A comparative study of business success predictors perceived by college recruiters and college seniors

Purpose Because education for business must change to meet the needs of our dynamic society, factors that indicate potential success also change and, therefore, must be identified. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to identify and provide information to serve educators as guidelines for organizing, developing, and inproving college-level occupational programs. This information was intended to supply counselors, students, personnel directors, college recruiters, and errployers with data about current and emerging business success predictors of potential entry-level employees. Procedures A Business Success Predictor Opinionnaire containing 20 statements was constructed and used to gather data for this study. The 20 statements were dealing with the use of high pressure, "playing up" to the boss, indefinite responses to questions, being natural, the desirability of good personal appearance, interviewees' willingness to move, expressing appreciation, efficient administrators' actions, "name dropping," the lack of planning for a career, "job hopping," a sloppy application blank, poor handling of personal finance, being late for an interview, the desirability of conservative hair styles for males, the ability to express oneself, students' high absentee rate, extra-curricular activities, the desirability of conservative female styles, and on-site visits. The Likert-type opinionnaire elicited attitudinal responses from 40 college recruiters and 95 college seniors (business majors only) who availed themselves of the placement centers' services and voluntarily responded at Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University, and the University of Houston. The college recruiters were those who sought enployees, and the college seniors were those who sought enployment through the centers between August and December 1975. Eleven (11) major hypotheses were fromulated and statistically tested using the one-way analysis of variance procedure to secure data for this study. The .05 confidence level was set for rejecting or failing to reject the hypotheses. Findings The findings of this study were grouped according to those relating to (1) college recruiters' and college seniors' perceptions by classification, (2) college recruiters' and college seniors' perceptions by race, (3) college recruiters' perceptions only by race, and (4) college seniors' perceptions only by school. When making comparisons by classification, race, and school, the college recruiters differed significantly from the college seniors on their perceptions toward the business success predictors. All hypotheses formulated to conpare and statistically test the college recruiters' and the college seniors' perceptions in this study, therefore, were rejected. Conclusions and Recommendations Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) classification, race, and school were determining factors in how college recruiters and college seniors perceived the business success predictors; (2) college recruiters perceived the college seniors as having perceptions different from theirs toward the same business success predictors; and (3) likewise, the college seniors perceived the college recruiters as having perceptions different from theirs toward the same business success predictors. Based on the data obtained, described, and analyzed in this study, the following recommendations are made; (1) that Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University, and the University of Houston coordinators of education for business and curriculum planners should provide additional opportunities for students to interact with college recruiters and prospective enployers; (2) that the education for business should increase enphasis on such nonacademics as work experiences, personal appearances, communications, extra-curricular activities, and the importance of wholesome attitudes; (3) that further research be conducted to identify additional business success predictors; and (4) that this study be replicated with another population to conpare the findings and conclusions presented by the writer.