This chapter concludes section two of the book (chapters two-four) by delving into the topic of how university career services and additional actors can assist students in signaling their employability to potential employers. The chapter begins with an overview of signaling theory and the possibility of its integration with other career theories, including Social Exchange Theory (SET), Conservation of Resources (CoR) theory, Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, Career Construction Theory (CCT), the New Psychological Contract (NPC), Career Ecosystems Theory (CET), and Sustainable Career Theory (SCT). Next, the authors consider why students must develop strategies for communicating their employability in preparation for the university-to-work transition, and how career advisors can play a pivotal role in supporting this process. Three themes are then presented for developing and operationalizing one's employability: personal branding, career metaphors, and career narratives. The chapter concludes with four lived experience insights to bridge theory and practice.
TopSignaling Employability
Signaling theory (Spence, 1973; 1978) explores the interplay of signalers, signals, and receivers to address information asymmetry. Spence positions candidates as signalers who use their credentials during the application and selection process to signal their suitability for employment to an agent acting on behalf of the organization. The agent, as the receiver, then decodes the signal to assess the person-organization fit. Interestingly, despite overlapping agendas, the vocational behavior and human resource management literature streams have tended to develop in parallel with limited interaction. However, there is an emergent interest in bridging these two literature streams and integrating the various underlying career theories within the context of early career talent (Akkermans et al., 2023; Donald, 2021; Tomlinson & Anderson, 2021).
For example, Social Exchange Theory (SET) (Blau, 1964) captures how exchanging beneficial resources between actors increases the quality of the exchange relationship resulting in productive behaviors. The notion of resources draws on the Conservation of Resources (CoR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989), whereby an individual seeks to acquire personal resources while safeguarding against the loss of existing resources. Subsequently, the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) explains how stress and burnout can occur if the demands of a job regularly exceed one’s personal resources. The CoR and JD-R theories also link to Career Construction Theory (CCT, Savickas, 2005) since deciding which resources to acquire and which job roles to undertake is driven by how the individual gives meaning to their life. Akkermans et al. (2023) examine the interaction between signaling and social exchange theories in the context of early career talent. They observe how the notion of reciprocity is central to both theories capturing the interdependent and interactive dimensions of graduate employability. Donald (2021) refers to these interactions as signals and counter signals to establish and maintain person-organization fit across the attraction, selection, and employment processes (please see Chapter 7 for an extensive discussion of person-organization fit). Concurrently, the integration of the New Psychological Contract (NPC) (Rousseau, 1995) and Career Ecosystem Theory (CET) (Baruch, 2015) captures the need for mutually beneficial relationships for the sustainability of career ecosystems (Baruch & Rousseau, 2019; Donald & Jackson, 2023; Donald et al., 2020). In other words, (prospective) employees and (prospective) employers are interdependent and interconnected actors (Baruch, 2015), relying on mutual and reciprocal obligations via written and unwritten contracts (Rousseau, 1995) to maintain talent flow and acquisition at the interface between higher education and industry (Baruch et al., 2023). Psychological contracts have also been shown to shape graduate experiences, further highlighting opportunities for theory integration (Clarke & Scurry, 2020). However, the main challenge for bridging these literature streams and theories into integrated frameworks stems from researchers continuing to operate in silos and journals favoring particular theories, thus reducing their readers’ exposure to alternatives.