Career Meta-Competencies in the Retention of Employees

Abstract

It is clear from the literature that the work context has changed dramatically during the 21st century (Baruch, Managing careers. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2004a; Career Dev Int 9:58–73, 2004b; Burke and Ng, Human Resource Management Review, 16:86–94, 2006) . As a result of these changes, careers have also changed and moved away from what was known as the traditional career to the boundaryless career (Ashkenas et al., The boundaryless organization. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1995; DeFillippi and Arthur, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 15: 307, 1994; McArdle et al., Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 71:247–264, 2007) . The more complex work environment in a rapidly expanding knowledge economy has influenced the skills and competencies of individuals wishing to enter the 21st century world of work. Higher qualifications or technical skills are no longer enough to secure a job (Cox and King, Education and Training, 48:262–274, 2006) . Career adaptability and hardiness as psychological career meta-competencies and job embeddedness and organizational commitment as retention-related dispositions influencing the retention of valuable employees in an organization will form the basis of this chapter. Investigating the psychological career meta-competencies (career adaptability and hardiness) that influence individuals’ retention-related dispositions (job embeddedness and organizational commitment) has become crucial in the light of the changing nature of careers and the global skills scarcity. Psychological career meta-competencies were found to influence the job embeddedness and organizational commitment in a changed organizational context and could make a vital contribution to the potential retention of talented staff (Ferreira, Constructing a psychological profile for staff retention. Pretoria: University of South Africa, 2012) .KeywordsPsychological career profilePsychological career resourcesHardinessCareer adaptabilityJob embeddednessOrganizational commitmentRetention-related dispositionsCareer meta-competenciesStaff retention