Dr. Shruthi J. Mayur
T A Pai Management Institute Manipal, India.
MBA and Employability – Revisiting Selection Criteria to the Management Program
Authors
Abstract
Students in India have a penchant for attaining a management degree and this is seen in the rising of number of institutes offering a degree in management. One reason that stands out for this trend is that the degree is seen as a path to getting into a lucrative job. While this may be so, the challenge faced by the industry is about getting employable graduates with the right skill set to take on managerial roles at entry and middle level. The reason for this gap in industry required skills could be for three reasons: 1. There is ambiguity in defining the skills required in the industry. 2. Not selecting a candidate with the required aptitude for the program or 3. The program may lack design to impart employable skills. The purpose of this paper is to explore the first 2 reasons and attempt to understand how the gap between the industry requirement and current employability status can be reduced. For the study a sample of 209 MBA students from South India was selected. Industry requirements in terms of employability skills was defined. To explore whether the selection criteria to the management program needs to be revisited, the impact of both Locus of control(non-cognitive) and MAT score (cognitive) on the employable skills was captured. Results indicate that MAT Score and LOC are predictors of Employability skills of an MBA students. The results also indicate that LOC (Internal) is a good predictor of Employability Skills especially the Attitudinal Skills and Team Management Skills components. This study recommends that as LOC may be used as a component of the selection criteria in deciding the admission of an individual into a business program as it is a good predictor of Employability skills. Originality/value – This is the first study that examines the study of LOC as a predictor of employability skills of an aspiring management graduates in South India