The employability consequences of grit: examining the roles of job involvement and team member proactivity

Purpose Responding to the call for more research on the consequences of grit, this study aims to examine the relationship between grit and employees’ perceived employability. Drawing on the self-determination theory, the authors hypothesize that job involvement and team member proactivity sequentially mediate the relationship between grit and employability. Design/methodology/approach A time-lagged research design with a one-month interval was conducted to collect data from three public sector organizations in China (N = 484). The model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and the PROCESS bootstrapping program in SPSS25.0 and AMOS21.0 software. Findings The findings reveal that the positive effect of grit on employability is mediated by job involvement and team member proactivity sequentially. Originality/value The authors contribute to the literature on the employability outcomes of grit. It is also one of a few studies that use a job perspective on the grit−employability relationship.