Qualities of professionalism sought by employers: Exploring, validating, and incentivizing them in business undergraduates: Working paper Series--12-08

Clark, Timothy S. and Lockwood, Chris and Bain, Craig E. (2012) Qualities of professionalism sought by employers: Exploring, validating, and incentivizing them in business undergraduates: Working paper Series--12-08. Working Paper. NAU W.A. Franke College of Business.

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Abstract

What do employers of business-school graduates seek in job candidates? The basic technical knowledge that an accredited degree indicates, and some amount of appropriate work experience, are prerequisites for interviews. But job candidates are then distinguished by various "soft" qualities that can't easily be bulleted on resumes or readily validated by employers. This paper begins with an exploration of framework for these qualities, considered here aspects of professionalism, which is developed from a series of surveys to refine and categorize relevant descriptors. We report the confirmatory findings from a focus group of partners, HR managers, and recruiters from accounting firms - a field which is particularly sensitive to professionalism since new associates have extensive client contact. Then, one business school's novel approach for raising the level of professionalism in undergraduate business students is introduced. The paper includes discussion of the importance and limitations of this topic, and concludes with possible directions for further research.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Publisher’s Statement:	Copyright, where appropriate, is held by the author.
ID number or DOI:	12-08
Keywords:	Working paper, professionalism, business school graduates
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Faculty/Staff
Department/Unit:	The W.A. Franke College of Business
Date Deposited:	15 Oct 2015 21:40
URI:	http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/1467

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