For university students, perceived employability is gaining growing importance in dealing with occupational uncertainty. However, how perceived employability is shaped in the university setting is still under-researched. This study examines how support from university teaching staff influences perceived employability in a sample of Italian final-year university students. We draw on Conservation on Resources Theory to hypothesise a positive impact of support from teaching staff on students’ perceived employability. In addition, we contend that perceived employability predicts students’ psychological well-being. To test our hypotheses, one hundred twenty-seven university students completed a survey three times over a 10-month period. The results confirm that support from teaching staff enhances students’ perceived employability. Moreover, a positive effect of perceived employability on students’ psychological well-being emerges. Perceived employability also appears to mediate the relationship between support from teaching staff and psychological well-being. Using a time-lagged approach, this study enhances the empirical knowledge about antecedents and outcomes of students’ perceived employability. This scholarly work underlines universities’ responsibility in refining teachers’ roles and didactical practices to equip their students with career resources.

According to the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, even though there are numerous challenges within the current labor market, it is possible to establish meaningful lives and meaningful work experiences through optimizing the use of personal resources and regenerating them. In line with this assumption, the present study aims to test the moderation effect of the type of worker contracts on the relationship between psychological capital, perceived employability, and job insecurity. Participants were N = 190 Italian young workers (self-employed, permanent employees, or temporary employees). Results showed that perceived employability mediated the relationship between psychological capital and job insecurity, and that this relationship was moderated by the workers’ type of contract. Specifically, a higher level of psychological capital corresponded to a higher perception of employability, and consequently a lower job insecurity for temporary and self-employed workers, but not for permanent ones. These findings are in line with the assumptions of the psychology of sustainability, and encourage preventive interventions aimed to foster personal resources in order to reduce job insecurity, especially in cases of non-standard employment.

Job satisfaction (JS) is an indicator of individual psychosocial health. Consistent evidence showed that voluntary extra-role behavior in organizations, namely organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), can also contribute to individual psychological health. JS has been found to positively influence employees’ OCB, and both JS and OCB have been found to predict employees’ task performance (TP). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether employees’ OCB mediates the relationship of JS with TP, taking into consideration gender as a potential moderator, and other sociodemographic and work-related characteristics as confounding variables. A total of 518 employees, 54.6% women, aged 19–66 years with a mean age of about 36 years, completed measures of JS, OCB, and TP. Results showed a partial mediation of OCB in the JS-TP relationship, which was invariant across gender. A potential practical implication of findings is that human resource managers and practitioners might ultimately benefit male and female employees’ well-being as well as the organizations’ productivity by developing targeted individual- and group-level trainings and interventions to enhance JS and OCB.

Purpose: – The purpose of this research is to study the role of the opportunity to receive job training in enhancing people's willingness to accept information technologies (IT) and in achieving employee satisfaction. The study aims to consider training opportunities as a predictor of IT self-competence, TAM model constructs and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: – Structural equation models are used with a sample of 497 Italian workers who filled in a questionnaire. Findings: – The results show a good fit between hypothesis and empirical data. Moderator roles of individual and contextual variables on training opportunities effects were studied. Practical implications: – The practical implications of this study relate to the role played by training opportunities in the IT acceptance process and in creating job satisfaction. Originality/value: – The most innovative finding pertains to moderator roles of individual and contextual variables on training opportunities effects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the positive association between job resources, i.e. autonomy and co-workers support, and psychological capital (PsyCap). In addition, it is aimed to assess the mediational role of PsyCap in the relationship between job resources, on the one hand, and work engagement and psychological distress on the other hand. A sample of 235 employees working in a large-scale retail company completed a structured questionnaire. To test the hypotheses, the collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results fully supported the hypotheses and showed that autonomy and co-workers’ support were positively associated with PsyCap. In addition, PsyCap fully mediated the effect of job resources on work engagement and psychological distress. The results indicate that a greater degree of autonomy allowed to employees in performing their work, and social support from co-workers may significantly contribute to building employees’ personal resources such as PsyCap. This positive association between job resources and PsyCap, in turn, leads employees to feel more engaged in their work and prevents them from harmful outcomes such as symptoms of psychological distress. This study extends prior research on the motivational process of the job demands-resources model. Furthermore, it develops the notion of resources caravans postulated by the conservation of resources theory in its attempt to examine PsyCap as a mediator in the association between job resources and different individual outcomes.