College Students' Reactions to the Criteria Recommended for Selecting Employment Referents

Abstract

This investigation offers a concise review of the literature concerning the selection of employment referents and tests the extent to which college students value the recommended selection criteria.

Criteria Used by College Students to Select Employment Referents

“…Interestingly, the ranking of the categories does not consistently match with Ralston's (1989) findings. Perhaps the most notable dif- ferences were the relative rankings of favorableness of information and familiarity with employment.…”

“…Decfinition of Categories. Ralston's (1989) seven criteria served as the initial categories, and each was considered to be mutually exclusive. Because Ralston had speculated that the categories might not be exhaustive, a "residual" category was created in which to place all unclassified (no preexisting categories) and uninterpretable (unreadable) rationales.…”

“…Learning more about referent selection is important because applicants' chances for employment and the quality of application information received by employers are affected by it (Muchinsky, 1979). Research (Ralston, 1989) has shown that because graduating college students frequently lack job experience comparable to the types of positions to which they aspire, perhaps no other group in the labor force is as dependent on employment references. Discovering the criteria that college students use to select their employment referents, therefore, seems to be an important area of study for employment counselors and scholars of business and professional communication.…”

“…The purpose of this study was to identify the criteria that college students use to select employment referents. This article is divided into four stages: (a) a review of Ralston's (1989) research on the topic, (b) a description of the research methodology used in the investigation, (c) a report of the results, and (d) a discussion summarizing the findings and providing implications for employment counseling.…”

“…Only one investigation has addressed college students' selection of employment referents. Ralston's (1989) review of the pedagogical and research literature showed that there are seven criteria that are reported to play a role in referent selection: favorableness of the ref-erence report, perceived objectivity of the information contained in the reference report, personal familiarity between student and referent, referent familiarity with student employment background, referent knowledge of student college class work, referent status, and referent communication skill. After identifying the seven criteria, Ralston asked 140 college seniors to indicate the extent to which they found each of the criteria important in their selection of employment referents.…”