Predicting career advancement with structural equation modelling

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to use the authors' prior findings concerning basic employability skills in order to determine which skills best predict career advancement potential. Design/methodology/approach -Utilizing survey responses of human resource managers, the employability skills showing the largest relationships to career advancement were used in a regression analysis. The regression results generated structural equation models. Findings -According to human resource managers, leadership skills and information technology skills needed for job performance were shown to be significant contributors to recent graduates' career advancement potential. Work ethic and critical thinking skills were found to be closely linked with leadership skills. Additionally, management skills, leadership skills, and basic literacy and numeracy skills received from recent graduates by their employers were found to be the strongest predictors of graduates' career advancement potential.Research limitations/implications -The research study was limited to graduates, faculty, and recruiters at a business school in southern California. Further studies can determine whether differences in attitudes from those found in this study might exist. Practical implications -It is important that students develop basic employability skills prior to entering the workforce, since remedial training on the job could impede career advancement. Social implications -Those graduates who show deficiencies in the skills that are viewed by employers to be predictors of advancement are likely to experience difficulties with career growth. Originality/value -The first part of this study utilized a triangular approach to survey three distinct groups of respondents -graduates, the faculty who taught them, and the human resource managers who recruited them -concerning their attitudes toward basic employability skills. In this second part of the study, the novelty utilized was structural equation modelling, which highlighted those skills that are most critical to career advancement.

An exploration of employer perceptions of graduate student employability

“…Professors identified that interpersonal skills, followed by work ethic and leadership skills are most needed, and human resource managers identified that literacy-numeracy skills, followed by work ethic and leadership skills are most needed. In the second study, management skills, leadership skills and basic literacy-numeracy skills were found to be statistically significantly and positively correlated with perceptions of career advancement potential (Heimler et al, 2012).…”

“…In a comprehensive study, Rosenberg and colleagues (Rosenberg et al, 2012;Heimler et al, 2012) triangulate recently graduated students, professors and human resource managers perceptions to develop an multiple stakeholder awareness of how employability skills predict career advancement potential of undergraduate students. In the first of two studies, Rosenberg et al (2012) identified that students, professors and human resource managers have differing perceptions of the factors of employability.…”

Employability and innovation: development of a scale

“…Contemporary evidence also suggests that though B-schools have responded to the current dynamic environment by adapting a more business-like approach to prepare students according to the industry (Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012;Rosenberg et al, 2012;Mourshed et al, 2012;Heimler et al, 2012), scanning the horizon and identifying new markets and opportunities for students' growth, some business schools remain ardently against a more business-like approach, considering it to work against academic clarity and research excellence, expected of universities (Curtis and Samy, 2014).…”

Being a college student leader boosts career prospects: a panel survey in China

“…Some studies noted that student leaders, especially those in big unions and organisations, have great power, authority, and public resources that might be misused (Guan and Yuan, 2019). These actions may affect one's future work ethic (Heimler et al, 2012;Phillips et al, 2017) and suggest that being in a leadership position does not always mean that the student is a good leader or is respected by peers (Komives et al, 2009;Roulin and Bangerter, 2013). Other data have shown that student leaders who consume more alcohol on average than the members of their respective organisations significantly increase their chances of drinking as students, whether in China or other countries (Li, 2013;Spratt and Turrentine, 2001).…”