Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-134). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems, Leadership, Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-134). Also available on the Internet.

Not available / text

Current U.S. college graduates are part of the millennial generation, which is the largest and most well-educated generation of all time (PEW, 2014; Twenge, 2006) and are the future of the workforce. Moreover, recent college graduates have unique job searching and career expectations, which underlie the communication strategies used to search for jobs. While the process of job searching is inherently communicative in nature, job searching is an under studied context within communication research. Although previous research outlines the career related expectations of young job seekers, it fails to examine how recent college graduates search for jobs and communicatively respond to violated job searching expectations. This goal of this study was to determine the communicative strategies recent college graduates use to search for jobs and the role communication plays in responding to job searching expectation violations. Expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978), a communicative framework, is applied in this study to understand how recent college graduates respond to violated job searching expectations. Six research questions guided this study to determine the job searching communication strategies, job searching expectations, career expectations, and expectancy violations that occurred throughout the job search. To answer these questions, I conducted interviews with 20 participants, twice over a three-month period, to qualitatively understand and analyze the job searching processes of recent college graduates. The findings from this study demonstrate that recent college graduates use a combination of traditional job searching strategies and online social networking strategies to find, research, and apply for jobs. While participants expected the job search to be difficult, they were surprised at the amount of intensity and effort job searching required. Interpreting the results through the lens of EVT helped note that the participants with the most realistic job searching and career related expectations had greater success job searching over a three-month period and at the time of the follow up interview, several participants had accepted full-time, post graduate jobs. Expectancy violations theory was essential in interpreting how participants network with interpersonal contacts by offering insight for why participants strategically communicate with contacts based upon their potential reward value. The reciprocation and compensation mechanisms of expectancy violations theory also provided an explanation as to why some participants increased their job searching activity in response to violated expectations and others did not. An especially interesting finding illustrates that participants preferred to receive bad news over no news at all, and even evaluated bad news as a positive expectancy violation because it reduced their uncertainty. Collectively, expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978) and anticipatory socialization research (Dubinsky, Howell, Ingram, & Bellenger, 1986) highlight how recent college graduates form their job searching and career expectations. The findings from this study also contribute to existing job searching research by examining the job searching strategies and behaviors of recent college graduates to better understand how they job search and what they expect from their future employers. Lastly, the findings from this study provide several practical application suggestions for organizations to implement in order to recruit and retain the best young job seekers in light of their current expectations and job searching strategies.

This study invest igated the demand trends in the employment of psychology graduates - with specific reference to research psychology - in South Africa from 1976 to 1998. A total of 5769 advertisements appearing in the Sunday Times and the Mail and Guardian were analysed. Results indicated that there has been an increase in demand for research skills coupled with a decrease in demand for technical psychosocial skills (psychodiagnosis, psychotherapy and psychometrics) . In addition, there has been an increase in demand for graduates with a background in research and community psychology to work in the public sector and in social welfare and development environments. These results are discussed in the light of other studies, which suggest an increased demand globally for research skills and service professionals. The implications of these results for the planning of psychology curricula suggest that career-oriented studies could concentrate on research skills and exposure to social welfare and development contexts, thereby ensuring that the demand for these skills is met. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Douglas College Business Program students have graduated for the past twenty-two years. This study was undertaken to examine three specific aspects of the 'impact' that the Douglas College educational experience has had on these business graduates. Impact, as defined by Alfred (1982), is the sum total of outcomes, changes and benefits produced by a college. Through the use of Astin's model of the components of the process of higher education, specific outcomes related to employment, finances and further educational development were investigated. A survey was conducted of graduates from selected business programs from the years 1981 and 1986. Analyses were carried out to determine outcomes of having graduated from a Douglas College business program. It was found that the Douglas College business program graduates experienced positive outcomes related to employment, finances, and pursuit of further education. Graduates perceived that the benefits related to employment were more important than other benefits related to their educational experience.

Higher education is instrumental in the economic development of any country, as a resource of skilled personnel and knowledge production. In South Africa there is a need for higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop innovative responses to address graduate employability and entrepreneurship education. Moreover, there is a need to catalyse entrepreneurship activity among students in order to cultivate skilled opportunity-orientated entrepreneurs. This study explores the application the ‘Junior Enterprise (JE) concept’ (an international best practice) as a mechanism of improving employability and fostering entrepreneurship. To discern if this practice is appropriate for South African students, the research investigates students’ perceptions. Overall the findings suggest that there is relevant student demand for this type of experiential and cooperative learning practice. However, conflicting studies infer that the widespread implementation of this type of learning practice will face implicit challenges in the indigenous context. To further examine the feasibility of applying the JE-concept in South African HEIs, it is essential to design, implement and evaluate a pilot project. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

The popularity and application of competencies to human resource processes has grown over the last 20 years since Richard Boyatzis fIrst described a competency in his book 'The Competent Manager' in 1982. With this dissertation a study of the origins of the competency movement, its various applications and in particular, its application to human resource processes in the area of graduate recruitment, selection and development, is undertaken. A study of the application of an existing competency framework to the graduate recruitment process in a local subsidiary of a Durban-based multi-national was undertaken. The objective of the study was to investigate whether specifIc competency clusters, as defIned in the competency framework, were better at predicting early career success than were others. The study used the cumulative appraisal increases of fIfty-four graduate recruits over a twenty-one month period, together with the competency scores that were awarded the graduate during their actual recruitment and selection for employment. Using a backward elimination multiple regression technique the merit ratings were included with scores for each of the four competency clusters in the equation. Results suggest that higher scores on two of the four competency clusters 'Determines Direction' (DD) and 'Delivers through People' (P) are better predictors of early career success. It was concluded that while certain competency clusters seem better indicators of early career success than others, factors such as interviewer skill in identifying competency evidence, interviewer bias and appropriateness of ii competencies to graduate recruitment, may account for the weak relationship between the indicator variables in the study. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2002

With numerous local economies previously driven by manufacturing, Indiana was strongly affected by the economic downturn from 2007 until 2009. One suggestion to facilitate economic growth has been Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory, which asserts that talented and educated people choose to live in creative places. College graduates represent one part of Florida’s “creative class.” Current students at Ball State University were surveyed to understand the importance of place-related factors for where students wanted to live after they graduated. The survey responses indicated that students are most concerned with income potential, cost of living, and distance to family. Alumni residence data from Ball State and three other Indiana universities were also mapped and compared to county-level measures of income, housing, distance from home, and creativity index. This analysis supports the survey findings that economic factors and family connections are likely motivating factors in where graduates have chosen to live and stands in contrast to the overall logic of the creative place theory of development. / Department of Geography