Chapter IV – Results
Description of the Sample
The core purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an MBA Degree on career advancement and employability. The study findings were based on a survey of the Corporate Recruiter Survey 2019, GMAC’S annual survey of employers who recruits and hire MBA graduates from different business schools across the world. A total of 1,202 employers selected from 45 countries across the world responded to the survey questions. In terms of geographical distribution, the respondents were picked from Europe, Asian Pacific, and the United States. The data was collected from the analysis of the GMAC 2019, and the results finding were used to test the research hypothesis.
Analysis
Research Hypothesis
Ho: MBA Degree has no significant impact on employability and career development
H1: MBA Degree has a significant impact on employability and career development
Hypothesis Testing
Ho: MBA Degree has no significant impact on employability and career development
To test the above hypothesis, various questions were asked to examine whether the MBA Degree had any significant impact on career advancement and employability. This study was instigated by different surveys that have done in the past, which gave contradicting results on the impact that an MBA degree has on career development and employability of graduates.
To assess whether the MBA degree had any significant impact on employability and career development. Employers were supposed to respond whether “Business School graduates were well prepared to be successful in their companies”. It was established that roughly nine in every 10recruiters agreed that business school graduates were prepared to be successful in their companies—the breakdown of these findings where are as follows. The majority of the respondents, 65%, strongly agreed that MBA graduates were well prepared to be successful in their companies, followed by 21% of the respondents who strongly agreed with the statement, 12% disagreed. In comparison, 2% strongly agreed with the postulation of the survey, as shown in figure 1.0 below.
Figure 1: Success of MBA Graduates in Companies
Source: GMAC (2019)
Geographically, the same results were replicated where the majority of employers;74% in Europe agreed that MBA graduates would succeed in their companies, in the united states 23% of the employers strongly agreed that MBA graduates would make it in their companies as shown in figure 2 below.
Figure 2: Success of MBA Graduates in Companies Geographically
Source: GMAC (2019)
The high percentage of employers agreeing that business school graduates were adequately prepared to be successful in their company tells us that employers had confidence in them, and given an opportunity, they would employ an MBA graduate.
To evaluate whether an MBA Degree had any impact on career development and employability, a range of essential skills that employers needed were examined. The top ten essential skills required by employers among them included written communication, listening skills, comprehension, and logic, managing oneself, problem-solving, working with other, data analysis, and interpretation.
From a list of 10 skills, employers and recruiters identify problem-solving and working with others as the essential skills that job openings required business school graduates to full fill. The majority of the recruiters select these two skills as among the top three most important. 57% of the majority felt that problem was an essential skill for job opening for young graduates of MBA. This was followed by 50% of the majority, who felt that working with others was also vital (GMAC, 2019). The data analysis and interpretation skills were also cited to be essential for young graduates looking for jobs.
On the lower end, 60% of the majority respondents felt that quantitive task skills were least important and while written communication skills were found to be least important for MBA graduated when looking for employment as shown in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: Important Skills for Job Openings for MBA Graduates
Source: GMAC (2019)
The high percentage of problem-solving skills shows that corporations nowadays are looking for people who can be able to critically analyses a situation and be able to come up with a long-lasting solution. Also, the current world of business is characterized by increased diversity and teamwork in the workplace as a way of creating a competitive advantage (Mazur, 2010). This is clearly shown by the results working with others is the second most essential skill that any young graduate should possess.
It is also clear that technology has embraced many companies, and as a result, written communication skills were identified to be of least importance by many recruiters and employers. Besides, the recruiters also place less emphasis on skills on how to handle quantitative tasks. This shows that the organizations are tending to rely on teamwork to handle complex tasks, and as a result, individual efforts are seemed to be discouraged by many employers in favor of teamwork.
To evaluate the impact of an MBA Degree on employability and career development among graduates, the skills taught by many business schools across the world also examined. To achieve this objective, the same list of 10 skills that the recruiter found to be most important for MBA graduates when starting their careers were re-examined. Contrary to the previous findings, it was established that many business schools across the world placed more emphasis on the ability to handle quantitative tasks.
56% of the respondents felt that MBA graduated were adequately prepared to handle quantitive tasks (GMAC, 2019). 55% of the respondents felt that majority of the MBA graduates were adequately equipped with oral communication and presentation skills (GMAC, 2019). The essential skills of working with other and problem solving occupied third and fifth positions in the top 10 essential skills, respectively. On the lower end, coachability and reflection and listening were identified among the list skills that many business schools placed more emphasis on, as shown in figure 4 below.
Figure 4.0: The Skills that MBA Graduated are Prepared in Many Business Schools
Source: GMAC (2019)
The high percentage of the business schools preparing students on how to handle quantitative tasks and on oral and presentation skills shows that there is a mismatch between what the industry and what is taught in many business schools across the world. Figure 3.0 shows that problem-solving and the ability to work with others were identified as some of the essential skills that recruiters and employers look for when employing MBA graduates. Skills to hand quantitative tasks were given less importance, and it ranked in the second last position in the employers’ and recruiters’ preferred skills.
This implies that there is a need for a school of business all over the world to work with recruiters and employers to bridge skills mismatch and also to increase the competitiveness of MBA graduates in different parts of the world. These result findings revealed that an MBA graduate might lack the essentials skills required by the employers. However, given the fact that employers believe that they can be successful in their companies, it implies that they can learn what is required in the industry.
Lastly, in an attempt to evaluate the examine the impact of an MBA Degree in career development and employability, recruiters and employers were asked to rank the following for items when hiring new employees. Prior direct experience, fit with the company culture, potential growth in the company, and meet with the current job opening. The majority of the respondents;37% ranked fit with the organization culture as the most important factor when hiring an institution, and this was followed by fit with the current job opening, which was supported by 31% of the respondents (GMAC, 2019). The growth potential was given the least consideration by many employers when hiring newly employed and was only supported by 15% of the respondent, as shown in Figure 5.0 below.
Figure 5.0: Hiring Decision Factors
Source: GMAC (2019)
The high percentage of fit with the organizational culture shows the companies put emphasis on their corporate culture and the need to protect it. Corporate culture has a significant influence on the organization’s performance and behavior of the employees, and that why it should always be protected by hiring people who can easily fit in the organizational culture (Awadh & Alyahya, 2013).
Conclusion
The core purpose of this chapter was to analyze data and test the hypothesis of whether an MBA Degree had a significant impact on employability and career development for graduates. The study finding revealed that the majority of the recruiters and employers believed that MBA graduates were adequately prepared for job openings and would succeed in their companies. This implies that an MBA Degree increased the employability of graduates; however, potential growth was not a factor that many employers considered when hiring the employees. The study findings support the alternative hypothesis, and thus the null hypothesis rejected, and the study concludes that an MBA Degree has a significant impact on employability and career development.
References
Awadh, A. M., & Alyahya, M. S. (2013). Impact of organizational culture on employee performance. International review of management and business research, 2(1), 168.
Graduate Management Admission Council. (2019). Market Intelligence; Employability and Business School Graduate; Corporate Recruiter Survey 2019. Corporate Recruiters Survey 2019.
Mazur, B. (2010). Cultural diversity in organisational theory and practice. Journal of intercultural management, 2(2), 5-15.