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Personality and Psycho-Social Employability Attributes as Meta-capacities for Sustained Employability

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Psycho-social Career Meta-capacities

Abstract

More and more researchers currently working and studying in the field of career development suggest that individuals need to be more conscious of their work-related capability and career meta-competencies or psychological career resources (Baruch, Career Development International,9:58–73, 2004; Blickle and Witzki, Society and Business Review,3:149–161, 2008; Coetzee, South African Journal of Industrial Psychology,34:32–41, 2008; Hess et al., Journal of Vocational Behavior,10, 2011; Hoekstra, Journal of Vocational Behavior,78:159–173, 2011; Puffer, Journal of Career Assessment,19:130–150, 2011; Savickas and Porfeli, Journal of Vocational Behavior,80:661–673, 2012) . In the context of this chapter, the term “career meta-competencies” refers to a set of psychological career resources which are critical in career development. Psychological career resources include personal attributes and abilities such as behavioral adaptability, self-knowledge, career orientation awareness, sense of purpose, self-esteem and emotional literacy, which allow individuals to be self-sufficient learners and to manage their own careers in a businesslike manner (Briscoe and Hall, Organisational Dynamics,28:37–52, 1999; Coetzee, South African Journal of Industrial Psychology,34:32–41, 2008; Coetzee and Roythorne-Jacobs, Career counselling and guidance in the workplace: A manual for career practitioners, 2nd edn., 2012; Hall and Chandler, Journal of Organizational Behaviour,26:155–176, 2005; Herr et al., Career guidance and counselling through the lfespan, 2004) . People who possess a wide range of psychological career resources are generally better able to adapt to changing career circumstances and tend to demonstrate higher levels of employability (Fugate et al., Journal of Vocational Behaviour,65:14–38, 2004; Griffen and Hesketh, Australian Journal of Psychology,55:65–73, 2005) . Zinser (Journal of Vocational Behaviour,65:14–38, 2003) states that employability attributes include a range of personality attributes as well as work-related skills. Personality attributes generally include displaying emotional intelligence, high levels of self-esteem and self-confidence, personality preferences and proactive career-related behavioral attributes (Potgieter, The development of a career meta-competency model for sustained employability, 2012) . This chapter discusses a psychological profile constituting the psychological career meta-competencies and attributes required for sustaining employability in a more turbulent and uncertain occupational world.

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  1. University of South Africa, South Africa, South Africa

    Ingrid L. Potgieter

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Correspondence to Ingrid L. Potgieter .

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  1. Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of South Africa, Muckleneuk, Gauteng, South Africa

    Melinde Coetzee

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Potgieter, I. (2014). Personality and Psycho-Social Employability Attributes as Meta-capacities for Sustained Employability. In: Coetzee, M. (eds) Psycho-social Career Meta-capacities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_3

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