6. Share of respondents who during the last 12 months has received various measures taken by their employers Various measures Engineers Business Administrators Development talk 83,4 % 79,6 % Discussion about salary 75,6 % 68,1 % Internal education 72,1 % 65,2 % External education 53,5 % 43,7 % Participated in “planning days” 57,6 % 57,4 % The employer has planned for the Employees’ future career 44,3 % 44,4 % ___________________________________________________________ Total number 100,0 (351) 100,0 (228)

To conclude, this section our data shows that both groups has been successful in establishing themselves in their professions and on the labour market. However, the engineers in some respects (employment forms, getting work-tasks that match their education well, and external education) have been significantly more successful. Presenting a model for employability orientation Based on previous literature about employability and our understanding of this concept, we have developed a tentative model consisting of six factors, which can be said to constitute a starting point for a model for describing an individual’s orientations towards their individual employability.

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The tentative factors found in Survey 1 data are: 1. Agency. At the core of the concept employability is an assumption, that it is the individual who has the prime responsibility for obtaining necessary knowledge, skills, and proper behaviour in order to receive and retain employments. In Survey 1, the agency is measured by the employee’s perception of who is responsible for his or her competence development, and career planning; and also in what extent the employees take initiatives to talk about personal development to their managers. 2. Development orientation. In order to take responsibility for being employable and also to increase ones attractiveness, employees need to invest mental energy in planning their development such as development of competence, and career steps. In Survey 1, the degree of development orientation is measured by the employee’s various activities, such as, thinking of the need to update work related knowledge and abilities, and thinking of future work. A question is included in the questionnaire, whether the employees have made career plans. 3. Opportunity orientation. We believe, that the individuals’ employability increase if the person is willing take advantage of work opportunities, acquire knowledge in new growing competence areas, and have a readiness to switch employer as well as residential location. Opportunity orientation is measured by the employees’ willingness to be prepared for changes, which probably will affect their work, whether they have strong readiness to move, and are more willing to give priority to external opportunities instead of being loyal to their employers. 4. Commitment. To increase own employability, the employees must be able to commit themselves to work tasks and the employers, since employers have a preference for the committed work force. The capacity to commit oneself may not be that important in order receive an employment, but it is an important capability for retaining an employment. The commitment in Survey 1 is measured by one question about the employee’s commitment for work tasks and by one question about commitment to the employer. 5. Relation to own manager. We believe that it is important to have a good relation to the manager is important for retaining an employment for the employee, as well as having a good personal development and to expand ones work responsibilities. Even if an employee cannot decide how their manager should behave, the employee can influence and improve the relation through interpersonal skills and ones own work capacity. In our survey, the employees’ relation to managers is examined through questions, about the quality of feedback from the managers, the managers’ interest in the employees’ development, and by the frequency of the talk about development matters between the employees and the managers. 6. Relation to colleagues. Our final dimension of employability in the tentative model concerns the employee’s the capacity to relate in a positive way to the colleagues in the work community, through which the employee strengthen his or hers position as a retainer. Also in this respect, the individual cannot create a good feeling of fellowship and helpfulness, but he or she is expected to be able to differ by means of good interpersonal skills, helpfulness and friendliness. Relation to colleagues is examined through questions such as the

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employee’s ability to get a feeling of fellowship, of confidence in others, the capacity to make a good performance, and to be helpful in the work environment. Comparisons In the following, we will use this tentative model in order to examine differences in employability orientation between the two occupational groups and how it evolves by means of increased work experience, and for discussing gender differences. Table 8. Employability orientation of engineers and business administrators.
Engineers Business adm.

1. Agency 1.1 Has the prime responsibility for own knowledge developm 42,0% 1.2 Has the prime responsibility for own career planning 63,5% 1.3 Takes initiatives to talks about own development with 54,2% own manager 2. Development orientation 2.1 Thinks very frequently of updating work related 16,9% knowledge 2.2 Thinks every week of own future work life 65,6% 2.3 Have conducted own career planning 35,9% 3. Opportunity orientation 3.1 Prepare oneself for changes which presumable will 71,9% affect own work 3.2 Prioritize trends and opportunities in the occupational 61,6% field 3.3 Is definitely ready to move to another city if getting a 21,2% better job 4. Commitment 4.1 Is very committed to own work 4.2 Is very committed to own employer

55,1% 70,0% 50,5%

21,1% 70,8% 45,6%

78,6% 58,3% 34,8%

39,8% 17,8%

41,1% 24,7%

5. Relation to own manager 5.1 Receives very good feedback from own manager 12,0% 5.2 The manager shows great interest in knowledge, 12,8% abilities and development of the employee 5.3 There are contacts at least monthly basis with own 24,6% manager regarding own development 6. Relation to colleagues 6.1 Feeling of great fellowship within own unit 6.2 Great confidence in that colleagues do a proper work 6.3 Own colleagues are very helpful to each other

19,5% 22,1% 26,8%

30,9% 18,3% 20,6%

39,2% 25,1% 25,6%

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Tables 8-10 include a five-item Likert scale and when it is applied (question 2:1 and questions in sections 4-6), we present only the most positive answer in order to facilitate comparisons and to select the proportion of those who are the most employability oriented. In Table 8, business administrators show a higher degree of employability orientation, in being more focused on their own development, and in having more positive and intense relations to their managers and colleagues. This is interesting, not least in relation to that the engineers to a higher extent had permanent employments and they achieved development efforts. It can be hypothesised that the stronger employment orientation proved by the business administrators might be a response to more uncertain employment conditions. Swedish higher education Program in Business Administration has in recent decades been extended to more than 25 providers, Universities and Business Schools. This expansion, the first reason, has lead to a fierce competition among graduates for positions with good career opportunities. Many new business administrators have to accept less paid positions, which previously were filled by applicants with education from upper secondary level or lower level from various providers. A second reason can be that business administration is less professionalized and that the business administrators therefore to a lesser extent can rely on their formal knowledge for obtaining employability. They have also to a larger extent to be more focused on developing social skills, and in continuing learning opportunities. Employers seem not to expect that newly graduated business administrators can apply what they have learnt in their new work, but they expect them to have social competence, be ambitious, and willing and capable to learn new things. A third reason can be that business administrators might have easier to adopt the philosophy of employability, since this concept is constructed from various perspectives, among them an economic perspective. Maybe, it is possible to assume that therefore the concept is more related to the business administrators’ education and profession.

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Table 9. Employability orientation of male and female employees Males (n=320) 1. Agency 1.1 Has the prime responsibility for own knowledge developme 49,7% 1.2 Has the prime responsibility for own career planning 66,1% 1.3 Takes initiatives to talks about own development with 57,2% own manager 2. Development orientation 2.1 Thinks very frequently of updating work related 16,1% knowledge 2.2 Thinks every week of own future work life 67,5% 2.3 Have conducted own career planning 39,0% 3. Opportunity orientation 3.1 Prepare oneself for changes which presumable will affect 70,7% own work 3.2 Prioritize trends and opportunities in the occupational 60,7% field 3.3 Is definitely ready to move to another city if getting a 31,8% better job 4. Commitment 4.1 Is very committed to own work 4.2 Is very committed to own employer Females (n=262)

44,3% 66,0% 50,0%

21,5% 68,2% 39,5%

79,5% 59,5% 20,3%

39,2% 19,6%

41,3% 21,4%

5. Relation to own manager 5.1 Receives very good feedback from own manager 15,1% 5.2 The manager shows great interest in knowledge, abilities 15,1% and development of the employee 5.3 There are contacts at least monthly basis with own 25,9% manager regarding own development 6. Relation to colleagues 6.1 Feeling of great fellowship within own unit 6.2 Great confidence in that colleagues do a proper work 6.3 Own colleagues are very helpful to each other

14,6% 18,0% 25,1%

30,3% 18,9% 22,2%

38,5% 23,3% 23,3%

The differences between females and males are generally not very large, and in general, both sexes seem to be equally oriented towards employability. Females seem to be more employability oriented, and that might be explained by the fact that there are substantially more females in the group of business administrator. However, we find some interesting differences in the employees’ ways to approach employability. While the males respond higher on agency and readiness to move, the females are more oriented towards development and have better relations to their colleagues.

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Table 10. Impact of work experience on employability orientation. 0-3 years 4 or more y.
(312 answers) (262 answers)

1. Agency 1.1 Has the prime responsibility for own knowledge devel 46,7% 1.2 Has the prime responsibility for own career planning 65,1% 1.3 Takes initiatives to talks about own development 53,8% with own manager 2. Development orientation 2.1 Thinks very frequently of updating work related 23,1% knowledge 2.2 Thinks every week of own future work life 76,3% 2.3 Have conducted own career planning 44,1% 3. Opportunity orientation 3.1 Prepare oneself for changes which presumable will 74,8% affect own work 3.2 Prioritize trends and opportunities in the 57,9% occupational field 3.3 Is definitely ready to move to another city if getting 32,6% a better job 4. Commitment 4.1 Is very committed to own work 4.2 Is very committed to own employer

47,7% 66,9% 53,9%

14,1% 59,9% 35,9%

75,2% 62,5% 20,6%

38,9% 21,9%

41,4% 18,7%

5. Relation to own manager 5.1 Receives very good feedback from own manager 16,3% 5.2 The manager shows great interest in knowledge, 19,7% abilities and development of the employee 5.3 There are contacts at least monthly basis with own 28,9% manager regarding own development 6. Relation to colleagues 34,2% 6.1 Feeling of great fellowship within own unit 6.2 Great confidence in that colleagues do a proper work 21,6% 6.3 Own colleagues are very helpful to each other 22,2%

13,7% 13,3% 22,5%

34,4% 20,6% 23,3%

Finally, Table 10 shows the difference between employees with less than four years of work experience compared to those with four or more years. The table indicate a number of important differences, which illustrate that an individual’s employability orientation is not static but more like a process which changes over time. The feeling of agency and the relation colleagues is stable, but the others dimensions of employability are influenced by work experiences. The more experienced engineers and business administrators are more committed to their work, however, less loyal to their employers but seem to be more loyal to there residential area. The last statement

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can eventually be explained by the fact, that more than twice as many are married and have children, compared to the group with less work experiences. Another important finding is that the experienced employees are less development oriented and have a weaker relation to their managers. A possible explanation to this is that the accumulated experience increases the feeling of security. The question “Are you worried about your future work”, 25% of those who had worked only one year replied to a very high degree compared to 3,4% of those who had worked four years or more.

CONCLUSIONS In recent decades, the concept of employability has been utilised both in the political sector and in the labour market. Baruch (2001, p. 544) argues that the “inherent promise, the traditional psychological contract, has been swept away”. In the new psychological contracts, the organization promise to “provide employees with the best training and development (investment in people)”, in case they become redundant in the organization. The organizations are not willing any longer to offer long term commitment for employment. They can no longer afford to offer this in an European and a global market perspective. To balance expectations from the employees’ and to introduce a new way of thinking, an alternative promise will be offered by the organizations to the employee, that he or she will be kept employable by investments in their education to make them attractive for other employers (European Employment strategy, 2006). Instead of policies aiming to reduce unemployment by stimulating the demand of work (subsidies to industries, deficit spending and regulation against lay-offs), i.e., increasing employment, more and more policies are aiming to make the supply of labour more attractive for employers, referred to as strategies for increasing employability in society. Such strategies imply investments in training programs for unemployed labour as well as an increased level of education for new entrants to labour market for instance university graduates. To achieve an employability orientation is to promote an employability orientation among members of the labour force (European Qualification Framework-Life long Learning, 2006). In this paper we have presented a tentative model of employability orientation consisting of six possible factors for instance agency, development orientation, opportunity orientation, commitment, relation to managers and relation to colleagues. This tentative model was used for analysing the results of a questionnaire directed to 959 graduate students in the field of engineering and business administration. The average response rate was 65%. From this analysis, we conclude that these graduates to a large extent have developed important capabilities for maximizing own employability such as: ‐ A basic understanding that they are responsible for own personal development and therefore they need to take own initiatives. ‐ An interest for personal development and for thinking and making plans for their future.

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‐ A preparedness to act on opportunities, which offers career possibilities. ‐ A capacity to develop personal commitment in the work and towards the employer. ‐ To develop skills for establishing a constructive relation to the manager. ‐ To develop skills for contributing to a good fellowship with colleagues based on confidence and helpfulness. Implications for policy makers The negative side of promoting employability is that it creates individual pressure, since the expectations directed to employees concern their ability to take responsibility, to be flexible, committed, and to be socially competent. While pressures that can be handled successfully increases individual self-esteem, failures have the opposite effect and sometimes increase the risk for labour market exclusion. If employability is regarded as a responsible labour market policy, it has to combine competitive pressures with efforts to support individuals’ efforts to meet employers’ expectations. Moreover, the individuals who fail, the society should be able to assist so they remain to competitive in the labour market in terms of training, re-training, and financial support. Implications for higher education The paper also illustrates the importance, for providers of higher education, the necessity to help students to develop an employability orientation during their education. The students need to understand that they are seen as responsible for their own employability and that a development orientation and a preparedness to act on opportunities will increase their chances on a competitive labour market. Moreover, to pursue a professional career, is not only an achievement about learning and mastering formal knowledge, but also the capacity to be committed to work and to be able to build social relations to various members of the organization. Providers of higher education should develop and integrate strategies and launch activities for increasing their students’ employability in their educational programs. We see a growing interest for such activities but more can and should be done. Implications for future research The presented tentative model has not yet been validated statistically and we have not had the opportunity to estimate the correlations between the dimensions (factors) of the model. We intend to continue with this work. As has been mentioned, we have already made an extended study of a general sample of 2000 persons in the Swedish labour market 2004 (Survey 2). The study, which generated a response rate of 60%, has been conducted in cooperation with the National Bureau of Statistics in Sweden. Survey 2 includes data on individual level from several national registers, and will probably elucidate the employability orientation attitudes among broader categories of workers and employees. That study opens the possibilities to more extensive analysis of the relation among socio-economic factors, employability orientation and financial outcomes. We firmly believe that there is a demand for more research based on empirical data about different aspects of the employability concept related to different labour groups and various contexts. We do hope that researcher in the field of work-life, and in labour market areas share our opinion.

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