Perceptual Gap Among Corporate World, Academics and Students: Personal Qualities and Employability Competencies of Students

Abstract

Personal qualities and employability competencies influence how an individual interacts with others. Employers value employability skills because they are linked to how employees get along with co-workers and customers, job performance, and career success of the employee. Hence personal qualities and employability competencies are considered as one of the essential components for an individual's career development. This study aims to understand the perceptual gap among the corporate world, business school academics and business school students. This study is quantitative in nature and primary data was collected through survey method. The primary data was collected from 377 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students, 276 Business School faculties and 98 managers representing 100 different companies in Bangalore, India. Three different questionnaires were prepared for three groups. All three sets of respondents were asked to rate their perception towards the requirement of personal qualities and skill/competencies required at the workplace in an entrylevel job. The study highlights that there is a significant difference in the perception of students, business school faculty and managers towards listed personal qualities and competencies. These perceptual differences result in different types of costs to the company in terms of time, money and energy. The results will help the business schools to develop an innovative business curriculum that can fill the current industry needs.