FACTORS AFFECTING CAREER CHOICE OF UNDERGRADUATE … · 2018-10-09 · personality plays a very important part in determining the direction of an individual's life. Therefore, if

Conference on Business Management Research II (CBMR II 2015)

School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia,

22 December 2015

215

FACTORS AFFECTING CAREER CHOICE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

Rajoo Ramanchandrama Shahmir Abdullahb and Afidatul Asmac

a,b,cSchool of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia aEmail: [email protected]

bEmail: [email protected]

Abstract

An important aspect of a person’s life is the issue of deciding on the type of career a person would like to embark on. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the career choice decision of Universiti Utara Malaysia’s undergraduate students. Undergraduate students were chosen as the sample because it would be a good barometer of measurement as they are nearing graduation. A total of 315 students responded to the questionnaire that was conveniently distributed. Statistical Package software for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22.0 was used to analyze the collected data. The Pearson correlation analysis results showed that the influence of family, personal interests and economic considerations has a positive relationship when making a decision on their career choice. However, the results of the multiple regression analysis showed that economic consideration is not a significant predictor of career choice. Moreover, the results of regression analysis showed that personal interests exerted a higher influence on career choice as compared to family influence and economic considerations. Keywords: Career Choice, Family Influence, Personal Interests and Economic Consideration.

INTRODUCTION

Making a decision about career choice is one of the critical aspects of an individual’s life as the choice will have impact on a person’s entire future and the type of role that will be played by the individual in the society (Isaac and AyokaMopelolaI, 2014). Several studies show that new students all over the world are usually faced with a dilemma in making a career choice decision in their lives (Watson, McMahon, Foxcroft & Els, 2010).

However, according to Parson (Sidek, 2002), students might not find it easy to make such a decision. Generally, graduates in the age group between 19 to 24 years are still in a career field exploration level. There are many factors that can influence the career decision of students or graduates. A career choice which is accurate and appropriate to a person’s qualifications, enthusiasm and

personality plays a very important part in determining the direction of an individual's life. Therefore, if the choice of job choice that is made is wrong, it can lead to boredom in work, regret or other negative effects which can cause unpleasantness in life (Ahmad Baharuddin, 2007).

Sharp and Marra (1971) state that the main problem faced by today's undergraduate students is to make career choices that meet their own interests, abilities, talents and personality. According to Hairunnaja (2005), the source of students’ career choice problem can be traced to their time at school where students are not allowed to freely choose the subjects that they want to study as they have to study whatever subject that have been set up by their respective schools. After finishing high school, students would tend to grab whatever course that suits their education level when entering college. In order to overcome this problem, an undergraduate student must know what he or she wants so that he or she can set a direction for a successful career and life. As such, it is important that undergraduate students are able to decide on the career choice, even before they graduate.

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Therefore, this research was conducted to study the factors that influence undergraduate students in deciding their career choice. The study focused on three factors which are family influence, student’s personal interests, and economic considerations which have been researched to influence career choice. The research questions for this study were:

a. Is there any relationship between family influence and career choice? b. Is there any relationship between personal interests and career choice? c. Is there any relationship between economic considerations and career choice?

The research objectives for this research were set as follows:

a. To determine the relationship between family influence and career choice. b. To determine the relationship between personal interests and career choice. c. To determine the relationship between economic considerations and career choice.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Relationship between Family Influence and Career Choice Decision Tang, Fouad, and Smith (1999) reviewed the involvement of families in career choices of 187

Asian American college students. In the study, family involvement is key factor affecting career choices of American-Asians; nonetheless career choice is not related with career interests. The result of findings confirms that the Asian American literary career choices are influenced by family involvement, rather than the interests to their own careers.

Subsequent to this, a recent study by Koc (2008), based on their study of 19,000 students in the United States found that 70% of graduating students say that they would review job offers with their parents first. A study in Australia by Bright, Pryor, Wilkenfield & Earl, (2005), prior to the above study also found that the social context, especially family, had a major impact on career decisions. However, the impact lessens when students mature.

. Support and sponsorship gain from the parents is an important factor that has been found to influence the choice of career. A child may opt what their parents want and they just want to help and please their parents (Taylor, Harris & Taylor, 2004). According to Oyamo and Amoth (2008), a study in Kenya showed that rural students tend to get help from parents more than city students and parents play a major role in the students’ selection of career. Basically, career choices were influenced by parents, peer, and counselors.

Relationship between Personal Interests and Career Choice

Asian American career interests' studies have exposed that Asian Americans have a higher interest in the physical sciences and lower interest in the social sciences (Sue & Kirk; 1972; Leong, 1986). Asian-American women tend to be more interested in domestic-oriented activity compared with their white counterparts (Sue & Kirk; 1973). As such, it is not surprising that American-Asian samples have greater ratio of representation in engineering and the physical field compared to their ethnic representation in the US population (Fouad, 2002). Therefore, a student’s personal interests do have effect on the career choice decision.

According to a survey on student’s career prospects, 80% of the respondents believed that a career must be something that offers both enjoyment and fulfilment to their life. Another 53% believed that their career should play an important role in defining them as individuals. They also want their personal interests to define their career path and bring satisfaction from the work they are doing (CPP Inc., 2011). The same survey also found that personal interest is a primordial indicator of career success. Most importantly, participants of the survey indicated definite relationship between success of career choice and personal interest, as 78% believe they will achieve the most success in a career for which they have a passion and that they enjoy on a daily basis.

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Relationship between Economic Considerations and Career Choice Market economy has a strong influence on career decisions by students. According to Tang,

Fouad and Smith (1999), in a study of over 300 students, the 3 main factors for deciding on a career are high income, compatibility with skills and ability of the individual and job appreciation by the community. Stebleton (2007) indicated that students had an external locus of control and believes that there are numerous external factors which influence their career choices. These external factors he contends include among others economic considerations which weigh heavily on choice of career.

Koc (2008), identified that the best three measures for a job are opportunity for advancement, job security and a good insurance package. The researcher speculated that these measures could be linked to the impending economic crisis, the emphasis in the political debate on health and social security in the run up to the U.S. election. Another study found that the choice of occupations was affected by the basis of economic returns and jobs with the highest salary are often perceived to have the best influence on an individual’s status (Henderson, Hesketh & Tuffin, 1988).

Onijigin, (2009) stated that the primary reason why individuals get into work is the economic benefits it purportedly brings. This (the job) he states provides them with sufficient materials and provides financial rewards necessary to meet an individual’s social needs. Economic considerations include the need for a good salary, a financially attractive package which determines social class, state of job happiness and future security are also important factors affecting career choice (Ogunsanwo, 2000; Salami, 2004). These findings indicate that a majority of high school students aspire to have a career based on economic reasons.

Career Choice

A career choice in this case can be seen as selecting from the many broad opportunities that exist for life-long vocations (Borchert, 2002). It is to achieve personal satisfaction and may drive the motivation of the person that is employed.

Navin (2009) has suggested that exploring career options and its choice before committing to a career increases future career success and satisfaction. A career may be defined as the progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, specially related to that person‘s occupations. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one‘s position (Business Dictionary.com).

Dictionary com defines career as an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as one‘s lifework. It also defines career as a person‘s progress or general course of action through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking. Career could also be defined as the sum total of life experiences including paid and unpaid work, community, volunteer and family activities. Microsoft Encarta defines career as somebody‘s progress in a chosen profession or during that person‘s working life, or the general path of progress taken by somebody.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework for this study involved three independent variables and one

dependent variable. The independent variables are family influences, personal interest and economic consideration whilst the dependent variable is the career choice. The hypotheses for this research are as follows:

H1 : There is a significant relationship between family influence and career choice. H2 : There is a significant relationship between personal interests and career choice. H3 : There is a significant relationship between economic considerations and career choice.

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Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The unit of analysis this research were undergraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah. The total number of undergraduate students was obtained from the Department of Academic Affairs in UUM. The total population of students in UUM when this research was conducted was 16,259.

The researchers used Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) table to determine the sample size. This scientific guideline provides a certain amount of sample size based on certain population size. Since the population size was 16,259, thus the Krejcie and Morgan’s table suggested that the targeted sample size should be 377. The samples were selected using the simple random sampling. About 400 questionnaires were personally distributed to the respondents. However, only 315 completed questionnaires were used

for this research. The questionnaire used for this research was divided into two sections. The first section consisted

of items measuring demographic of respondents and the second part were items related to the measurements of the 3 independent variables and one dependent variable.

A 5 point Likert scale was used to measure the 4 variables. The answer options for items used to measure the 3 independent variables were classified as strongly disagree, disagree, moderate, agree and strongly agree. However, the option for the dependent variable were strongly false, false, do not know, true and strongly true. The items used were adapted from Thompson (2001), Borchert (2002), Ji-Hyeon Kim (2001) and Olamide & Oluwaseun (2013).

DATA ANALYSIS

Cronbach’s Alpha

A reliability test was conducted to examine the internal consistency of the items in the

questionnaire. There were 32 items altogether. The breakdown of items per variable is shown in Table 1 below. The results of the Cronbach’s Alpha are as follows:

Table 1. Cronbach’s Alpha

Variables Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

Career Choice 0.633 9 Family Influence 0.658 8 Personal Interests 0.816 8 Economic Considerations

0.672 7

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Sekaran and Bougie (2010) stated that a reliability coefficient of 0.60 is considered as average, those at 0.70 and above have high reliability standard. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients for career choice, family influence and economic considerations were considered as average and have normal reliability. However they were still acceptable. Apart from that, the value for personal interests was considered good. Demographic Analysis

Among some of the information gathered in the demographic section of the questionnaire was gender, age, semester, current year of study, faculty, grade percentage average (GPA), and ethnicity. The gender composition shows that 24.1% of the respondents were male, while 75.9% were female.

In terms of the semester in which the respondents were in, 29.8% of them were in the 5th semester, 26.3% were in their first semester and 23.3% were in their 3rd semester. Furthermore, the third year students recorded the highest percentage of respondent with 33.7% and the fourth year student has the lowest research participation level of 6.7%. About 65.1% of the respondents were from the age group of 20-22 years old. In relation to the type of college, respondents from the College of Business (COB) recorded the highest percentage (44.8%), followed by College of Science and Art (CAS) with 35.6% and lastly the College of Law, Government, and International Studies (COLGIS) with 19.7%. The data shows that more than 60% of the respondents have a CGPA of more than 3.0. Finally, the majority of the respondents were Malays. Table 2. Demographic Statistics

Classification Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender Male 79 24.1 Female 239 75.9

Semester 1 83 26.3 2 20 6.3 3 73 23.2 4 12 3.8 5 94 29.8

6 12 3.8 7 20 6.3 8 1 0.3

Current Year of Study First year 103 32.7 Second year 85 27.0 Third year 106 33.7 Fourth year 21 6.7

Age 18-19 69 21.9 20-22 205 65.1 23 and above 41 13.0

Faculty COB 141 44.8 COLGIS 62 19.7 CAS 112 35.6

GPA 4.00-3.50 67 21.3 3.49-3.00 190 60.3 2.99-2.50 55 17.5 Less than 2.50 3 1.0

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Ethnicity Malay 278 88.3 Chinese 18 5.7 Indian 11 3.5

Others 8 2.5

Correlation Analysis Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to test the three hypotheses of this research. They are:

H1 : There is a significant relationship between family influence and career choice. H2 : There is a significant relationship between personal interests and career choice. H3 : There is a significant relationship between economic considerations and career choice.

The results of the analysis can be seen in Table 3.

Table 3. Correlation Analysis

Family_Infl Personal_Int Economic_Cons Career_Cho

Family_Infl Pearson Correlation 1 .003 .103 .247**

Sig. (2-tailed) .951 .068 .000

N 315 315 315 315

Personal_Int Pearson Correlation .003 1 .280** .405**

Sig. (2-tailed) .951 .000 .000

N 315 315 315 315

Economic_Cons Pearson Correlation .103 .280** 1 .140*

Sig. (2-tailed) .068 .000 .013

N 315 315 315 315

Career_Cho Pearson Correlation .247** .405** .140* 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .013

N 315 315 315 315

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 3 indicates that there is a positive correlation between family influence and career choice

with r=0.247 and p=0.000; p<0.05. Table 3 also indicates that there is a positive correlation between personal interests and career choice with r=0.405 and p=0.000; p<0.05. Finally, table 3 also indicates that there is a positive correlation between economic considerations and career choice with r=0.140 and p=0.013; p<0.05.

An overall assessment of the results indicate that career choice is, as would be expected, significantly, positively correlated to family influence, personal interests and economic considerations. However, to confirm and accept and reject the hypothesis put forward a multiple regression was conducted and the results are presented in Table 4 below. Multiple Regression Analysis

Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of independent variables (family influence, personal interests, and economic considerations) on dependent variable (career choice). As depicted in table 4, the regression results revealed an r2 value of 0.224. This indicates that 22.4% of variance in the dependent variable is explained by the independent variables tested.

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Table 4. Multiple Regression Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 .473a .224 .216 .41032

a. Predictors: (Constant), Family Infl, Personal_Int Economic_Cons. Table 5. Correlation Coefficient

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients

t Sig. B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 1.507 .234 6.453 .000

Family_Infl .160 .033 .245 4.879 .000

Personal_Int .374 .048 .404 7.751 .000

Economic_Cons .001 .047 .001 .023 .981

a. Dependent Variable: Career_Choice

From the results of the correlation coefficient in Table 5, it can be seen that the highest beta (β) is

+0.4040 for personal interest is significant (p<0.05). The positive beta indicates that heightened personal interests makes the choice of career clearer. Therefore, hypothesis 1 is accepted.

The second highest beta (β) is +0.245 for family influence and is significant (p<0.05). The

positive beta indicates that stronger family influence influences career choice significantly. Thus, hypothesis 2 is substantiated.

However, the results in Table 5 indicates that economic considerations is not significant (p<0.05). Thus, hypothesis 3 is rejected. This may mean that income or economic related issues are not necessarily a factor when it comes to the choice of career. This may also be related to satisfaction levels which are beyond the scope of research.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

The results of this research confirm that 2 of the 3 independent variables (personal interests and

family influence) tested by the conceptual framework significantly influences career choice. As such, university administrators should organize programs such as workshops and counselling sessions for undergraduate students to help them identify their area of personal interests more effectively and thereby be more able to identify the jobs that they prefer.

Apart from this, the family of the students may make it a point to gather and interact more closely with students bearing in mind that they too have a strong influence on the choice that their children make when choosing an appropriate career. This may also happen through communication by the university administrators with the family members of their students especially during counselling sessions.

Suggestions for future research include the need to look at the means to identify the personal interests of students on admission to university. Another avenue would be to ascertain the types of family influences that may influence students such as the background of the parents, business tendencies in the case of entrepreneurs etc.

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FACTORS AFFECTING CAREER CHOICE OF UNDERGRADUATE … · 2018-10-09 · personality plays a very important part in determining the direction of an individual's life. Therefore, if