The determinants of work position among Gen X: A case of UiTM graduates

Authors

  • Rohani Mohd Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia
  • Nazlinda Abdullah Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia
  • Adibah Shuib Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia
  • Nor Irvoni Ishar Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia
  • Shereen Noranee Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24191/jeeir.v4i4.6332

Keywords:

career positioning, success factors, Rasch Model, Gen X

Abstract

The purpose of this preliminary research is to identify corporate talents’ positioning of the UiTM graduates especially the Generation X, within the industries. At the same time, there is also the need to ascertain the factors that contributed to the success of the UiTM Generation X graduates. Majority of the research which have been conducted on the graduates involved the employability rate. However, none has been carried out in identifying the graduates’ career accomplishment. The sample of this research consisted of 191 UiTM graduates who are born between 1965 until 1985 (known as the Generation X). The responses were obtained via an online survey sent to random groups in UiTM emails. Rasch Measurement Model was employed by using the software WINSTEP 3.72.3, to measure the reliability and validity of the instrument. SPSS version 21 was used to answer the research objective of the study. As for the factors which contributed to the success of the alumni, it was found that involvement in clubs, soft skills and orientation towards religion play important roles in determining the career position of GenX. These findings validate past research and demonstrate that the pattern continues into the present. Surprisingly, it was found that academic achievement, hard skills and personality traits hardly had any influence on the career positions of the Gen-X. It was also discovered that the success of the Gen-X could be due to other factors which is beyond the horizon of this research. Therefore, it was recommended that students should be encouraged to be actively involved in clubs. This must be balanced with religious values exposure so that they know the limit of their involvement.

References

Abdul Aris, N., Baharum, Z., Mohd Sanusi, Z., Abdul Rahman, I. R., & Lee, T. H. (2013). Assessment of Critical Success Factors for Accounting Graduates Employability in IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Application Colloquium (BEIAC).

Abdul Rahman, Z.(2014). Career Development Through Achieving Higher Qualifications: The Malaysian Scenario And E- Learning Students In Uitm, Shah Alam. Proceeding in the 5th International Conference on Business and Economic Research (5th ICBAR 2014). Kuching, Sarawak.

Altimier, L. (2006). Leading a new generation. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 6(1), 7-9.

Bersin, J. (2008). The Business Impact of Talent Management. Banking Strategies, 84(5), 6.

Biber, D. D., Czech, D. R. Harris, B. S., Melton, B. F. (2013). Attraction to Physical Activity of Generation Z: A Mixed Methodological Approach. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 3, 310-319.

Borges, N. J., Manuel, R. S., Elam, C. J., & Jones, B. J. (2006). Comparing Millennial and Generation X Medical Students at One Medical School. Academic Medicine, 81(6) (June 2006), 571-576.

Bradford, L. J., and Raines, C. (1992). Twenty Something: Managing and Motivating Today’s New Workforce, New York: MasterMedia Limited.

Burke, Ronald J. (1994). Career And Life Values And Expectations. Psychological Reports, 75, 147-160

Burke, M. E. (2004). Generational Differences Survey Report. Survey Report, Alexandria, VA. A Study by the Society for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Documents/Reference%20and%20Background%20Checking%20Survey%20Report.pdf. Retrieved on 5 October 2015.

Cattell, R. B., Eber, H. W., & Tatsuoka, M. M. (1970). Handbook for the 16 Personality Factor Questionaire (16PF) in Clinical Educational Industrial and Research Psychology. Inst. for Personality, Ability Testing.

Childs, G.M. & Kipnis, D.G. (2004). Educating generation x and generation y: Teaching tips for librarians. Medical References Services Quarterly, 23(A), 25-33.

Cole, G., Lucas, L., & Smith, R. (2002). The debut of generation y in the american workforce. Journal of Business Administration Online, 1(2), 1-10.

Cordeniz, J.A. (2002). Recruitment, retention and management of Generation X: A focus on nursing professionals, Journal of Healthcare Management, 47(4), 237-244.

Coupland, D. (1991). Generation X. New York: St. Martin‟s Press.

Dries,.N, Pepermans, R. & De Kerpel, E. (2000). Exploring four generations' beliefs about career: Is “satisfied” the new “successful”?, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(8), 907-928.

Engelman, E. (2009). How Workforce Commitment Levels Affect Recruitment and Retention of Generation Y Within Corporate America, Dissertation, Capella University, 1-70.

Ernst & Young (June, 2013). Younger Managers Rise in the Ranks. Generational Shifts in the US Workplace: Online Generations Survey.

Fisher, W. P. J. (2007). Rating scale instrument quality criteria, Rasch Measurement Transaction, 21(1), 1095.

Glass, A. (2007). Understanding Generational Differences for Competitive Success, Industrial and Commercial Training, 39(2), 98–103.

Greene, K, E., & Frantom, C.G. (2002). Survey development and validation with the Rasch Model. Paper presented at the International Conference on Questionnaire Development, Evaluation and Testing, Charleston, South Carolina, November 14-17, 2002.

Gursoy, D., Maier, A.T. & Chi, G.C. (2008). Generational Differences: an Examination of Work Values and Generational Gaps in the Hospitality Workforce. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27(3), 448-458.

Howe, N. & Strauss, W. (2000). Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage Books.

Howe, N. & Strauss, B. (1993). 13th Generation. New York: Vintage Books.

Howe, N & Strauss, W 2007, The Next 20 Years: How Customer and Workforce Attitudes Will Evolve. Harvard Business Review, 85, 41-52.

Jorgensen, B. (2003). Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y? Policy implications for defence forces in the modern era. Foresight, 5(4): 41-49

Lee, S. T. & Tay, A. (2012). Historical Moments that are Meaningful to the Three Generations of Employees in Malaysia. World Journal of Social Sciences, 2(3), 48-56.

Linacre, J. M. (2011). A User’s guide to WINSTEPS Ministeps; Rasch-model Computer Program. Program Manual 3.71.0

Linacre, J. M. (1999). Investigating rating scale category utility. Journal of OutcomeMeasurement, 3(2), 103-122.

Perrine, J. L. (2009). Recruitment and retention report: Strategies to boost RN retention, Nursing Management, 40(4): 20-22.

Raiya, H. A. (2008). A psychological measure of Islamic religiousness: evidence for relevance, reliability and validity (Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University).

Roberts, J. A. & Manolis, C. (2000). Baby boomers and busters: an exploratory investigation of attitudes toward marketing, advertising and consumerism, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(6), 481 – 497.

Schachter, D. (2009). Staff retention: Preparing for the recovery, Information Outlook, 13(3): 36-37.

Smith, A.M., Lopez-Jimenez, F., McMahon, M.M., Tho-mas, R.J., Wellik, M.A., Jensen, M.D., et al. (2005). Action on obesity: Report of a Mayo Clinic national summit. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 80, 527-532.

Schwadel, P. (2011). Period and cohort effects on religious nonaffiliation and religious disaffiliation: A research note. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 49(2), 311-319

Seibert, S.E. & Kraimer, M.L.(2001). The Five-Factor Model of Personality and Career Success. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 1–2

Semeijin, J. H., van der Velden, R., Heijke, H., van der Vleuten, C. & Boshuizen, H. P. A. (2006). Competence indicators in academic education and early labour market success of graduates in health sciences. Journal of Education and Work, 19(4) 383–413.

Sharma, S., Richard, M. D., & Gur-Arie, D. (1981). Identification and analysis of moderator variables. Journal of Marketing Research, 18, 291-3

Tay, A. (2015). Managing generational diversity at the workplace: expectations and perceptions of different generations of employees. African Journal of Business Management, 5(2), 249-255, Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM. Retrieved on 1 October 2015.

Trower, C. A. (2009). Traditionalists, Boomers, Xers, and Millennials: Giving and Getting the Mentoring You Want. [Online] at http://www.un.org/staffdevelopment/pdf/Designing%20Recruitment,%20Selection%20&%20Talent%20Management%20Model%20tailored%20to%20meet%20UNJSPF's%20Business%20Development%20Needs.pdf. Retrieved on 1 October 2015.

Tulgan, B. (2004). Trends point to a dramatic generational shift in the future place. Employment Relations Today, 30(4), 23–31.

Twenge, Jean M, Charles E. Lance, Brian J. Hoffman, Stacy M. Campbell, (2010). Generational Differences in Work Values: Leisure and Extrinsic Values Increasing, Social and Intrinsic Values Decreasing. Journal of Management, 36(5), pp.1117-1142

Wan Yusoff, W. F. & Tan, S. K. (2013). Generation Differences in Work Motivation: From Developing Country Perspective. International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 2(4), 97-103.

Wright, B. D., & Mok, M. M. C. (2004). An overview of the family of Rasch measurement models. In E. V. Smith & R. M. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to Rasch measurement (pp. 1–24). Maple Grove, MN: JAM Press.

Zemke, R., Raines, C. & Filipczak, B. (1999). Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace. New York, N.Y.: American Management Association.

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton R. A. (2000). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-31

How to Cite

Mohd , R., Abdullah, N. ., Shuib, A. ., Ishar, N. I. ., & Noranee, S. . (2016). The determinants of work position among Gen X: A case of UiTM graduates. Journal of Emerging Economies and Islamic Research, 4(4), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.24191/jeeir.v4i4.6332