Volume 10 Issue 1 (2021)

Factors Predictive of University Students’ Job Values and Their Influences on Future-Oriented Employment Preferences: A Ghanaian Perspective

pp. 7-25  |  Published Online: June 2021  |  DOI: 10.22521/unibulletin.2021.101.1

Majoreen Osafroadu Amankwah and Mohammed-Aminu Sanda

Abstract

Background/purpose – This study explored factors that are predictive of the job values of graduating Ghanaian tertiary students and the influences of such factors on their future-oriented employment preferences.  

Materials/methods – Guided by a survey design, quantitative data were collected from 994 third-year and final-year students from a public university in Ghana. While principal component analysis was employed in order to identify factors predictive of students’ job values, one-sample t-test was used to establish the significance levels of job value factors identified as premium. Independent sample t-test then determined the level of variation in the job value factors according to gender and job preference.

Results – The findings showed that job security and good pay are considered the most important. While job designs with an attractive economic motivation package (e.g., job security plus good pay) were shown to matter more to male students, attractive psychological motivation (e.g., autonomy and independence) was seen as more important to the female students that participated in the study. Unlike male students, the female students tended to place a higher premium on jobs with convenient working hours.

Conclusion – Collectively, Ghanaian students will likely opt for formal employment as against self-employment due to their association with the stable provision of extrinsic and psychological motivation packages in their future employment. This paper aims to provide useful insights and to help improve our understanding of future-oriented employment dynamics of graduating university students in the context of a developing country.

Keywords: University education, graduating students, job values, employment preference, Ghana.

References

Amankwah, M. (2019). Job quality: the perceptions and strategies of New Zealand workers [Doctoral dissertation,. The University of Auckland]. https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/46861/whole.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Arendt, B. (2013). Making it Work: Using Archaeology to Build Job Skills for Careers Other Than Archaeology. Public Archaeology12(2), 79-100. https://doi.org/10.1179/1465518713Z.00000000032

Bridges, J. S. (1989). Sex differences in occupational values. Sex Roles, 20(3-4), 205-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287992

Brown, D. (2002). The role of work and cultural values in occupational choice, satisfaction, and success: a theoretical statement. Journal of Counselling and Development, 80(1), 48-56. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2002.tb00165.x

Clark, A. E. (2010). Work, jobs, and well-being across the millennium, In E. Diener, H. F. Helliwell, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), International Differences in Well-Being (pp. 436-468). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732739.003.0014

Demel, S., Mariel, P., & Meyerhoff, J. (2019). Job preferences of business and economics students. International Journal of Manpower, 40(3), 473-499. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-09-2017-0249

Forsell, T., Tower, J., & Polman, R. (2020). Development of a scale to measure social capital in recreation and sport clubs. Leisure Science, 42(1), 106-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2018.1442268

Halman, L., & Müller, H. (2006). Contemporary work values in Africa and Europe: comparing orientations to work in African and European societies. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 47(2), 117-143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715206065381

Iacovou, C. L., Shirland, L., & Thompson, R. L. (2004). Job selection preferences of business students. Journal of Applied Business Research, 20(1), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v20i1.2198

Ismail, H., Karkoulian, S., & Kertechian, S. K. (2019). Which personal values matter most? Job performance and job satisfaction across job categories. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 27(1), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2017-1275

Jin, J., & Rounds, J. (2012). Stability and change in work values: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 80(2), 326-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.007

Johnson, M. K., & Mortimer, J. T. (2011). Origins and outcomes of judgments about work. Social Forces, 89(4), 1239-1260. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353%2Fsof.2011.0056

Kaiser, H. F. (1974). An Index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39, 31-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291575

Kalleberg, A. L., & Marsden, P. V. (2013). Changing work values in the United States, 1973–2006. Social Science Research, 42(2), 255-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.09.012

Karl, K. A., & Sutton, C. L. (1998). Job values in today’s workforce: A comparison of public and private sector employees. Public Personnel Management27(4), 515-527. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F009102609802700406

Krahn, H. J., & Galambos, N. L. (2014). Work values and beliefs of ‘generation x’ and ‘generation y’. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(1), 92-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.815701

Laurie, J. M. (1996). Management and Organizational Behaviour (4th ed.). Pitman.

Lechner, C. M., Sortheix, F. M., Obschonka, M., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2018). What drives future business leaders?: how work values and gender shape young adults’ entrepreneurial and leadership aspirations. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 107, 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.03.004

Levy, P. (2013). Industrial Organizational Psychology: Understanding the Workplace. Worth.

Lim, H. E., & Soon, J. J.. (2006). Job selection criteria and job sector preference of economics student: an ordered logit model analysis. International Journal of Business and Society, 7(1), 34-44. http://www.ijbs.unimas.my/index.php/vol-7-no-1-2006/86-job-selection-criteria-and-job-sector-preference-of-economics-student-an-ordered-logit-model-analysis

Lowe, G. S. (2007). 21st century job quality: achieving what Canadians want. Research Report,: Canadian Policy Research Networks. http://oaresource.library.carleton.ca/cprn/48485_en.pdf

Lyson, T. A. (1984). Sex differences in the choice of a male or female career line: an analysis of background characteristics and work values. Work and Occupations, 11(2), 131-146. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888484011002001

Machung, A. (1989). Talking career, thinking job: Gender differences in career and family expectations of Berkeley seniors. Feminist Studies, 15(1), 35-58. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177817

Riggio, R. E. (2014). Introduction to industrial/ organizational psychology. Prentice Hall.

Ros, M., Schwartz, S. H., & Surkiss, S. (1999). Basic individual values, work values, and the meaning of work. Applied Psychology, 48(1), 49-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1999.tb00048.x

Sortheix, F. M., Chow, A., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2015). Work values and the transition to work life: a longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 89, 162-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.06.001

Sutherland, J. (2012). Job attribute preferences: who prefers what? Employee Relations, 34(2), 193-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451211191896

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics. Allyn & Bacon.

Tolbert, P. S., & Moen, P. (1998). Men’s and women’s definitions of good jobs: similarities and differences by age and across time. Work and Occupations, 25(2), 168-194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888498025002003

Vecchio, R. P. (1989). The meaning of working, MOW international research team. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030100109

White, C. (2006). Towards an understanding of the relationship between work values and cultural orientations. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(4), 699-715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2005.07.002

Wiswall, M., & Zafar, B. (2018). Preference for the workplace, investment in human capital, and gender. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(1), 457-507. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx035

Wust, K., & Simic, M. L. (2017). Students’ career preferences: intercultural study of Croatian and German students. Economics & Sociology, 10(3), 136-152. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2017/10-3/10

Announcement

UNIBULLETIN News!

► New issue coming soon! (Volume 13 Issue 1, 2024)

Call for Papers

UNIBULLETIN is calling for submissions. Authors are invited to submit papers from the all fields of the Education (General) and Social Sciences (General) in the international context. All submissions should be presented only in English.