Can e-learning improve job security? Evidence from 28 European countries

Date07 August 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2016-0117
Pages699-717
Published date07 August 2017
AuthorJuan-Francisco Martínez-Cerdá,Joan Torrent-Sellens,Inés González-González
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
Can e-learning improve job
security? Evidence from
28 European countries
Juan-Francisco Martínez-Cerdá
Psychology and Educational Sciences Studies, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain
Joan Torrent-Sellens
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain, and
Inés González-González
Department of Business Management, Universidad Publica de Navarra,
Pamplona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to prove that e-learning, in union with another variable, builds a
statistically significant relationship for estimating improvements in employment security, i.e., transition to
employment of the same or higher job security as the previous year.
Design/methodology/approach Using data from Eurostat 2007-2013 in 28 European countries, and after
carrying out analysis of 261 regression models between the e-learning variable, along with another variable
related to working conditions, education, or e-skills levels of citizens.
Findings This study provides evidence about: there is a statistically significant relationship ( p-valueo0.05)
between employment security (dependent variable), e-learning and another variable (independent variables) in 60.7
percent of 28 European countries analyzed ( p-valueo0.05 for at least one of these two independent variables); and
there is a statistically significant relationship ( p-valueo0.05) in 75 percent of 28 countries (p-value o0.1 for at
least one of these two independent variables). Consequently, a set with the minimum number of useful indicators
for calculating the employment security is proposed: e-learning, labor transition, tertiary education, temporary
employees, e-job search and e-skills.
Practical implications Moreover, several similarities between studied countries are found, helping to
formulate various recommendations based on complementarities between being an employee and using
lifelong e-learning systems as a way for improving employment security.
Originality/value This is one of the first studies to provide evidenceof the relationship between e-learning
and job security in Europe, in view of this, it should be considered as a key element and essential to any
European policy related to work.
Keywords Skills, Employee behaviour, Labour, Europe, Further education
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Employment security is one of the most contemporary issues to study in the field of
human resources management because of its relationship, inter alia, with business productivity
(Michie and Sheehan, 1999). Thus, its importance in workersbehavior has been studied from
various perspectives that consider employment security and its relationship with both unions
and civil servants (Ferrie et al., 1998) as well as existing international trends toward outsourcing
(Geishecker, 2008). Employment security has links with flexibility in several European countries
(Muffels and Luijkx, 2008) and with job satisfaction (Wilczyńska et al., 2015).
In the context related to employability, it is also crucial to highlight the growing need for
realization of lifelong learning training. For example, in Europe this kind of training is an Employee Relations
Vol. 39 No. 5, 2017
pp. 699-717
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-06-2016-0117
Received 16 June 2016
Revised 14 March 2017
Accepted 14 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
Juan-Francisco Martínez-Cerdá would like to acknowledge the support of a doctoral grant from the UOC.
The authors would like to thank Greig Krull for his help in the English revision of the manuscript.
699
Can e-learning
improve job
security?
essential action because it helps to develop the employability of its citizens (Bădescu and
Loi, 2010). Moreover, it is very useful for improving different levels of completion of compulsory
secondary education and adult participation in educational initiatives (Boateng, 2009), which are
unsatisfactory in most European countries: in 2004 only 9.1 percent of people between 25 and
64 years had done lifelong learning, in 2013 this figure was only 10.5 percent.
In relation to employment security and lifelong learning, it should be noted that both
occur within a European context with socio-demographic, cultural, structural and economic
barriers, such as those between countries in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe
(Zarifis, 2012), and with an increasing use of ICT by citizens (in 2013, Eurostat shows that
65 percent of the total European population had sent e-mails with attached files, 33 percent
had made phone calls and 38 percent had done online purchases in the last three months)
that can be exploited for education based on open and distance learning.
The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between employment security
and e-learning at a European level, as this analysis is set as within of the most noteworthy
fields of research in contemporary usage of ICT by workers, especially after the detection of
certain connections between these variables (Martínez-Cerdá and Torrent-Sellens, 2014b).
Section 2 presents various topics previously studied by authors in relation
to employment security and education, as well as different approaches for calculating
employment security, also raised by another set of investigations. Section 3 shows the
research question and methodology of this research, and the characteristics of the data used.
Then Section 4 and Section 5 discuss the results, accompanied by several recommendations
and conclusions.
Context and background
Employment security and education
When studying the relationship between employment security and e-learning, different
aspects have to be considered both from the point of view of the current context in Europe in
terms of employment and from the perspective of education as a way to develop useful skills
for the employability of citizens and improve worker skills. In this regard, the linkages
between employment security and education have been studied from the perspective of
work-related learning (Kyndt and Baert, 2013) and the paradigm of studying the behavior of
individuals (Sanders et al., 2011) with the parameters of the theory of the reasoned action
and its extension called the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991).
From a business point of view, Ordiz-Fuertes and Fernández-Sánchez (2005) also show a
relationship between employment security and training, making the point that companies
cannot invest resources in training their workers unless firms think about keeping workers
on for a long period of time, after which enterprises will benefit of the investment made
through such training.
Taking into account the growing social demand for skills and competences caused by the
advance of the information society, different approaches have been studied on the issue of
skills learned by students. These approaches range from computer literacy and its
relationship with those skills useful for employability and lifelong learning to the analysis of
digital educational games as a way for cultivating imagination and creativity abilities
(Lin and Lin, 2014), to the use of wikis in educational environments for developing conflict
resolution, leadership and working groups (Palomo-Duarte et al., 2014), or to understand
social networks usage by business students as a significant agents for professional
purposes, knowledge and career (Benson and Filippaios, 2015).
Thus, in relationto competences required from the workforce (Bartel et al., 2007), different
European institutions have launched diverse initiatives. For example, the 21st Century
Initiative launched in 2007 by the European Commission, the Council, the European
Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
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