269 • BPA
A. Lo Presti
Research
4
Decades of research carried out on unemployment have
unequivocally shown that this occupational condition is
accompanied by negative effects on psychological well-
being (Warr, 1987; Schaufeli & Van Yperen, 1992) as well
as on the quality of family and social relationships (Grant
& Barling, 1994). As there are several data supporting the
positive relation between the frequency and intensity of job-
search behaviors and rate and chances of re-employment
(Saks & Ashforth, 2000; Wanberg, Kanfer & Rotundo, 1999),
it is fundamental to study and understand the mechanisms
that predict the likelihood of their implementation. Bretz,
Boudreau and Judge (1994) stated that job-search behaviors
refer to the specific activities that an individual engages in to
acquire knowledge about labour market alternatives. Instead,
in the 2001, Kanfer, Wanberg and Kantrowitz defined job-
search as the outcome of a dynamic, recursive, self-regulated
process; such formulations depicted job-search as a purposive,
volitional pattern of action that begins with the identification
and commitment to pursuing an employment goal.
Job-search can be carried out via several means, one
of which is visiting a public job-center in order to benefit
from information and more structured and professional
forms of support and guidance. Italian job-centers have
specific characteristics that make them quite different than
other European job-services. Pastore (2013), on the basis of
previous classifications of school-to-work transition systems,
identified four public job-services regimes: liberal (e.g. United
Kingdom), euro-continental (e.g. Germany), scandinavian
(e.g. Sweden) and euro-mediterranean (e.g. Spain and Italy).
The euro-mediterranean regime does not provide efficient
intermediation between jobs supply and demand (as in the
liberal regime) nor is well integrated with the educational and
training system (as in the euro-continental and Scandinavian
regimes) while has a predominant bureaucratic role. According
to Mandrone (2011), in the 2010, Italian job-centers were able
to intermediate the 3.7% of all new jobs, less than half than
United Kingdom and just a quarter than Germany; a very low
percentage compared, for example, with family and friend
networks which were helpful in the 35.3% of cases. These data
make compelling to understand the way job-centers’ services
are able to support individuals in their job-search and foster
their speed of re-employment, in order to compare such users
with other job-seekers, not recurring to job-centers, or with
other European job-centers, which seem more efficient in
intermediating jobs supply and demand.
On the basis of the above-mentioned peculiarities of the
Italian labour market and job-centers (as compared to other
Europeancountries)andontheimportanceofpromoting,inthe
best possible way, processes of exploration and reintegration of
individuals within the internal labour market, this study aims
to explore the role of variables such as proactive personality,
job-search self-efficacy, educational level, financial hardship
and social support as potential antecedents of job-search
behaviors, as well as the potential moderations by biographical
and socio-economic data (gender, marital status, previous
work experiences, occupational condition, length and local
rate of unemployment). Being the hypotheses supported, and
considering their empirical, but above all practical, salience, a
better knowledge of these antecedents and their moderators
may allow job-centers management to calibrate better career
counseling and transition support interventions on the basis
of the actual characteristics of the users and their context,
stimulating deficit psychosocial aspects which could instead
catalyze more effective and efficient job-search behaviors.
Theoretical model and study
hypotheses
Saks and Ashforth (2000) listed the main theoretical models
about job-search behaviors (Barber, Daly, Giannantonio & Phillips,
1994). The
sequential model
proposes that job-search follows
a logical sequence of stages in which “
search activities change
sequentially and systematically over the duration of search
” (Barber
et al., 1994, p. 742). On the basis of such model, Blau (1993, 1994)
conceptualized the so-called “preparatory job-search behaviors”
(e.g. preparing a resume) that imply the search for information
and potential avenues of action. According to the second model,
the so-called
learning model
, job seekers learn more efficient
and effective search techniques during their job-search; in this
regard, Saks and Ashforth cited the so-called “active job-search
behaviors” (e.g. telephoning a prospective employer) which instead
imply more concrete activities such as the search for contacts or
the consultancy of specific advisers. Finally, the third,
emotional
response
, model asserts that job seekers experience high levels of
stress and frustration that “
may cause searchers to expand, contract,
or otherwise modify their search activities, regardless of the utility of
those activities
” (Barber et al., 1994, p. 741). The sequential model
and the learning model justify the traditional distinction, also
considered in the present paper, between preparatory and active
