Background: In the changing world of work, there is an urgency to gain insight into determinants of the employability among support staff workers with long tenure whose functions may become outdated as their competencies may no longer match the requirements of future jobs.
Objective: The specific aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and employability.
Methods: Support staff (n = 236) from a university participated in an online questionnaire focusing on five dimensions of employability (occupational expertise, anticipation and optimization, personal flexibility, corporate sense, and balance) and transformational leadership (identifying and articulating a vision, providing an appropriate model, fostering the acceptance of group goals, providing individual support, and intellectual stimulation.
Results: Identifying and articulating a vision (β= 0.247, p < 0.001), providing an appropriate model (β= 0.196, p = 0.002), fostering the acceptance of group goals (β= 0.298, p < 0.001) and providing individual support (β= 0.258, p < 0.001) were associated with higher balance scores. No significant associations were found between the transformational leadership subscales and the other dimensions of employability.
Conclusion: The current study found that just one specific dimension of transformational leadership was associated with only one aspect of employability for our target group of long-term employed support staff workers with a high level of job security.
Keywords: Leadership; career mobility; employment; occupational health; staff development; universities.