Job Choice Research Articles

Nepotism and Job Search: An Investigation on Bangladeshi Graduates

The youth unemployment rate in Bangladesh is 10.6 % which is more than twice the overall national unemployment rate standing at 4.2 %. And this group of young people are at risk of having their labour-market prospects deteriorating in the long term according to a report by the International Labor Organization (Ilo, 2022). To correctly identify all the plausible aspects leading to massive unemployment among the youth, nepotism marks an important area of study and investigation in order to figure out particularly in which areas the university students fail or are able to secure their desired job opportunities after their graduation. However, this issue rarely receives the necessary attention and focus, and scholarly discussions on this topic are sparse. To shed light on this, a survey questionnaire was designed for university graduates with different backgrounds and expectations which led us to gather interesting insights into how nepotism plays a role in shaping their interest into areas of job search and also in helping them to get their desired jobs. We were able to confirm that graduates who rely on family and friends for job leads are more likely to get hired shortly after graduation. They require fewer job applications, and are less likely to broaden their horizons in their search for employment. It was also noted that the dynamics of the job search vary significantly between majors, particularly in the fields of Business Administration, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the Social Sciences, in terms of both the demands of the applicants and the extent to which they rely on external assistance in order to secure employment. These findings provide a glimpse into the decision-making process behind the nepotistic job choices made by graduates and also helped in shedding light on the consequences of those who were engaged in the job seeking process without the same advantages or backings.

Decision-making factors for job choice in Romanian rural areas. Employment on the strand of options, capabilities and access.

Rural area represents the population with a high work capacity, but with less employment opportunities than in urban areas, so in order to have a decent job 5 (five) needs are referred to: working conditions should be safe, both physically and mentally, people should have access to medical facilities, health, working hours should be ones in which you can rest and have time for family and compensation should be acceptable for the work done. The employment opportunities that people have differ depending on the environment they come from, so in rural areas the job opportunities are discrete, as it is the quality in work, both of them depending strongly on the area characteristics - whether it is developed or underdeveloped- and by its infrastructure, always considering that agriculture is most increased activity in these areas. The study aims to map and depict the occupational situation of people living in Romanian rural areas, coping with limited job opportunities, compared to those living in towns and cities, as well as how people in rural areas choose their jobs, how the labour market has influenced them to find a suitable job and where they can get or acquire the skills they need. As people in rural areas choose to migrate, the population is an ageing one and over time, villages will depopulate and the labour force and human resources will shrink.

A New Proposition of Symbolic Reaction Theory in Job Choice Factors of Senior High School Students under Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics Education

A New Proposition of Symbolic Reaction Theory in Job Choice Factors of Senior High School Students under Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics Education

The roles of experience and gender in shaping work values

PurposeThis paper aims to examine work values among job seekers and how these values differ across experience and gender.Design/methodology/approachThis study asked participants to rate the importance of various intrinsic and extrinsic work values on a five-point Likert scale. Responses were compared for 865 participants.FindingsThis study found that individuals differed in their ratings of work values based on experience. Individuals with more experience assigned greater importance to intrinsic job characteristics, while those with less experience assigned greater importance to extrinsic job characteristics. Findings further reveal differences in gender ratings of work values, with females assigning greater importance ratings to both intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics as compared to males.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this study include that it drew its data exclusively from a sample of US respondents. Research investigating populations from other geographic regions within the same study may uncover important cross-national similarities/differences. Moreover, although this study examined experience and gender, it excluded other potentially important factors such as ethnicity. Future research should explore international samples and broaden its focus to include additional factors.Practical implicationsOrganizations should be aware of how experience and gender shape work values to impact job choice and retention. They may wish to target their recruitment efforts toward certain groups to ensure alignment between candidates' work values and those of available positions.Originality/valueThis study improves on prior research by examining the dual impact of experience and gender in shaping work values.

Is survival a luxury good? Income elasticity of the value per statistical life

The value of a change in mortality risk is conventionally described by the marginal rate of substitution between income and mortality risk–the value per statistical life (VSL). The income elasticity of VSL is important for estimating how the value of mortality risk varies with time (for evaluating programs with long-lived effects) and across populations with different income levels (for evaluating programs with international consequences). Previous estimates of income elasticity based on meta-analysis of wage-differential studies and cross-sectional comparisons in stated-preference studies suggest values between about one-half and one. We present new estimates based on a 16-year series of wage-differential estimates in Taiwan. Between 1982 and 1997, estimated VSL increased by a factor of five while household labor earnings increased by 60 percent, per capita GDP increased two-and-a-half fold, and the occupational fatality rate in manufacturing and service industries decreased by half. Comparing the growth of VSL with that of household income implies the income elasticity is between about two and five, but this estimate may be biased by the endogeneity of VSL, which is affected by workers’ job choices. Using a two-stage approach to control for endogeneity yields estimates of the income elasticity of VSL between two-thirds and one, consistent with estimates from other approaches.

Job Preference and Factors Influencing Job Choice Among Public University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study at Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur

Today, most of the students at the university level are facing career-related problems in the form of either career indecision or the wrong decision. For university-level students' career preference is a crucial issue. Being successful in life depends on making the appropriate career decision. This study aims to identify the recent trends of job preferences and elements influencing job desire and how family, friends, and peer relationships affect students' preferences for choosing a career. A survey was carried out at Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR) with regular students of 4th year and Masters; with a sample size of 272. An interview schedule was used to carry out the survey. In order to acquire a better understanding and more knowledge about the research, some material was gathered through in-person interviews. Using stratified simple random sampling technique, respondents were chosen from four faculties of the University. The study revealed that there is no discernible difference between the genders in terms of preferred careers, but there is a difference in faculty and family status. BCS and first-class government jobs are the preferred career fields for 116 out of 272 students (42.6%). The respondents' hesitation to seek employment in the small- and medium-sized business and non-profit sectors was also discovered. The main drivers of these professional choices are that today's graduates place a high importance on monetary rewards, social status, and public acknowledgement, in addition to power and authority. Furthermore, the current BCS test system attracts students more due to job stability and transparency in the hiring process. The interest of young people in working in banks has recently increased due to the emergence of private and foreign banks. The primary factors luring these graduates into these industries are the excellent compensation packages. This study recommends that more market-driven, practical, and relevant courses should be developed by the university

Nurse practitioner job preference: A discrete choice experiment

BackgroundNurse practitioners play a critical role in improving the access to care and in meeting the needs for health care. However, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the average turnover rate of nurse practitioners was 10 % with associated total direct cost that ranged from $85,832 to $114,919 for each episode of turnover in the United States. Little is known about the job preference of nurse practitioners and the cost savings to an organization that provides jobs with characteristics attractive to nurse practitioners. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify the preferred job characteristics that are associated with nurse practitioners' job choices; and to determine the extent to which nurse practitioners would need to be compensated for practicing without these characteristics. DesignA two-stage design using a mixed method approach. Setting(s)The state of Georgia in the United States. Participants2757 nurse practitioners who were actively licensed were invited to participate. Of the 412 participants, 372 actively employed in Georgia were included in the analysis. MethodsA 2-stage discrete choice experiment was designed. Stage-1 was a qualitative design using a focus group to identify nurse practitioners' preferred job characteristics. Stage-2 was a quantitative design using survey distribution and analysis. A mixed logit model was used for ranking nurse practitioners' preferred job characteristics and the extent to which they would need to be compensated. ResultsOn average nurse practitioners were 47.4 years of age; the majority were female (90 %), white (75.3 %), and educated at the master's level (88.7 %). Participants did not value teams that were not very cohesive (β = −1.50); administration that was not very responsive and supportive (β = −1.04); being supervised by a physician (β = −0.58); not having their own panel of patients (β = −0.42); and not billing under their own National Provider Identifier (β = −0.18). Participants would need an increase in annual income of USD$21,780 for practicing in a not very cohesive team; USD$15,280 for practicing with a not very responsive administration; and USD$21,450 for being supervised by a physician. ConclusionsA cohesive, responsive, and supportive working environment and being able to practice independently are important characteristics for nurse practitioners when choosing a job. Healthcare managers should provide a workplace culture that reflects these preferred job characteristics to attract and retain nurse practitioners. Policymakers should consider reforming the scope of practice legislation to promote the independent practice of nurse practitioners.

A Study on Analysing the Job Seekers' Perception and the Strategies of Recruitment Marketing

The goal of the study is to demonstrate why a recruitment agency would utilize the employer branding of one of its clients as a recruitment marketing technique to draw in talent and fill the appropriate positions for their client's business. This study shows how businesses and job seekers have started to emphasize the importance of recruiting firms. But on the other hand, they should definitely build a relationship with job seekers who depend on recruitment firms to land a position at any respectable organization. These studies provide you an overview of the relationship between organizational traits, various aspects of job choice, and Candidate's perceptions of the job. This study also illustrates how employers and job seekers are beginning to recognize the value of recruitment agencies. A recruitment company will use their client's employer branding as a recruitment marketing tool to attract talent and fill the right position for their client's company in order to understand the terms recruitment marketing, employer value proposition, candidate perception for an organization, key features that attract a candidate to a specific company, segmentation, and personalization in recruitment marketing. Despite the numerous advantages of recruitment consultants' marketing efforts, some businesses still have misconceptions concerning what these options can do, exactly what they are capable of, and how they should be used. According to the findings of this study, one approach to addressing this issue is to improve employer branding. The challenge identified by this research can be tried to solve by leveraging candidates' perceptions, which will shift from generation to generation, and collaborating with recruitment firms to help candidates become more well-informed and aware of the benefits of the position.

Enhancing employer attractiveness: the impact of COVID-19 on Generation Z

This paper investigates how employer attractiveness has been affected by developments in the attitudes, values, and goals of Generation Z (born between 1995-2010) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows the challenging environment for employers who are increasingly facing a ‘war for talent’ and the need to focus on generational needs and expectations. Work concepts in many cases have been adapted to Generation Y, but a revision of strategies is needed for the newest generation on the labour market. The insurance industry has long struggled to attract young talent and along with retail, logistics, tourism, and banking has been ranked the lowest in employer attractiveness by Generation Z. This is corroborated by the fact that larger corporations are also often perceived as unattractive by young people. While many industries have struggled with the consequences and challenges of the pandemic, the insurance sector can be seen as having mastered the crisis comparatively well. This paper questions whether the relative job security offered by the insurance sector, can be increasingly influential in post pandemic job choices. Since Generation Z was already described as security-oriented before the pandemic, this is expected to have increased as a result of COVID-19 and be reflected in their career and employer choices. The perspectives of Generation Z and employers from the German insurance industry are compared through survey and interview data. The young cohort suspects a worsening of their situation particularly in job offerings and security. At the same time, the insurance industry positions itself well in exactly these areas. Furthermore, the aspirations and expectations of Generation Z towards the professional world coincide strongly with the offerings of insurers as employers. However, the respondents see the sector’s image as a deterrent. Although this paper focuses on the insurance industry, strategic recommendations given on how the sector can position itself, are relevant for other sectors facing the challenge of attracting Generation Z employees.

A Cross-Sectional, Mixed-Methods Analysis to Identify the Relative Importance of Factors Students and Providers Evaluate When Making a Job Choice.

Little is known about the relative importance of factors that contribute to job choices among health care providers. A convenience sample of 173 health care providers (N=134) and physician assistant students (N=39) completed a cross-sectional survey. Participants rated the importance of sixteen job- (e.g., work environment), community- (e.g., recreational opportunities), and personal-related factors (e.g., children) and one open-ended item. The highest rated item, on average, was an opportunity to make a difference in patient quality of life (mean (M)=4.57, standard deviation (SD)=0.63) while the lowest rated item was wealth/prestige of living in a certain area (M=2.43, SD=1.05). The average importance rating was similar across types of providers and between providers and students. While personal interest to positively affect patients' quality of life was rated as the most important factor, almost all the studied items were rated as important or very important by the majority of participants.

Making the Elite: Top Jobs, Disparities, and Solutions

How do socioeconomically unequal screening practices impact access to elite firms and what policies might reduce inequality? Using personnel data from elite U.S. and European multinational corporations recruiting from an elite Indian college, I show that caste disparities in hiring do not arise in many job search stages, including: applications, application reading, written aptitude tests, large group debates that assess socio-emotional skills, and job choices. Rather, disparities arise in the final round, comprising non-technical personal interviews that screen on family background, neighborhood, and "cultural fit." These characteristics are plausibly weakly correlated with productivity (at the interview round) but strongly correlated with caste. Employer willingness to pay for an advantaged caste is as large as that for a full standard deviation increase in college GPA. A hiring subsidy that eliminates the caste penalty would be more cost-effective in diversifying elite hiring than equalizing the caste distribution of pre-college test scores or enforcing hiring quotas.

Making the Elite: Top Jobs, Disparities, and Solutions

How do socioeconomically unequal screening practices impact access to elite firms and what policies might reduce inequality? Using personnel data from elite U.S. and European multinational corporations recruiting from an elite Indian college, I show that caste disparities in hiring do not arise in many job search stages, including: applications, application reading, written aptitude tests, large group debates that assess socio-emotional skills, and job choices. Rather, disparities arise in the final round, comprising non-technical personal interviews that screen on family background, neighborhood, and "cultural fit." These characteristics are plausibly weakly correlated with productivity (at the interview round) but strongly correlated with caste. Employer willingness to pay for an advantaged caste is as large as that for a full standard deviation increase in college GPA. A hiring subsidy that eliminates the caste penalty would be more cost-effective in diversifying elite hiring than equalizing the caste distribution of pre-college test scores or enforcing hiring quotas.

Gig Intentions in Management Students: Integrating JD-R in an Extended TPB Model

Gig economy is being increasingly popular globally across the sectors, positions and types of jobs. Despite the growing awareness of the benefits and challenges associated with gig jobs, little is known about what drives the younger generation to take up gig careers. The present study attempts to address this gap and better explain gig work intentions through extended TPB theory. The study rests on the premise that job seekers’ attitude towards gig jobs, belief in self-efficacy and the prevailing social norms influences the decision to make a gig career choice. Apart from these basic constructs of TPB model, impact of two additional factors (gig personality traits and gig work environment consisting of gig job demands and gig job resources based on JD-R model) on gig job intentions was measured to get a deeper understanding on predictors of gig jobs choices. Based on analysis of 471 responses from business management students studying in NIRF listed business schools in India, the study empirically reveals that all three basic constructs-gig job attitude, gig self-efficacy and social norms significantly influence management student’s gig job intentions. Gig job demands had a significant negative whereas gig job resources had a positive relationship with gig job intentions. The three personality traits did not have any direct significant relationship with gig job intentions. But the mediating role of gig job attitude between gig personality traits was also confirmed. The findings of the study contribute to literature on factors driving choice of gig jobs. It has huge implications for policy makers, organizations, business schools as well as society in general.

Do preferences for urban amenities differ by skill?

Abstract By investing in urban amenities, city-level policies often aim to attract highly skilled workers. However, studies relying on revealed preferences struggle to provide causal evidence that skilled workers value urban amenities more than less skilled workers. Therefore, we use a stated-preference experiment with hypothetical job choices between two cities that differ in wages, urban amenities and economic dynamism. We find that respondents are willing to forgo a significant fraction of their wages for better urban amenities. Most strikingly, preferences do not differ systematically by skill level. Hence, the higher fraction of highly skilled workers in amenity-rich places stems from the inability of low-skilled workers to move to and afford living in their preferred locations.

Driving as communities: Chinese taxi drivers’ technology, job, and mobility choices under the pressure of e-hailing

Focusing on conventional taxis and e-hailing, this paper discusses the technology, job and mobility choices of a conventional occupational group – taxi drivers – faced with an algorithm-enabled mode of mobility. Based on six-month ethnographic fieldwork in Xi’an, China, it shows that taxi drivers generally prefer taxis to e-hailing. Because the e-hailing algorithm treats each driver independently, drivers’ spatio-temporal skills become marginalised and taxi drivers are no longer able to maintain a regular spatio-temporal arrangement that facilitates their community nodes as they do in taxi-driving. Their preference for taxis is a response to the potential threat to their community and social values imposed by algorithm-enabled mobilities. The paper emphasises how workers’ response to algorithmic digital automation are centred around and operationalised by spatio-temporal mobility. It also shows that the impacts of new mobilities are distributed unevenly across groups with different socio-economic backgrounds and life experiences, in this case vis-à-vis the privatisation and urbanisation of Chinese society.

Neonatal nurse practitioner job satisfaction, workforce environment, and mental well-being.

Increased demand for nurse practitioners emphasizes the importance of consistent and ongoing collection of data to provide a better understanding of the NNP workforce and to promote retention and recruitment of NNPs. To understand how work environment and work hours influence job or career satisfaction. The National Association of Neonatal Nurse Practitioners in collaboration with the National Certification Corporation emailed an online survey to all 6,558 certified neonatal nurse practitioners (NNPs) in 2020 with 845 (12.8%) responding. Subjects included those with responsibilities in direct patient care, transport NPs, faculty/directors, and advanced practice registered nurse coordinators/managers/administrators. Satisfaction with career choice as an NNP was reported as very satisfied by 58% (n = 493) and mostly satisfied by 37% (n = 310). Satisfaction with current job as an NNP was reported as very satisfied for 30% (n = 252), with 51% being mostly satisfied (n = 435). Age influenced satisfaction scores, with NNPs aged 61 years or older having a higher mean score than NNPs aged 31-40 years ( p = .041). The majority of NNPs did not use all of their available paid time off (72%; n = 609) and respondents worked an additional 248 extra hours per year. NNPs experience bullying (58%) and/or lateral violence (32%). Seventeen percent have called in sick for mental health reasons (n = 147). Neonatal nurse practitioners' satisfaction is multifactorial. Those who reported taking time off for self-prescribed mental health indicated less job satisfaction, more work hours, poor work/life balance, and a less-than-optimum work environment. Overall, NNPs are satisfied with their career choice but are less satisfied with their job choice. Understanding factors that influence mental well-being and job satisfaction will improve recruitment and retention of nurse practitioners.

Career Path Decisions and Sustainable Options

Career planning has become more important than standalone job decisions in the current environment, where individuals have a wider range of choices of occupations and jobs than ever before. This paper reviews the theoretical developments in career guidance theory and recommends a holistic approach towards ‘Career Path Guidance’, incorporating psychological, sociological and developmental perspectives. An approach that considers several future steps in a career cannot be without challenges. The contextual and environmental situations along with individual characteristics are subject to change along a career path. Additionally, different stages in a career path are another variable that needs consideration to achieve a sustainable future. It has, therefore, been proposed that the career course be mapped by considering external factors, internal improvements and path-related dynamism. A multidimensional understanding of career guidance and the amount, complexity and sensitivity of the data involved mean that this approach may be better executed using computer-assisted systems that can source and logically analyze a large amount of information from several sources to produce coherent, sustainable and practical career path decisions.

Job attributes valued by physicians, PAs, and NPs: A cross-sectional survey.

This study evaluated the relative importance of job-, community-, and individual-related factors that contribute to job choice among physicians, physician assistants (PAs), and NPs, to inform policy options to recruit clinicians to rural areas. A cross-sectional online survey of PA preceptors from three institutions in two states. Participants were asked to rate the importance of 16 job-, community-, and individual-related factors when choosing a job. We received responses from 45 physicians, 74 PAs, and 15 NPs (24.2% response rate), who rated most job-, community-, and individual-related factors as important; ratings were similar across clinicians. PAs rated loan repayment programs and work hours higher than physicians, though the magnitude of the difference was small. Clinicians similarly rated many factors as important. A better understanding of the tradeoffs clinicians are willing to make between these factors when making a job choice is critical to increase the attractiveness of rural positions.

Understanding community health worker employment preferences in Malang district, Indonesia, using a discrete choice experiment

BackgroundCommunity health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in supporting health systems, and in improving accessibility to primary healthcare. In many settings CHW programmes do not have formalised employment models...

Modelling online job search and choices of dentists in the Australian job market: Staged sequential DCEs and FIML econometric methods

Workforce participation decisions involve multiple stages: search, screening and offer evaluation. Standard econometric practice focusses on these stages in isolation. We conceptualize the focal behaviours as separate sequential decision stages, and provide a stated preference measurement framework for online job search and choice with a behaviourally consistent modelling approach. We demonstrate this approach in an empirical application of 275 dentists who completed an online survey including two Discrete Choice Experiments: the first mimicked an online job search site in which dentists decided which jobs they would apply to and the second presented dentists with a job offer which they accepted or rejected. Modelling these tasks requires a two-stage econometric model that incorporates the likelihood of application (first stage) into the job offer choice (second stage). The model detects differences in preferences (hence behaviours) across stages, facilitating the differentiation of policy aimed at search and job choice behaviours. Job screening occurs during search and the marginal propensity to apply for a job-type differs from the offer stage. We suggest that the approach presented provides a valuable way to investigate how dentists particularly, and perhaps the health workforce more generally, respond at different stages of workforce participation decisions and discuss practical implications.