|Who Moved My Cheese |
|The Research on College Students’ Part-time Employment and Current Situation of Safeguarding Their Legal Rights |

June 7, 2011

Abstract

Nowadays, college students’ taking part-time jobs is becoming a common phenomenon. College students, a group people who are the pioneers to build the future society, their behavior on choosing and doing part-time jobs and legal rights maintaining have great significance to research. We assessed the college students’ performance on part-time job employment by analysis of 390 questionnaires, using SPSS software and other data analysis systems. Based on the research, we find that majority students have strong desire to take part-time jobs, but lack knowledge of relevant law and actions to protect their lawful rights and interests. In the end of the paper we come up with several suggestions to today’s college students on choosing part-time jobs and self-protection.

KEY WORDS

Part-time employment. College Students. Lawful rights and interest. Aspirations.

CONTENT λ CHAPTER 1: Introduction 3 λ CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 4 λ CHAPTER 3: Methodology 5 3.1 Data collection approach 5 3.2 Questionnaire Design 6 3.3 Pilot Test 7 3.3.1 Reliability 7 λ CHAPTER 4: Results and Discussion 8 4.1 Results of personal profile 8 4.2 Descriptive Statistics 8 4.2.1 Personal Profile 8 4.2.2 Part-time Employment 10 4.2.3 Lawful Rights 12 4.2.4 Balance Study and Part-time Jobs 13 4.2.5 Gender Difference 13 λ CHAPTER 5: Conclusion 15 5.1 Summary 15 5.2 Limitations: 17 5.3 Suggestions for future research 18 • Reference 18 • Appendix I : Questionnaire 19

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

Presently, an increasing number of college students in China tend to make a good use of their spare time by taking part-time jobs. With the rapid development of society and economy, it’s getting more and more common to see college students to get part-time jobs. The reasons why they are so into part-time jobs are probably as followed. Firstly, due to the rigorous employment problem, today, college students in China are forced to confront the great pressure of unemployment which may happen after their graduation. Therefore, many of them have a strong desire to gain some relevant working experience by taking part-time jobs, which can also be the preparation for future work. Secondly, nowadays, contemporary undergraduates are making every effort to realize economic independence with their own hands. Since we are now college students, having different goal, but we share one thing in common, which is we all want to realize our dream and have a bright future. Around us there are many students currently have or are eager to have a part-time job, but due to the lack of knowledge of law, some students get harmed by the irresponsible employers and have neither awareness nor ability to protect themselves. Therefore, based on the concern about this issue, we’ve been working on this research. This paper focuses on college students’ part-time employment, their work-related attitudes and aspirations and most importantly, during their working period, whether college students have the awareness as well as ability to protect themselves or not if their lawful rights and interests being invaded. The paper is mainly divided into parts as followed. The first one is literature review, aiming at the summary of some achievements in scientific research. The second part is methodology, in which we make a detailed analysis to the data from the questionnaires. After that, in the third part of the paper, results turn out from the analysis and we have a discussion about them. In the fourth part, we make a conclusion of the research.

CHAPTER 2: Literature Review

There are lots of advantages for contemporary undergraduates to do part-time jobs. In the first place, as students, their psychology bearing capacity isn’t enough mature. Using the opportunity of taking part-time jobs as the first step to go out of campus provides college students the chance to understand the society in advance. In the second place, currently many college students lack the awareness of team spirits and always like to show their personality. Via doing part-time jobs , they can learn more about what group cooperation is and know how to work together with teammates, and they can also learn more about what interpersonal interaction is and know how to handle a good relationship with others as well as how to communicate with others. (Ma Yifei, 2010[i]) In general, educators do not oppose this employment among students because of a belief that employment 'builds character' (Greenberger and Steinberg, 1986[ii]) and fosters similar behaviors to those required for success in school settings (Bowles and Gintis, 1976[iii]). However, college students’ doing part-time jobs also faces with several problems which can’t be ignorable. What comes first is that taking part-time jobs reduces the time of study. When part-time jobs meet at the same time as students’ classes, many students choose to ask for leave, even skip classes (Ma Yifei, 2010[iv]). Next, the ways that contemporary undergraduates enter the labor market are too complex, which to some extent, causes the labor market where college students hunt for their part-time jobs disordered. In China, lack of supervision and management system of college students’ part-time jobs employment makes the college students’ lawful rights and interests unprotected (Zhang Jinqiu, 2009[v]). What’s worse, since the laws in our country haven’t given the part-time jobs a narrow and accurate definition, the adjustment of the relationship between employers and employees in part-time jobs employment still is controversial, which results in the unreasonable employment becomes a common phenomenon. College students whose lawful rights and interests are invaded normally give up asserting mainly because of the limitation of time, money and the lack of knowledge (Qin Wei and Li Hui, 2010[vi]). All in all, college students’ part-time jobs employment in China has been and will always be the hot spot to public concern.

CHAPTER 3: Methodology

1 Data collection approach

Both the primary and second data are used in this project. The second data, which usually comes from past research report has played a very important role in this project. On the one hand, it provide the past research result for us, let’s know the general situation about college students’ part-time employment; on the other hand, it saves time and money on this project. According to the second data and our general perceiving to this issue, we had some hypothesis for this project, and the primary data will be collected for testing the hypothesis. According to Ghauri et al (1995[vii]), primary data are original data collected by researcher for the research problem or for a specific purpose. For collecting the primary data in this research, the deliver and collection of questionnaire (face-to-face and on-line) is used. Because of the face-to-face questionnaire is more accurate and easy to choose the compatible respondents for this project. and the on-line research will reach a wider respondents. It just makes up for the face-to-face questionnaire’s disadvantages.

2 Questionnaire Design

In this project, the deliver and collection of questionnaire is used to collect the primary data. After discussing for this project, we combine each other’s thoughts and design this questionnaire. The questionnaire for this project consists of 17 questions which conclude closed question, open question and scaled-response questions. And the questionnaire is divided into three parts. Part1 contains of information about the respondent’s age, gender, to screen the sample. If the sample is not a college student, it will not be used in the data analysis. Part2 contains 10 questions for surveying the college students’ part-time employment current situation. Part3 contains 3 questions for surveying the students’ understanding for safeguarding their rights in order to test the hypothesis. And the 5 Libert-Scale has been used in the scaled-response questions in part2 and part3. The last question is an open question for getting ideas about how to make a good balance between taking part-time jobs and have good study.

3 Pilot Test

In order to making sure this project is feasible, we had pilot test first. Pilot test will help establish content validity and enable you to make necessary amendments before use the questionnaire in the field survey. In this research, 10 students in SWUFE were invited in do this pilot test. By conducting the pilot test, the reliability and validity will be identified.

1 Reliability

Reliability is the extent to which a scale produces consistent results if repeated measurements are made on the characteristic. Chisnall (1995[viii]) states that the overall data reliability depends on the size of the sample, thus, the targeted sample should be selected correctly. In this project, the data from the pilot test concerned the 5 Libert-Scale (12~14) were collected and analyzed through SPSS (reliability analysis), the result is in the Table 3.3.1.
|Reliability Statistics |
|Cronbach's Alpha |N of Items |
|.513 |3 |
|Table 3.3.1 |

According to the output of SPSS analysis, the Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient is 0.513, though it is not a high Cronbach’s Alpha value, but it still has certain reliability to keep on study. After analysis, these may be the reasons. First, some unclearly stated for the questions. Second, both specific measured variables and scale measured variables are used in this questionnaire, and the analysis software cannot combine them very well. After doing some helpful change for the questionnaire, we decided to do some further research on this project.

CHAPTER 4: Results and Discussion

This chapter gives a statistical analysis consists of descriptive analysis, the hypotheses testing, as well as the profiles of the responses to the questionnaire.

1 Results of personal profile

Due to the limitation of time and money, our project’s respondents are the students of SWUFE. We choose to deliver the questionnaire at YiDe building and JingShi building E, F, G in the school days and we also publish the questionnaire on the internet. For our research, 390 people were invited to do the questionnaire. However, because some of them did not return back the questionnaire and some of them did not complete the questionnaire, 259 out of 390 were discarded, the actual number analyzed was 131 ( 32 Male and 99 Female), the response rate was 33.6%, according to Oppenheim (1992), and the response rate above 84% is a good rate. Therefore, it would be not a good one.

2 Descriptive Statistics

1 Personal Profile

The personal profile of respondents is an important part to lead us to draw a general conclusion about part-time job for college students, and it has a little impact in the further research. However, as the result of the data from the questionnaires which were received, the data is not very valid to some sides of our research. The descriptive statistics is shown in Table 4.2.1 (1) below.

|Table 4.2.1 (1) | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Percent |Question |
|Gender: Male |32(24.4%) |1 |
|Female |99(75.6%) | |
|Grade:2010 2009 |108 (83.1%) |2 |
| |22(16.9%) | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) | | |

The table shows that more respondents are female (Female 76% and Male 24%), and the grade of most respondents are 2010(2010 83% and 2009 17%), although the one people who did not complete the question 2, it’s not critical as for the further study. And this table indicated that the answers for the questionnaire should be limited because of the limited respondents. The descriptive statistics in the Table 4.2.1 (2) below may show the limitation.

|Table 4.2.1 (2) | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Percent |Question |
|Do you want to get a part-time job: | |4 |
|Yes |70.2% | |
|No |29.8% | |
|Do you want to get a part-time job: | |4 |
|Yes |70.2% | |
|No |29.8% | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) |

2 Part-time Employment

In the middle of all questions in the questionnaire is the main part of our research, and we could learn about part-time job employment generally from the data. The descriptive statistics is shown in Table 4.2.2 (1) and Table 4.2.2 (2) below.
|Table 4.2.2 (1) | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Percent |Question |
|Pay: ≤100 |42.0% |5 |
|100~200 |28.2% | |
|200~300 |11.5% | |
|300~400 |6.1% | |
|>400 |12.2% | |
|The purpose of taking part-time jobs:| |10 |
|Promote oneself | | |
|Earn money |55.0% | |
|Kill time |40.5% | |
|others |3.8% | |
| |0.8% | |
|The achievement of the expectant | |11 |
|purpose: | | |
|Promote oneself | | |
|Earn money |58.8% | |
|others |30.5% | |
| |10.7% | |
|The influence to the future for | |12 |
|oneself: | | |
|Very large |5.3% | |
|Large |19.8% | |
|Middle |49.6% | |
|Small |19.1% | |
|Very small |6.1% | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) |

We can easily get some information of the present state of college students taking part-time job from the Table 4.2.2 (1). From the data analysis of question 5, it’s easily to draw a conclusion that most respondents who wanted to be paid less than 100 Yuan per hour were down-to-earth according to the present reality, and it’s exactly that most respondents chose promoting oneself as their answer for the question 10. And there were also some respondents want to have a pretty good pay for the purpose of earning money which has a high attraction to respondents in the question 10. From the result of data analysis in the question 11, we can know about that most students can achieve their purpose as what they expected.

|Table 4.2.2 (2) | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Percent |Question |
|Time Bucket of taking part-time jobs:| |6 |
| | | |
|Mon ~ Fri |50.4% | |
|Weekend |38.9% | |
|Long holiday |6.1% | |
|Winter or Summer holiday | | |
|Any time |3.8% | |
| |0.8% | |
|The influence to one’s study : | |13 |
|Very large | | |
|Large |2.3% | |
|Middle |16.8% | |
|Small |48.1% | |
|Very small |25.2% | |
| |7.8% | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) |

It’s sure that taking part-time jobs would take one’s some time. And it’s influencing more or less for one’s study, just like the analysis of question 13 from the Table 4.2.2 (2) that almost half of the all respondents think about that the influence to one’s study is middle level. And it’s surprised that such college students who have much spare time compare with former period in high school as a general rule think about that taking part-time jobs have no small influence to one’s study. However, the result of the analysis in question 6 may be one reason to solve the confusion. As we can see, half of the respondents were willing to choose Mon to Fri, which are school days, to do part-time jobs but weekends or holiday.

3 Lawful Rights

|Table 4.2.3 (1) | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Percent |Question |
|To the correlative law: Very large | |14 |
|Large |2.3% | |
|Middle |6.1% | |
|Small |15.3% | |
|Very small |61.1% | |
| |15.3% | |
|Have ever been cheated : Yes | |15 |
|No |39.7% | |
|No valid answer |58.8% | |
| |1.5% | |
|Safeguard rights : Didn’t safeguard | |16 |
|Want to but have no action |13.0% | |
|Want to with action | | |
|Haven’t ever wanted to |42.0% | |
| |42.7% | |
| | | |
| |2.3% | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) | | |

From the Table 4.2.3 (1) we can find out that almost 70% of respondents have a poor knowledge in correlative law, as well as about 40% of respondents had ever been cheated. And maybe it is the reason why more than half of respondents would choose do not safeguard their lawful rights. So we can get a conclusion that most students have less knowledge about correlative law and have poorly awareness of safeguarding rights.

4 Balance Study and Part-time Jobs

How to balance one’s study and doing part-time jobs is the last question in our questionnaire. From the former data analysis, which is half of the respondents were willing to choose Mon to Fri to do part-time jobs, we can know that it’s more necessary to think about this question deeply. And from the answers received we can learn that most respondents just think this is one’s ability to balance. And it would be fine if you can budget your time reasonably. But there were some of the respondents said that we were still students whose study is the most important.

5 Gender Difference

From the results of SPSS, we can easily find out that gender has a bit of influence in some aspects of taking part-time jobs. The results were shown in Table 4.2.4
|Table 4.2.5 | |Descriptive Statistics |
|Variable |Female |Male |Question |
|Pay: ≤100 |41.67% |33.33% |5 |
|100~200 |19.44% |55.56% | |
|200~300 |13.89% |0% | |
|300~400 |8.33% |5.56% | |
|>400 |16.67% |5.56% | |
|To the correlative law: Very | | |14 |
|large |0% |5.56% | |
|Large |5.56% |5.56% | |
|Middle |22.22% |0% | |
|Small |63.89% |72.22% | |
|Very small |8.33% |16.67% | |
|Have ever been cheated : Yes | | |15 |
|No |41.67% |44.44% | |
| |58.33% |55.56% | |
|Safeguard rights : Didn’t | | |16 |
|safeguard |13.89% |16.67% | |
|Want to but have no action |47.22% |44.44% | |
|Want to with action | | | |
|Haven’t ever wanted to |36.11% |38.89% | |
| | | | |
| |2.78% |0% | |
|Source: this study (SPSS) |

From Table 4.2.5, there are differences in percent of each minor term between female and male respondents. The results of the questions 15 and 16 have indicated that female and male respondents are similar in safeguarding rights and cheating cases. But comparing the percent between female and male respondents based on 5 and 14 questions, male respondents have much higher percent in very large of how much know about correlative law. And for the paying, more male respondents are willing to get 100~200 Yuan per hour, but for female respondents, they prefer get less than 100 Yuan per hour.

Chart 4.2.5
[pic]
Source: the questionnaire in the internet From the chart 1 we can clearly learn about that male and female have a bit of difference. They were more willing to do ritual girl except tutor for female, but for male they preferred roundsman expect tutor.

This chapter has given a descriptive statistics of the sample. According to the results, it’s a trend for college students to get part-time jobs due to being eager for promoting oneself and earning money. But it’s distinctly that almost all the students have poor knowledge in the correlative law about taking part-time jobs and most students have poor awareness of safeguarding rights. As for the further research about gender difference, it’s different at some aspects of part-time job employment but in general male and female are similar.

CHAPTER 5: Conclusion

1 Summary

Here, we make a summary to our research.
1. The level of understanding in legal knowledge directly affect whether college students choose to do a part-time job. This is an important factor that decides whether college students to do a part-time job.
2. Purpose and views to do part-time job affect the time college students choose to spend in part-time every week. Because of various purposes, the time student spend in part-time job is different. Some think it is necessary to do part-time job, so they will spent more time on it.
3. The level of understanding in legal knowledge affects the behavior when their personal rights are violated during the working period. Some who know the legal knowledge will use it to protect themselves. Some who know little about legal knowledge would have no idea how to deal with it.
4. The level of understanding in legal knowledge determines whether they will be deceived. Of course, because some college students know legal knowledge, they will choose the job more carefully. That leads to the college students who know legal knowledge would hardly be deceived. So, it is important to know how to choose a part-time job.
5. Various part-time advertisements for college students offer more options to find good part-time jobs that suit them best.
6. Boys and girls usually choose different kinds of jobs. What kind of jobs you do decide how much money you earn. How much you earn affects how many hours you spend in part-time job every week. So gender affects the time of part-time job. The advantages and disadvantages of part-time job for college students are relative, and the key lies in the attitude of college student for part-time job and the way of doing things. Students should have a correct understanding of the meaning of part-time job, and do the part-time job without affection to the premise of their studies. That can obtain the double benefits of academic and social practice. And then strengthening knowledge of laws and improving the consciousness on laws are significant to college students. With the development of social economics, the phenomenon that college students take part-time jobs is very common nowadays. Our research on College Students’ Part-time Employment and Current Situation of Safeguarding Their Legal Rights has a great practical significance. Firstly, our research shows that there are still many college students lack of the necessary knowledge about the laws on part-time jobs, especially the males. So popularizing the laws in that field among college students is very essential. Secondly, the level of salary is a little low for college students. To solve that problem, government, school and company are supposed to work together creating a better circumstance for college students where college students can get a reasonable salary while making a good use of their spare time by taking part-time jobs. Thirdly, the type of part-time jobs for college students is not mulriple, focusing on being tutors, some jobs supplied by schools, and being salesman. Therefore, schools should set up special organizations for students to provide more information about the part-time jobs. Finally, our research suggests that a large number of students have ever been cheated and didn’t take any measures about that. The profit of college students doing part-time jobs must be protected. Not only students should enhance the legal consciousness, but also government and companies should provide more ways for students to protect their legal profit.

2 Limitations:

There are still several limitations of the research. Firstly, the sample size is pure, and just students from SWUFE accept our investment. Therefore our research is not representative enough. Secondly, because the time of investigation is limited, our sample size is a little narrow. Only 131 students have handed in their questionnaire online. Next time we should plan a suitable time to investigate and making sure the questionnaire return could be as many as possible to get a good response rate.

3 Suggestions for future research

The research is confined to a university college students, if we had taken samples in different cities, different schools, the result would be more credible. And, if the research had more students from different grades, if we had spent more time collecting information, the result would have more influence.

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Reference

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2011-6-7