Nele De Cuyper

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at KU Leuven

Policy motives for work for people with a disability (PWD) are divergent along two discourses: work as a right vs norm. Work as a right, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), portrays work as a potential gateway for inclusion. Work as a norm fits a neoliberal agenda. It considers labor market participation...

Perceived job insecurity and perceived employability are often mentioned in one breath with employability typically referred to as the “modern response to job insecurity”. Yet our understanding of how individuals’ perceptions of employability may change over time in response to job insecurity is limited. Both positive and negative changes seem plau...

The current study probes the relation between learning and employability. First, we investigated the relationship between younger workers’ work-domain learning goal orientation and perceived employability and its development over time. This portrays an agentic view: Effort is expected to open up new opportunities. Second, we explored whether agency...

Karasek’s job demand‐control model has received considerable research attention. However, only a few studies have examined its activation hypothesis and two problems have emerged. First, the only consistent finding concerns the activating role of job control. Findings related to job demands and the interaction between control and demands are incons...

The school-to-work transition is a critical step in the careers of vocationally educated graduates. Preparing graduates for this transition could help them obtain a permanent high-quality job. Preparation within the school, focusing on the development of personal resources, is considered essential. Accordingly, the aim of this systematic literature...

Both in research and practice, many believe that informal work-related learning contributes to plenty of important and positive outcomes. As a result, research on informal work-related learning outcomes is quickly accelerating. The field has become fragmented across disciplines and traditions. In response, this study provides a systematic review of...

Applying qualitative and quantitative analyses across four studies and seven samples, we clarified the meaning and developed a new measure of career insecurity. Career insecurity is defined as “an individual's thoughts and worries that central content aspects of one's future career might possibly develop in an undesired manner.” The new Multidimens...

The Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (QUAL-JIS) has been used in job insecurity (JI) research for the past 9 years, without formal validation. The goal of the current study was to test the scale’s psychometric properties. We checked the scale’s reliability, as well as its validity, investigating evidence based on the scale’s content, internal struc...

Employees who feel insecure about their job participate less in work-related learning. This is paradoxical given that work-related learning is advanced as a way to prepare for upcoming change. This may induce a cycle in which job insecurity leads to gradual more insecurity and less participation in work-related learning, yet this has not yet been p...

Employability concerns an individual’s potential in the labour market. This potential has been interpreted along three strands: (I) in terms of personal strengths that increase employment potential; (II) in terms of self-perceived employment opportunities; and (III) in terms of job transitions as a realization of employment potential. The risk of u...

Career competencies refer to knowledge and skills central to career development. They are particularly important at the start of the career, as early-career choices can have an impact on career outcomes in the longer term. Building on Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, this study sets out to investigate (1) how career competencies on average c...

Employability research has long been and still is criticized for being overly agentic. Employability is seen as a personal asset tied to the individual. Recently, scholars have called for a more structure-sensitive understanding of employability. In response, studies have probed whether employability is shaped by agency and/or structure, mainly alo...

De COVID-19-pandemie en de daarmee gepaard gaande maatregelen hebben een enorme impact op onze samenleving. Naast directe gevolgen voor onze gezondheid en ons psychologisch welbevinden, zijn er belangrijke consequenties op het gebied van werk en inkomen. Ook al weten we niet hoe toekomstige ontwikkelingen rondom het virus eruit zullen zien, COVID-1...

In two intra-individual studies, we examine how felt job insecurity relates to job performance. Based on conservation of resources theory, we argue that there is a negative intra-individual relation between felt job insecurity and job performance. Informational justice is expected to moderate this within-person relationship, so that the relationshi...

Job search seems to be a daunting task for youngsters in the Spanish labor market, unfortunately so given that it is the best predictor of getting a job even during economic crisis. Accordingly, it is vitally important to find resources that promote youngsters’ job search. The present study examines the effect of psychological capital on job search...

Dit hoofdstuk biedt een overzicht van onderzoek naar baanonzekerheid, gedefinieerd als de subjectief ingeschatte kans op baanverlies. Aan bod komen aspecten zoals prevalentie, factoren die aanleiding geven tot baanonzekerheid (antecedenten), gevolgen voor individueel welzijn en gezondheid en gevolgen voor de organisatie, een discussie over de causa...

This study examines to what extent the four aspects of movement capital (i.e., human capital, adaptability, self-awareness, and social capital) contribute to individuals’ perceived employability. Building on the model of career mobility, we expected positive effects of all movement capital aspects on perceived employability over time. Hypotheses we...

This paper describes the development and validation of an instrument for measuring work-related learning, which can be applied in different occupational contexts. Based on a comprehensive literature review and group discussions among the authors, the instrument was carefully constructed and examined among a heterogeneous sample of Flemish employees...

Learning to become employable is a catch phrase often used to highlight the importance of upskilling in today’s knowledge-based labor market. Yet, evidence on the relationship between work-related learning and employability is limited and does not account for potential reciprocity. This is important though: if employability also promotes work-relat...

Felt job insecurity is commonly seen as a stressor that is tied to a specific segment of employees and which implies overall negative outcomes. We challenge this view based on the new career rhetoric that assumes that felt job insecurity is widespread, although not necessarily problematic; rather, on the contrary, that felt job insecurity may promo...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance two seemingly conflicting paths from perceived employability to employee performance. Both paths start from the idea that feeling employable makes employees more independent from their employer. Framed positively, independence implies the perception of being in control, and perceived control may promo...

This study investigates the relationship between perceived investments in Human Resource (HR) practices and workplace commitment, from the perspective of social exchange theory. An innovative feature is that we introduce perceived employability as a potential mediator, thus bringing in a career perspective: our argument is that perceived investment...

Young people find it difficult to access to the labor market, particularly in countries like Spain with a dramatically high rate of unemployment. A further problem is that this labor market is not gender-neutral. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in the literature, with women typically being at a disadvantage. This highlights the need to study...

Earlier studies established that perceived job insecurity is more strongly related to the experiences of permanent employees, and conversely that perceived employability is more strongly related to the experiences of temporary employees. This article challenges these results against the background of the 2008/2009 crisis using samples from the 2010...

In this paper, we provoke the strong focus on personal agency in employability research. We counter three dominant assumptions in the literature, namely, (a) that employability is an individual asset, (b) that employability is owned by the individual, and (c) that employability leads to positive outcomes. A key observation is that the three dominan...

This study investigates the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training, accounting for perceived employability. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we hypothesize that job insecurity negatively relates to the willingness to participate in training to strengthen the internal and external labor market posit...

Previous research attempted to identify personal resources that promote employability, that is, an individual’s chance to find and maintain employment. This has resulted in a large number of different personal resources, which are not always clearly differentiated from one another and often seem to—at least partially—overlap conceptually and/or emp...

This study sets out to investigate the reciprocal relationship between resources and psychological distress in a sample of unemployed job seekers shortly after dismissal. This idea of reciprocal relationships is inspired by general resource-based theories, the conservation of resources theory, and the broaden and build theory in particular. We sele...

This study probes the relationship between perceived external employability (i.e., the individual’s perception of available jobs on the external labour market) and affective commitment and performance within the framework of social exchange. An innovative feature is that we advance perceived external employability as a commodity of interdependent f...

Career-oriented human resource management (HRM) practices are likely to facilitate self-initiated expatriates’ adjustment to the host country. This may happen because these practices could boost one's professional development and lead to different types of career security (job security and employment security), which were probably missing in their...

Purpose In the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. It This study aims to advance our understandings of how employees’ occupational expertise is associated with job...

This article integrates the employment strain model with the social stress model in order to reveal the mechanisms that explain the relation between precarious employment and mental well-being. This model is applied to the case of temporary agency employment by analysing 41 in-depth interviews with temporary agency workers from Canada. The results...

Non-standard employment is frequently used by organizations and it is often tailored to meet organizational needs. Interestingly, a diversity of arrangements has developed. This chapter provides a typology of the most commonly used non-standard contracts, and illustrates how employment and working conditions may vary. It further elaborates on the p...

BACKGROUND: From an employee-perspective, temporary agency employment can be considered in two ways. According to the first perspective, agency jobs are associated with job characteristics that adversely affect mental well-being: job insecurity, low wages, a lack of benefits, little training, poorer prospects for the future, high working time flexi...

Domestic work can be perceived to be ‘dirty work’ in several ways: it is associated with dirt handling, low occupational prestige, and domestic workers have a servile relationship to their clients/employers. This stigma may negatively affect domestic workers’ sense of self, and thus coping strategies appear to be critical. In this article, we explo...

In this review article, we present an overview of the results of longitudinal studies on the consequences of job insecurity for health and well-being. We discuss the evidence for normal causation (“Does job insecurity influence outcomes?”), reversed causation (“Do specific outcomes predict job insecurity?”), and reciprocal causation. We also review...

Perceived employability has been advanced as critical to employee optimal functioning in today's turbulent labor market. However, evidence for a positive relationship between perceived employability and employee optimal functioning is modest. One possible explanation is that the relationship is not linear but curvilinear. Accordingly, we tested cur...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which felt job insecurity facilitates or hinders employees from raising voice (i.e. speaking up to their authority). The authors introduce punishment and reward sensitivity, two constructs of reinforcement sensitivity theory, as dispositional factors that might lead employees to ap...

Temporary agency workers are often portrayed as peripheral workers in organisations. Hence, they present a compelling illustration of the established-outsider theory of Elias and Scotson. According to this theory, differences in social cohesion, group charisma, and power of the members of subgroups within social entities can lead to an established-...

Research has provided convincing evidence for the adverse effects of both short- and long-term unemployment, and perceived job insecurity on individuals' health and well-being. This study aims to go one critical step further by comparing the association between short- and long-term unemployment, and perceived job insecurity with a diverse set of he...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the gain and loss cycle ideas from the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory with regard to perceived employability and psychological functioning among employed workers and unemployed job seekers, respectively. Design/methodology/approach – More specifically, the authors argue that perceived employab...

This study connects different notions of employability with the ultimate aim to arrive at integration of a research field that has been criticized for being fragmented and fuzzy. We define employability as “an individual’s chance of a job in the internal and/or external labour market”. Employability research assesses employability differently, look...

This study investigated work–family conflict (WFC) and enrichment (WFE) in relation to job exhaustion and turnover intentions among long-term temporary (n = 384) and permanent (n = 430) workers. We used three-wave data collected among Finnish university employees in 3 consecutive years. The participants were either permanently or temporarily employ...

We define (perceived) job insecurity and (perceived) employability, and detail their antecedents and consequences. Antecedents concern variables at the macro, meso, and micro level. Health and well being and employee attitudes and behaviors are potential consequences. We then discuss explanations for the relationship between job insecurity/employab...

A substantial proportion of the total working population, ranging from 8% in the United States to 14% in Europe, is temporarily employed. Temporary employment refers to dependent employment of limited duration, either directly by the organization or by an agency. The use of temporary employment is mostly inspired by employers' motives related to co...

The current chapter reviews the literature on the relationship between job insecurity and employees’ health and well-being. Job insecurity is defined as (subjective) concerns about the continued existence of the actual job. We highlight the various components of the definition and discuss the prevalence and objective antecedents of job insecurity,...

The present study investigates the relationship between felt job insecurity and union membership accounting for potential differences between temporary and permanent workers. Consistent with the idea that felt job insecurity leads workers to seek social protection from the unions, and with earlier studies, we hypothesize a positive relationship bet...

Employability, which is an individual’s chance of a job in the internal and/or external labor market, is crucial both for employees and employers in today’s extremely competitive business landscape. The importance of this claim was strongly reinforced by the global economic crisis and its lingering high unemployment and competition for talent. Rese...

Purpose – Departing from the job demands resources model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether religion, defined as strength of religious faith, can be viewed as resource or as demand. More specifically, the authors addressed the question as to how job insecurity and religion interact in predicting burnout and change-oriented behavio...

Perceived employability (PE; i.e. the worker's perception about available job opportunities) is portrayed as the upcoming resource for workers and organizations. However, organizations might particularly want to stimulate perceptions of job opportunities on the internal labor market (i.e. internal PE). In contrast, they may be hesitant in stimulati...

This study investigates whether contract type (temporary versus permanent employment) moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and supervisor-rated individual performance. Most temporary workers desire permanent employment, and this may drive them to uphold performance also when strained. This hypothesis was tested with multiple grou...

This study aims to further knowledge on the mechanisms through which job insecurity is related to negative outcomes. Based on appraisal theory, two explanations-perceived control and psychological contract breach-were theoretically integrated in a comprehensive model and simultaneously examined as mediators of the job insecurity-outcome relationshi...

This chapter focuses upon the careers of temporary workers. Temporary employment for many workers presents a route to permanent employment. Other workers, however, get trapped into temporary employment or cycle between unstable jobs and spells of unemployment. Predictors of such transitions are multiple. We selected two broad categories, namely per...

This study examines the motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model in a sample of recently dismissed (voluntary and involuntary) Flemish employees (N = 213). Specifically, the relations between three work-related resources (perceived employability, social support, and acceptance of feedback given during the exit conversation) an...

The motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources Model among voluntary and involuntary dismissed employees during the term of notice The motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources Model among voluntary and involuntary dismissed employees during the term of notice This study examines the motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship perceived employability (the employee's perception about available job opportunities in the external labour market) and performance, accounting for felt job insecurity. Performance is conceptualized broadly in terms of optimal functioning (i.e. in-role performance and helping be...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define employability within the psychological literature with a focus upon perceived employability. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the aim, the paper defines five objectives as follows. First, the paper discusses how employability is interpreted in the psychological literature. Second, the paper...

Multiple instruments have been developed and used to measure quantitative job insecurity (i.e., insecurity to lose the job as such), often without systematic evaluation of their psychometric characteristics across countries and language barriers. This may hamper consistent and reliable cross-study and cross-country comparisons. This study’s aim was...

This study aims to explain the reciprocal relationship between job insecurity and employee well‐being (i.e., emotional exhaustion and vigour) by perceived control. Building on appraisal theory and conservation of resources theory, we suggest that perceived control mediates the cross‐lagged relationships from job insecurity to employee well‐being, a...

Quantitative job insecurity, relating to threat of job loss, has received considerable research attention, but relatively little is known about qualitative job insecurity. The latter relates to uncertainty regarding valued job characteristics, such as career and wage progression. The aim of this study was to investigate whether situational appraisa...

This 2-year longitudinal study among 848 university employees investigated the individual development of perceived job insecurity (JI) in the context of changes occurring in the Finnish universities during the follow-up time. Adopting a person-oriented approach through latent profile analysis, 8 classes of employees with similar mean levels and mea...

This study examined the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention by applying occupational well-being (exhaustion, vigour) as a mediator. The study was inspired by two theories: the conservation of resources and emotional contagion theories. We investigated the relationships at the individual and work department levels by utilizing...

The first aim of this study was to identify trajectories of perceived employability (PE) with a longitudinal person-centered approach, accounting for both the level of PE and changes in PE. The second aim was to examine how the trajectories were related to well-being at work (i.e., vigor at work, job satisfaction, and job exhaustion) with a variabl...

Impression management is typically seen as a means to achieve success. Little is known about potential side effects for the self, or about impression management aimed at prevention of loss. Here, we probe the relationship between exemplification (impression management aimed at acquiring the image of model employee) and performance and emotional exh...

This study aims to respond to earlier calls to study well‐known concepts, more specifically, job insecurity, in less traditional (i.e. non‐European, non‐US) settings, as well as factors that may mitigate the aversive consequences of job insecurity for employees' work‐related functioning. We investigate (1) the relationship between job insecurity an...

Purpose – The purpose of the present paper is to investigate how employees' coping (problem, emotion and avoidance focused coping) may affect the reactions to job insecurity. Because the coping investigated in the present study addresses the stressor in different ways, the authors expect different moderating effects depending on the type of coping,...