School of Business, Zhejiang University City College, Hangzhou, China.
School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University City College, Hangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 8;17(7):e0270905. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270905. eCollection 2022.
The increasing uncertainty of our world raises important questions for university students on how they should respond to the employment challenges caused by changing environments. One of the central topics is the development of graduate employability. However, most previous research on graduate employability was undertaken in a stable environment, limiting our understanding of how graduate employability develops in a dynamic context. We have advanced the literature by introducing action theory to investigate the process of personal initiative affecting graduate employability in a period of environmental uncertainty. Using a time-lagged research design, we collected data from a sample of 229 Chinese university students and tested the hypothesized relationships. We find that personal initiative positively affects graduate employability through human and psychological capital. We further show that environmental uncertainty plays a contingent role in the above processes. Specifically, when a high level of environmental uncertainty is perceived, the positive indirect effect of personal initiative on graduate employability through either human capital or psychological capital is more likely to be strengthened. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.
不断变化的世界的不确定性给大学生提出了一个重要问题，即他们应该如何应对不断变化的环境所带来的就业挑战。其中一个核心主题是培养毕业生的就业能力。然而，之前关于毕业生就业能力的大多数研究都是在稳定的环境中进行的，这限制了我们对毕业生就业能力在动态环境中是如何发展的理解。我们通过引入行动理论来研究个人主动性影响在环境不确定性时期的毕业生就业能力的过程，从而推进了文献研究。我们使用时间滞后的研究设计，从 229 名中国大学生样本中收集数据并检验了假设关系。我们发现个人主动性通过人力资本和心理资本积极影响毕业生就业能力。我们进一步表明，环境不确定性在上述过程中起着一定的作用。具体来说，当感知到高度的环境不确定性时，个人主动性通过人力资本或心理资本对毕业生就业能力的积极间接影响更有可能得到加强。我们还讨论了这些发现的理论和实践意义。
