This chapter is composed of five parts: (1) Background and Theoretical Framework, (2) Statement of the Problem and the Hypothesis, (3) Significance of the Study, (4) Definition of Terms, and (5) Delimitation of the Study
Part One, Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, presents the reasons for choosing of the problem and the theoretical framework upon which the study was anchored.
Part Two, Statement of the Problem and the Hypothesis, states the major problem and specific questions to be answered as well as the hypothesis to be tested.
Part Three, Significance of the study, discuss the benefits that may be derived from the results of the investigation.
Part Four, Definition of Terms, presents the operation and conceptual meanings of the important terms used in the study.
Part Five, Delimitation of the Study, specifies the scope and coverage of the study.
Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study
“After college, what’s next?” It is the foremost question faced by college students especially the 4th year graduating students. The students are still confused on where, when and what job to apply after graduation.
The great part of an individual’s life is spent in his career or vocation and usually satisfaction is made through his occupation or career. His ability to make something work or valuable contribution to his society by success or achievements.
Education is a continuous process. It begins at the cradle and ends at the grave. Therefore, careful and wise choice of career is a necessity to our students today, because a wrong choice of a career sometimes results in misplacement, unemployment, and dissatisfaction.
Work produces satisfaction. It should be congenital to the aptitude, interests, understanding, intelligence level, and values of the person. He must be directed towards the proper choices of a person’s career for better and successful future. Therefore, one’s choices by his success of a career should really based on assessment to one’s capabilities, interests and abilities. This is so, because aside from one’s deriving satisfaction and enjoyment from work, a chosen profession is also viewed as a social ladder or way for improving one’s socio- economic status.
These students need assistance in identifying their own interest and values before making a final decision. Decisions may mean a fruitful life and will not have regrets in the end.
Career is a life long assignment, which enables individual to earn money or to satisfy himself. It is a way of life for a person. A career imposes a number of responsibilities and duties on an individual. Different careers have different requirements for example human skills, location, climate, etc.
The hospitality and tourism industry are interrelated in nature. They are the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. One of the most exciting aspects in this industry is that it is made up of so many different professions. What picture comes to mind when thinking about a career in hospitality? Do you picture a chef, a general manager, owners of their own business, a director of marketing, or an event manager? The possibilities are many and varied, ranging from positions in restaurants, resorts, air and cruise ships, theme parks and casinos, to name a few of the several sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry (Walker, John, 2009).
Choosing an occupation can be compared to a dream. Such dreams are wholesome because they are part of growing up. However, they must be based on goals that can be realized. Your career choice affects your entire life course and significantly influences your personal satisfaction.
Motivated by these ideas and impressions, this research will be able to make an evaluation of the career preference among BHRM students of West Visayas State University.
The relationship between the dependent and independent variables is shown in
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE
Figure 1: Career Preference among BHRM students as influenced by certain identified personal factors.
Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis
This study aimed to ascertain the career preference among BHRM students of West Visayas State University.
Specially, this study sought to answer the following questions:
1. What are the top ranking career preference among BHRM students when classified according to:
a. Career preferences under the scope of Hospitality Industry.
2. What are the top ranking career preference of the BHRM students when classified according to:
a. Age
b. Gender
c. Family Size
d. Parents’ Monthly Income
Significance of the Study
The result of the study may be beneficial to the following:
BHRM students. The BHRM students will benefit most from the findings of this investigation. The result of this study will develop awareness among students of what career they prefer.
Parents. The study may inform the parents what career their children prefer and that they should be given freedom to choose.
Faculty and Teachers. This study may give information to the faculty of College of Business and Management such that they can focus on skills and other matters needed by the students.
Researchers. Future researchers may use the findings of the study as a benchmark of future researches which may be conducted among students of the College of Business and Management.
Definition of Terms
For purposes of clarity and precision, the following terms in this study are given their conceptual and operational meanings:
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life).It can also pertain to an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal education, and is considered to be a person’s lifework.
The term preference is used in a variety of related, but not identical, ways in the scientific literature. This makes it necessary to make explicit the sense in which the term is used in different social sciences.
In psychology, preferences could be conceived of as an individual’s attitude towards a set of objects, typically reflected in an explicit decision-making process (Lichtenstein & Slovic, 2006). Alternatively, one could interpret the term “preference” to mean evaluative judgment in the sense of liking or disliking an object ( Scherer, 2005) which is the most typical definition employed in psychology.
As used in the study, choice of specialty or specialization referred to the special skills learned by the students to be applied in their future work.
Career -- Any pattern of occupational change (vertical and/ or horizontal) of any occupational group (Nosow and Form, 1962).
As used in the study career referred to the job or occupation that students choose.
Career Preference --
Preference -- The power or opportunity of choosing (www.slideshare.net/rap3r/career-preference-final-edit).
As used in the study, preference referred to what career the students choose
Delimitation of the Study
This survey study was conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2012- 2013, among BHRM students of West Visayas State University. It is aimed to determine the career preferences of BHRM Students of West Visayas State University. To gather data, the researchers utilized a published questionnaire developed by
Rank and percentage were used as descriptive statistics.
Chapter 2
Review of Related Literature
This chapter includes the following topics: (1) Foreign Study, (2) Factors Affecting Career Preference, (3) Restaurant Jobs Preference; (4) Hotel Job Preferences (5) Cruise Ship Jobs Preference, 6) Airline Jobs Preference.
Career preference is the process of decision- making; a great number of studies, researches, and write- ups has been conducted for a period of time and still emerged as one of the top- priority researches due to rapid changing and need of time.
Foreign Study
Goffredson’s Developmental Theory of Occupational Aspirations describes how people become attracted to certain occupations. Self- concept in vocational development is the key factor to career selection and people want jobs that are compatible with their self image. The key determinants of self- concept are one’s social class, level of intelligence, and experiences with sex- typing (www.slideshare.net/rap3r/career-preferences).
According to John Holland, individuals are attracted to a given career by their particular personalities and numerous variables that constitute their backgrounds; first of all, career choice is an expression of, or an extension of personality into the world of work followed by subsequent identification with specific occupational stereotypes (www. slideshare.net/rap3r/career-preferences-final-edit).
Denga (2001) has identified certain factors that can influence career decision-making, which include societal prestige factors regarding certain occupations, the financial rewards, personal reputation and social status, parental expectations for their children, among others. Other variables include the need to accomplish something difficult, or to help the needy, as well as reinforcements and incentives which the individual considers attractive, capable of luring and energizing behavior (www.academicjournals.org)
Super’s career development theory has indicated that what is learned is a function of the interest, values, attitudes and behavior patterns that are valued and rewarded by the individuals, peers and adult models (Sharma, 2007). According to the theorist, individuals choose vocations according to their interests and abilities, skills, training, and personality characteristics. Occupations and life satisfaction, therefore, depend upon the extent to which the individual finds adequate outlets for their interest (www.academicjournals.org).
A study that was organized in Taiwan supported that there is a positive relationship between career courses, career beliefs, and career decision- making. Gender difference and the college year status difference relate to the effect of career education on students’ decision- making (www.sribd.com)
Gender- roles have been widely investigated in relation to occupational decision- making. Many gender differences in job decisions are due to the influence of normative social expectations. Children are socialized to behave in a gender- appropriating manner. Consequently, they develop their perceptions of appropriate occupational choices to those associated with their own sex (www.google.com/gender-differences-in-job-attribute-preferecnces-and-job-choice-of-university-students-in-china).
Factors Affecting Career Preference
Gender
Some of the gender segregation in today’s labour market may still be accounted for by discrimination, but it is also perpetuated through young people’s perceptions that certain jobs are more or less appropriate for them depending on whether they are male or female. Gender segregation in fact continues to be one of the strongest influences on young people’s occupational choices, over and above actual ability (Miller, Neathey, Pollard, & Hill, 2004).
Miller, Neathey, Pollard, Hill and Ritchie (2005) identify major perceptual and attitudinal barriers to the pursuit of a typical training not only among young people themselves but also among those who guide them in a vocational setting. Young people in the main, demonstrate a lack of basic interest in acquiring the knowledge or skills required by a typical jobs while Connections do not see it as part of their vocational remit to challenge this, and have been reported to demonstrate a degree of moral reluctance to do so (Miller, Neathey, Pollard, & Hill, 2004).
Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara & Pastorelli (2001) argued that women’s career interests are restricted because they believe they are not capable of undertaking traditional, stereotypically male occupations, even if encouraged by parents or teachers to either broaden or heighten their academic aspirations. The key to self-efficacy is a belief in one’s capability to achieve or master something (Feehan & Johnston, 1999; Vrugt, 1996). Thus, young people grow up believing that they are capable of some jobs but not others. Bandura and colleagues (2001) found that efficacy beliefs are strong predictors of occupational choice. Both boys and girls with higher academic and occupational self-belief considered a wider range of career options (http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file28575.pdf)
A particular difficulty also lies in persuading men to consider traditionally feminine areas of work. It is well established that girls are much more liberal than boys in their occupational contemplations (Miller & Budd, 1999) with boys far less likely to consider atypical work than girls (Morris, Nelson, Rickinson, Shoney & Benefield, 1999). For men, salary and status may be an additional factor that compounds gender segregation issues (Cameron, Moss & Owen, 1999). However the extent to which different types of rewards, both intrinsic (e.g. what might be especially satisfying about a particular job), and extrinsic, (e.g. pay, conditions) are associated with so-called male-dominated or female-dominated jobs is largely unknown. While there is extensive literature on women undertaking what could be seen as “men’s work” (‘token women’) (e.g. Ely, 1994) there is relatively little research on men who perform what could be seen as ‘women’s work’ (Cameron, Moss & Owen, 1999).
Sex Roles
Young women may vary in their aspirations for work and family. Hakim (2002) describes ‘work-centered’, ‘adaptive’ and ‘home-centered’ work orientations amongst women. Work-centered women are said to be more confident about nontraditional masculine-style careers, and be less concerned with future family commitments thus enabling continuation of a vocational course. Adaptive and home-centered women would be less likely to follow a non-traditional career path due to their consideration of how they will reconcile work with possible caring commitments. Work-centered women may be more influenced by job status. Since far fewer female-dominated occupations than male-dominated occupations have high status, young women who seek high status have little choice other than to look outside traditional occupations (Miller & Hayward, 2002).
The tendency to overlook issues concerning men in female roles may reflect gender studies’ predominant focus on women and the absence, until recently, of consideration of issues concerning men and masculinity from mainstream academic research. The lack of literature on men in non-traditional occupations means that little is known about the motivations and experiences of men in ‘female-dominated’ occupations and how men may manage any potential conflict between the ‘feminine’ nature of the job and their gender identity.
Career- Decision Making
For students to provide themselves with answers to career choice questions, decision-making has become a tool to form career choices. Kroll (Kroll et al., 1970) cited Super’s own research, which indicates that the decision making process concerning one’s career is not so much a function of the information amassed to the individual, but more the process of maturity and planning. Kroll cites Clarke, Gelatt, and Levine in which they stressed that good decision-making relied upon adequate information and effective strategies for making choice. Students can help themselves in to decide myth from reality, communication, and learning to operate autonomously, are fundamental building blocks used in effective career planning. In order to succeed in obtaining their goals, students must know what they want. “Too many of us have been taught to suppress what we want and instead concentrate on meeting other people’s expectations. In doing this we end up spending most of our time marching to other people’s drums”(Weiler, 1977, p. 57). Kroll has provided models of the decision making process. John Dewey’s model (Kroll et al., 1970) describes five noticeable steps described: the reflective state, suggestions, intellectualization, hypothesis, and then reasoning. Along the same lines as Dewey’s description is another from Poyla. Poyla (cited in Kroll et al., 1970) described four basic areas in the decision making process 1) understanding the problem, 2) seeing how various items of the problem are linked in order to formulate a plan, 3) carrying out the plan, and 4) reviewing and discussing the completed solution. Brim, Glass, Lavin, and Goodman work from different points of view utilizing a basic scientific method exploring how people make decisions. Their decision making model includes problem identification, information acquisition, solution production, solution evaluation, strategy selection, and actual performance with subsequent learning and revision (cited in Kroll et. al., 1970). Tiedman and O’Hara have stated their process in phases (cited in Kroll et. al., 1970).
The phases have dealt with anticipation, crystallization, decision, clarification, implementation or adjustment. Decision making in career choices stated Kroll (et al.,
1970) “is a constant, continuing process even though some decisions are required now that can be changed later only at great emotional, time, or financial costs to the decider” (p. 137). Personal values and desires have seldom been realized without the active and conscious efforts on the part of the student. The student must be motivated to orchestrate the outcome. If the student wants to work in the career choice process, the student must know and understand the realities of that process. Only when the student has developed awareness, can they begin to avoid dealing with the myths within the process as a whole. It is at that point the student develops a practical plan of action to get what they want from the decisions of their career choice. Most students have built career plans on the myths of what we think should be rather on the reality of what is, so stated Weiler (1977) (http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file28575.pdf).
Chapter 3
Research Design and Methodology
Chapter Three, consists of three parts; namely (1) Purpose of the Study and Research Design, (2) Methodology, and (3) Statistical Data Analysis Procedure.
Part One, Purpose of the Study and Research Design, describes the research design and restates the purpose of the study as well as the hypothesis to be tested. It also describes the plan employed in the conduct of study.
Part Two, Methods, presents the subjects of the study, and delineates the procedure followed. It also describes the data gathering instruments and the materials used in the study.
Part Three, Statistical Data Analysis Procedure, presents the statistical tools used in the analysis of the data obtained.
Purpose of the Study and Research Design
This study aimed to determine the factors influencing career preference among
4th year BHRM students of College of Business and Management.
This is a descriptive correlational study which employed the one shot survey design. A descriptive study determines and reports the things are and it can only measure what already exists (Sevilla, et al.1999).
Statistical Data Analysis
This chapter consists of three parts: (1) Purpose of the Study and Research Design, (2) Method and (3) Data Analysis Procedures.
Part One, Purpose of the Study and Research Design, restates the purpose of the study, and describes the research design and the variables that will be used in the research.
Part Two, Method, describes the panel of evaluators, data-gathering instrument, and the procedures that will be employed in the production of the end product.
Part Three, Data Analysis Procedures, reports the statistical tools that will be used in the analysis of the obtained data.
Purpose of the Study and Research Design
Method
Participants
The participants of the investigation were the 60 randomly selected BHRM students of the College of Business and Management. The random sampling method was used in the selection. Random sampling refers to taking a number of independent observations from the same probability distribution, without involving any real population.
Data-Gathering Instruments
Date Analysis Procedure
Data- Gathering Instrument
Career Preference Among BHRM Students
The purpose of this data gathering instrument is to determine the job preference among BHRM students of West Visayas State University.
Career Preference Questionnaire
I. Personal Data.
Name (Optional):
Age:
Number of children in the family including yourself: _________
Gender: ( ) Male
( ) Female
Estimated Parents’ Annual Income: ( ) P25,000- P100,000 ( ) P100,000- P200,000 ( ) P200,000- P300,000 ( ) P300,000- P400,000 ( ) 400,000- P500,000
Part II. Career Preferences under the scope of Hospitality Industry
Directions: Please indicate your top (5) choices by writing 1,2,3,4, or 5 in the blank provided. This would mean 1 as your top choice and 5 as your least choice.
a. Airline and Cruise Ship Industry
______ Flight Attendant
______ Senior Waitress/ Waiter
______ Sales Manager
______ Reservations Sales Agent
______ Customer Service Representative
______ Executive Chef
______ Housekeeping Crew
______ Bar Manager
b. Lodging and Accommodation Industry (Hotels, Motel, Resorts)
______ Front Office Clerk
______ Front Office Manager
______ Housekeeping Supervisor
______ Housekeeper
______ Hotel General Manager
______ Sales Manager
______ Accountant
______ Human Resource Officer
c. Food and Beverage Industry ( Restaurants)
_____ Bartender
_____ Restaurant Manager
_____ Barista
_____ Food & Beverage Manager
_____ Executive Chef/ Cook
_____ Cashier
_____ Waiter/ Waitress
_____ Dishwasher
Part III. Among the three categories listed above, which industry do you prefer to work? Please put a check in the blank provided.
_____ Airline and Cruise Ship Industry
_____ Lodging and Accommodation
_____ Food and Beverage Industry
Letter to the Validator
September 4, 2012
Dear Sir/ Madam:
Greetings!
We are presently conducting a study entitled “Job Preference among BHRM Students” of West Visayas State University.
In this regard, we would like to request for your professional expertise in validating our research instrument. Please help us determine which items included herein are relevant to our study.
Your benevolent assistance on this matter could be highly appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Respectfully yours,
(SGD) CHRISTINE JOY MONANA
(SGD) JENNIFER PAJARITO
Student Researchers
Noted:
PROF. RITA A. ARGUELLES
Adviser
Letter to the Respondents
September 4, 2012
Sir/ Madam:
Greetings!
We are presently working on our undergraduate thesis entitled “Job Preference among BHRM Students” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor in Hotel and Restaurant Management.
In this regard, kindly answer the attached questionnaire. Rest assured that whatever data or information obtained from this study will be treated with strict confidentiality and shall be used for academic and development purposes only. Please supply the necessary information and answer the questionnaire as honest as possible.
