Recruiting_university Graduates_an Australian Case Study

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International Journal of Public Sector ManagementEmerald Article: Recruiting university graduates for the public sector: anAustralian case study

Jeannette Taylor

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To cite this document: Jeannette Taylor, (2005),"Recruiting university graduates for the public sector: an Australian case

tudy", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 18 Iss: 6 pp. 514 - 533

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Recruiting university graduatesfor the public sector:

an Australian case studyJeannette Taylor

School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Division of Arts, Murdoch University,Murdoch, Australia

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether disciplinary background and workexperience significantly influence university students views on working and preferences fororganisations and work attributes.

Design/methodology/approach The data were collected by a questionnaire. This paper briefly

reviews the literature of Australian public sector reforms and the impact on the public sector as apotential employment location. The work values of young workers are subsequently presented,including the influence of disciplinary background and work experience on these values.

Findings The respondents disciplinary background, and to a smaller extent, work experience werefound to significantly affect their views on working and preferences for organisations and work attributes.

Research limitations/implications Sample size was small and derived from one university.More research should be carried out on students from other Australian universities before anygeneralisation can be made with any degree of confidence. Future research can also examine thereasons behind the traits uncovered among the younger generation for a better understanding of theirmotives and views.

Practical implications The study shows the importance of effective recruitment strategies forattracting university students to the public sector, communicating the opportunities offered andminimising any misconceptions about the image of public service. The presence of a public service

ethic among respondents who were favourably predisposed to public service may suggest that thisattribute could be leveraged to the governments advantage during recruitment.

Originality/value Although money may not be a primary factor that drew the respondents whodisplayed the public service ethic trait to government service, they did not in any way disregard theimportance of salary as a motivator. Recruiters should therefore not overlook or downplay thesignificance of a fair salary. A useful source for HR managers who are contemplating improvement intheir recruitment strategies, with an emphasis on those aimed at university graduates.

Keywords Employment,Motivation (psychology), Publicsector organizations, Recruitment, Graduates,Discipline, Australia

Paper type Research paper

The effective recruitment of competent individuals, especially new university

graduates, into the public sector is an important component of public administration.These new public sector employees are crucial for maintaining and even increasing thehuman resource capacity of the government, particularly if the claims made about thehuge wave of baby-boomer retirements in the near future eventuate (Lewis and Frank,2002; Selden et al., 2001). In Australia, there have been reports that the public sectorworkforce, which represents about 15 per cent of the nations employed (AustralianBureau of Statistics, 2003), is ageing, and in many instances, is older than the generalworkforce (Australian Public Service Commission, 2003a; Public Sector Management

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Division, 2001a). Even if the exit of the ageing workforce can be delayed throughvarious strategies, such as through extending the retirement age, the delay does notescape the fact that these people will eventually leave the workforce in the future. Thishighlights the important role played by the next generation of workers.

This study examines the work attitudes of a small sample of students from anAustralian university, taking into account the difference in disciplinary background andwork experience. Todays university students will represent the educated workforce oftomorrow. Since government organisations incur substantial costs in recruiting andtraining graduates (Australian Public Service Commission, 2003b), recruitment exercisesthat target the actual motivational needs of new graduates should produce greaterreturns than one which is based on obsolete or untested assumptions. According to Cableand Turban (2001, p. 157), [E]mployers must measure their existing position in theminds of their target market before developing their recruitment strategy andinterventions. This is based on the assumption that an individuals attraction oraversion to an organisation is dependent upon what that person perceives or knowsabout the organisation. The war for talent (King, 2003), or the fierce competition amongthe various sectors for talented graduates would suggest that it is important to find outfrom the new workforce about their preferences for different sectors and organisations,and their work motivation. More specifically, this study will examine the universitystudents perceptions on working (getting a job) and work motivational attributes, andtheir preferences for different types of organisations, from the three levels ofgovernments (federal, state, and local), to the non-profit and private sectors.

Since the attractiveness of the public sector as a potential employer to universitygraduates will be partly influenced by job availability and its image, this paper willcover these issues in Australia in light of the public sector reforms that have occurred.This is because the radical public sector restructuring that began during the 1980s hasaffected job opportunities and the image of a public sector career. As Australias public

sector reforms were largely affected by international developments, particularly fromthe UK, the coverage of public sector reforms will include experiences from othercountries in the industrialised world.

Australian public sector reforms and their impact on job opportunities andimageThe public sector in Australia and many other industrialised nations has undergonesubstantial restructuring in the past two decades. In the 1980s, political leaders from theUK and the USA to New Zealand and Australia shared a common agenda to radicallytransform their public services. Despite differences in the machinery of government, asin the case of the UK and the USA, and various labels being given to the political agenda,from Thatcherism in the UK and Reaganomics in the USA to Rogernomics in New

Zealand, the leaders were unified in singling out the public service for criticism (Petersand Savoie, 1994; Pratchett and Wingfield, 1996). The public service was accused ofbeing bloated, wasteful, costly, unresponsive, and unproductive. In the USA, PresidentRonald Reagan declared that he had come to Washington to drain the swamp (Bok,1989, p. 49), and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced his intention togive pink slips and running shoes to bureaucrats (Zussman, 1986, p. 255). But it wasThatchers determination to overturn the power and presumption of the public servicethat had widespread impact. Through her influence, the UKs radical public sector

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reforms were mirrored across many other countries (Flynn, 1997; Hood, 1990; Peters andSavoie, 1994). In fact, the reduction in the size of the public service began in the UK,followed by the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (Savoie, 1994). In Australia,the then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, stated that the government believes that there

is a question whether the public service [. . .

] has the management tools, the flexibilityand the capacities to meet the challenges that presently exist and that lie ahead (Fraser,1983, p. 131). Despite being from the other side of the political spectrum, the newlyelected Labour government under Bob Hawke reformed the public service along the linesof the Thatcher reforms in the UK (Hood, 1990).

Under the new public management (NPM) orthodoxy, the management practices inthe private sector are viewed to be far superior to those in government. The standardsin the public sector are argued to be poor because of factors such as the tendency tobase rewards on longevity rather than performance. The NPM doctrine dictates thatthe public sector must become more efficient and effective like the private sector, andcompete with private sector firms. Privatisation in particular became widespreadacross the UK in the early 1980s, and subsequently in much of the world. In Australia,since the early 1990s, over US$70.2 billion dollars of publicly owned organisations hadbeen sold to the private sector (Australian Public Service Commission, 2003a). Thereduction in government ownership at the federal and state levels has occurred inmany areas, from government business enterprises such as telecommunications,electricity and gas, rail, and ports and airports, to other industries such as banks,hospitals, gambling and prisons. Contracting-out, downsizing and functional cuts havealso contributed to a reduction in the size of the public sector and its workforce. Forexample, the Australian federal workforce dropped by 56 per cent, from 277,455 in1975 to 123,500 in 2002 (Australian Public Service Commission, 2003a).

The decrease in job opportunities as a result of a reduction in the size of the publicsector is arguably more pronounced in the Australian labour market, which is said to

lack the density and range of career opportunities that are available in higherpopulation areas of the USA and Europe (Patrickson and Hartmann, 2001). Forinstance, in 2001, the USA, the UK and Australian public sectors employed 19,183,000,5,378,000, and 1,506,500 workers, respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002;Hicks and Lindsay, 2005; US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). In addition, theproportion of employees in the public sector relative to that in the private sectorappeared to have fallen over time. For example, in the state of Western Australia, theproportion of state workforce employed was 69 per cent for the private sector and 31per cent of the public sector in 1988. In 1999, 80 per cent was employed by the privatesector and 19 per cent by the public sector (Public Sector Management Division, 2001b).In many instances, the private sector offered more job opportunities than the publicsector. In February 2004, the total number of national job vacancies in the private andpublic sectors were reported to be 93,300 and 12,200 respectively (Australian Bureau ofStatistics, 2004). The national graduate employment shows a similar trend. In 1991, 34per cent of the graduates entered the public sector but this figure dropped to 30 per centin 2001. In contrast, 40 per cent of the graduates were employed in the private sector in1991, and this rose to 52 per cent in 2001. An Australian state government noted thatits proportion of employees who were under 25 years of age had dropped from about 17per cent in 1988 to approximately four per cent in 1998. In contrast, the proportion ofthose employed under this age group across the sectors had only decreased from 22 percent to 18 per cent over the same period (Public Sector Management Division, 1999).

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These figures suggest that the Australian Government had been employing fewerpeople, including young people.

In addition to the reduction in the size of the public sector, the governmentsrepeated episodes of bureaucrat bashing (Denhardt and Jennings, 1989) have

contributed to a negative characterisation of the public sector. This has affectedgovernment employees as well as the general public. The reforms have been reportedto have a deleterious impact on the traditional ethos of the public sector in terms ofundermining the public service ethic (Brewer and Selden, 1998; Pratchett andWingfield, 1996). Since the 1980s, various studies and government reports have alsohighlighted morale problems within the public service (House of Commons, Treasuryand Civil Service Committee, 1986; Manion, 1990; Zussman and Jabes, 1989). Then,there are studies which report on the poor state of public trust in governments, inAustralia and overseas (Orren, 1997; Papadakis, 1999). Papadakis (1999) measuredAustralian public confidence in the government institutions from 1983 to 1995, andalthough confidence in the Australian public sector was found to be higher than that inthe political parties and the parliament, it showed a decline over this period. Thisincreasing mistrust of government was blamed primarily on the NPM reforms(Eckersley, 1998; Ryan, 2000; Thomas, 1998). Ryan (2000, p. 8) stated that new publicsector management practices have emphasised competition, efficiency and individualresponsibility. These values appear to be removed from young Australians. Reportsfrom US scholars about the diminishing appeal of government jobs due to factors suchas the cumbersome nature of the hiring process and the poor image of the publicservice, including a perception that government work is not challenging or creative, donot appear to be limited to the US environment (Alonso and Lewis, 2001; Brewer andSelden, 1998; Fredericksen and Soden, 1998; Naff and Crum, 1999). In Australia, wordslike slack, paper pushing and not innovative had been used by young people todescribe the public sector (Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public

Employment and Department of the Premier and Cabinet, 2002).

Work values of the new generation of workers and the influence ofdisciplinary background and work experienceThe dramatic changes to the workplace in Australia and across the industrialisedworld have been suggested to affect the work values of the new generation of workers.For instance, authors such as Karl and Sutton (1998) have argued that todays workersvalue good wages and job security more than the workers of the 1970s and 1980s,primarily because of changes in external conditions. The downsizing experience andexternalisation of the workforce (through contracting-out and replacing permanentfull-time employees with part-time and contract employees) had led to a shift fromrelational contracts, characterised by long-term career development, extensive

training and organisation-specific skills, to transactional contracts that emphasiseshort-term financial relationships and low emotional commitment by employees(Hendry and Jenkins, 1997; Rousseau and Parks, 1993).

Although Australian public sector employees had traditionally enjoyed greateropportunities for job security, career progression and salary advancement than theirprivate sector counterparts (Walsh et al., 2002), more tenuous employmentrelationships are becoming increasingly popular. For example, the proportion ofpermanent public sector employees in an Australian state had dropped from 81 per


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cent in 1995 to 71 per cent in 2003, while those on non-permanent employment hadrisen from 19 per cent to 29 per cent over the same period (Department of the Premierand Cabinet, 2004). The reforms have prompted many employees to reassess theircommitment to, and dependence on, one employer (Hartman and Patrickson, 2000;

Mallon, 1998; Pfeffer and Baron, 1988). This weakening of ties with the employingorganisations means that organisations can no longer rely on the loyalty of employees.In addition, despite massive layoffs in recent decades, Australian higher education, aswell as those in many industrialised countries, had witnessed mass expansion ofstudent intake over the same period. This has contributed to an increase in the supplyof university graduates and a tight graduate labour market (Graduate Careers Councilof Australia, 2003).

Therefore, with few job opportunities and many jobs now lacking in job security,young workers may believe that they can accrue career security by frequentlychanging employers, particularly choosing those which provide continuous training oropportunities to enhance their employability skills (Bova and Kroth, 2001; Tulgan,1996). Hendry and Jenkins (1997) pointed out that organisations that cannot offer jobsecurity can help employees to manage their own careers by providing them withtransferable skills and opportunities to train and better themselves. A focus groupstudy of 93 young Australians (consisting of public sector employees, the unemployed,and students secondary, vocational and university) had found that, in addition to jobsecurity, most of them valued access to ongoing learning in order to remaincompetitive in their field (Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in PublicEmployment and Department of the Premier and Cabinet, 2002). In the USA,Chetkovich (2003, p. 671) pointed out that as students anticipate changeable careers,they seek entry positions that will open rather than close doors. In other words, paststudies suggest that the new generation of workers emphasises certain aspects of workdifferently from the earlier generation of workers largely because they are responding

to changing external conditions.In addition, like any other groups of individuals, the work attitudes of university

students are likely to vary, depending on factors such as disciplinary background andwork experience. An individuals disciplinary background can be generally regardedas one of the determinants of ones profession. Professionalism is typically associatedwith a clear occupational field, and knowledge acquired from a formal educationalprogramme (Perry, 1997). Todays labour force is populated with a multiplicity ofprofessionals, from policy analysts, to teachers, lawyers and scientists, and this iswitnessed in the rise of professionalism in the public service (Kearney and Sinha, 1988;Mosher, 1982). Each profession is likely to share a distinguishing set of values andworldview, particularly when one is to adopt the hypothesis that loyalty to a professionmay, in some instances, displace loyalty to the employing organisation and the larger

population (Gouldner, 1957; Perry, 1997). This implies that different professions mayhave different views about working, and possibly varying preferences for rewards andorganisations. For example, politics (i.e. public administration/public policy/politics)students may be more favourably predisposed to join the public and non-profit sectorscompared to their counterparts from other disciplines (consisting of business, law,education, arts, and science), particularly business students, who may be more inclinedto enter the private sector. Although it is plausible that individuals who are trained in aspecific discipline may have little choice but to join a certain sector or type of

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organisation, it is equally plausible that becoming an employee of any sector ororganisation, regardless of ones disciplinary background, can involve choice and/orchance (Lee and Olshfski, 2002). In recognising that disciplinary background can shapeones worldview, this paper aims to compare the work attitudes of university students

across specific disciplines: politics, business, law, education, arts, and science.It is also important to examine the influence of the presence and lack of work

experience on work attitudes because it is generally assumed that university studentstend to have little or no work experience although that trend may be slowing changingover time. Researchers such as Loughlin and Barling (2001) had pointed out that it iscommon for todays young people to work part-time in the paid workforce despitebeing full-time students. The impact of work experience on work attitudes consists oftwo main arguments. The first argument is that an employees motivation is a reactionto the organisation, i.e. an employees attitudes are likely to change in response to theorganisation. This implies that any idealistic expectations held by individuals withoutwork experience will change after their employment. Taking salary as an example, anindividual who joins a government organisation may come to realise that salary is lowin that organisation. An individual who chooses to remain in the organisation maysubsequently engage in a rationalisation process to convince himself or herself thathigh salary is not a major priority (Houston, 2000). On this basis, public employeesmay be less extrinsically motivated not because they value extrinsic rewards less, butbecause government offers so few of them (Frank and Lewis, 2002, p. 4). Yet, there isanother argument that motivation is something that individuals bring to theorganisation. Here, employees are argued to be attracted to and choose the sector thatprovides them with the rewards they value (Lewis and Frank, 2002; Walker et al.,1982). Therefore, in addition to disciplinary background, this study will examinewhether work experience accounts for significant difference in the university studentsresponse to different motivational attributes.

MethodologySubjectsThe subjects were 297 university students in Australia. They were randomly selectedfrom a list of 600 students who were enrolled in core units (again selected randomly)from different programmes: public administration/public policy/politics, education,law, business, arts/humanities, and science. A majority of the respondents were female(70 per cent), below 40 years old (88 per cent, with about 40 per cent at 21 years andbelow), Australians (83 per cent), undertaking a bachelors degree (89 per cent), andworking (full-time, part-time or casually) during the survey period (66 per cent). For thelatter (197 respondents), only 33 per cent stated that their work was related to their

current studies. The profile of respondents in terms of their gender, age, nationalityand level of degree pursued appears to be quite similar to the profile of students in theuniversity surveyed. This profile is also somewhat similar to that across Australianuniversities (see http://dest.gov.au/highered/statpubs.htm#studpubs), with slightvariations in terms of age and level of degree. The university chosen has a slightlylarger proportion of older students, many of whom are enrolled in postgraduatestudies, including research. In the same year, 43 per cent of the nations universitystudents were 21 years and below compared to the 41 per cent in the university


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surveyed. A total of 71 per cent were pursuing their bachelors degree at the nationallevel compared to 77 per cent in the university surveyed.

InstrumentA web-based questionnaire was used to collect the data, largely because the youngergenerations tend to be associated with being technologically literate (Bova and Kroth,2001), and their main form of communication is through the e-mail system. A websurvey also permitted the researcher to approach students who are geographicallydispersed across campuses with minimal effort and costs. Academic staff memberswho taught the core units surveyed were initially contacted in order to seek theirapproval to approach their students. Participation was voluntary, and the respondentswere assured of confidentiality of results.

The web-based questionnaire is divided into three sections. One section askedWhat does working (getting a job) mean to you?. The respondents were asked to ranksix statements, derived from the Meaning of Work International Research Team (1987).

A rank of 1 was given to the statement that was most agreeable to them, 2 to thenext most agreeable statement, and so on, with 6 being given to the statement thatthey least agreed with. A forced rank approach was adopted because it clearlydistinguishes the preferences of the respondents among multiple factors. This methodhas also been used with good results by several researchers who had examinedmotivational attributes (Chan, 2002; Jurkiewicz, 2000; Jurkiewicz and Brown, 1998;Meaning of Work International Research Team, 1987).

Another section in the questionnaire focused on asking participants What aspects ofwork are important to you?. This section consisted of 24 items, which were adaptedfrom a variety of sources past pilot studies on students, and the instruments used by

Jurkiewicz and Brown (1998), and the Meaning of Work International Research Team(1987). The 24 items were divided into sub-sections because a pilot test showed that the

student respondents found the ranking process to be problematic and time-consuming,particularly when the 24 items could not fit onto the computer screen unless one scrolleddown. A two-step approach was subsequently adopted for this section. The respondentswere first asked to rank six general work attributes in terms of their relative importanceto them. Each of these six general factors then appeared separately as headings in thesubsequent sections of the questionnaire. Each of these sections contained more specificbut related items. For example, economic rewards, which appeared as one of the generalwork attributes, was sub-divided into several items such as opportunity for promotion,high pay, and good job security. The respondents were asked to rank all the factors ineach of these sub-divisions separately in terms of their relative importance to them, againusing the same approach, starting with a rank of 1 for the most important item. None ofthe items in the sub-divisions contained more than six items each.

The last section asked the respondents Which type of organisation do you intendto work in when you graduate?. Again, the respondents used a forced rank approachfor the eight categories of organisations, with 1 for the organisation that they aremost likely to work in, and 8 for the organisation that they are least likely to join. Theorganisations consisted of local government organisations, state governmentorganisations, federal government organisations, international governingorganisations, non-profit NGOs, private large organisations, private smallorganisations, and self-employed businesses.

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Data analysesDescriptive statistics were used to assess the respondents demographic profile, andtheir attitudes towards working, work and organisations. Multivariate analysis ofvariance (MANOVA) was used to examine for any significant difference in the

respondents preferences by disciplinary group (politics, business, law, education, arts,and science). The analysis of the relationship between organisational choice anddisciplinary background was controlled for gender in order to rule out the possibility ofthe moderating effect of gender. This is due to the fact that women make up a majorityof all career federal public servants in Australia. Since the 1966 removal of legislationthat prohibited permanent employment of married women, the proportion of femaleemployees has risen in Australia, and a typical new recruit in government is morelikely to be a woman than man (Australian Public Service Commission, 2003a). Lastly,a t-test was employed to determine whether there was a significant difference in theviews between those with and those without work experience.

ResultsThe results in Table I show the attitudes of the respondents towards working andorganisations. The data in this and subsequent tables indicate the mean ranking valuesfor each statement. The smaller the mean value, the more important that statement isto the respondent. The F-value shows whether the mean value in any one discipline issignificantly different from those in other disciplines. When it comes to work goals,there are five prominent findings. First, to most respondents, getting a job was aboutgetting a needed income, followed by the interest and satisfaction derived fromworking, and then an opportunity to interact with other people. This can be observedin the column marked total. Second, when the results were compared acrossdisciplines, the respondents from business, law, and education rated the statement onincome higher than those from other disciplines, including politics and science, as

suggested by the former groups lower mean values. Third, the respondents frombusiness, law, and science were more likely to consider the status and prestigeassociated with working to be more important than those from politics and education.Fourth, the respondents from politics and education tend to regard working to be auseful way to serve the community compared to their counterparts in business andlaw. Fifth, there was no significant difference found across the disciplines for the rest ofthe statements on working as being interesting and satisfying, allowing contactswith people, and a way to keep one occupied, as shown in the column on F-value. Itappears that the importance placed on these statements by the respondents was moreor less similar regardless of disciplinary background.

When it comes to the types of organisations which the respondents intend to joinupon graduation, the results in the total column of Table I show that private large

organisations were the top choice, followed by state government organisations, federalgovernment organisations, and then international governing organisations. Localgovernment organisations were least popular for most respondents.

The analysis at the disciplinary level was carried out in two stages. The first stageinvolved finding out whether there was a significant linear relationship betweengender and disciplinary background. Amongst all the organisational choices available,the responses on state government, non-profit, and international governingorganisations, and working for oneself appeared to be moderated by gender. When


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Meanrankingvalue

Total

(N

297)

Politics

(N

63)

Business

(N

62)

Education

(N

62)

Law

(N

27)

Arts

(N

28)

Science

(N

55)

F-value

Workgoals

Workingprovidesmewithanincome

thatisneeded

2.081

2.381

1.921

1.771

1.701

2.001

2.492

2.68*

Workingitselfisbasicallyinteresting

andsatisfyingtome

2.942

2.972

3.182

2.972

3.302

2.962

2.441

1.87

Workingallowsmetoha

veinteresting

contactswithotherpeople

3.513

3.193

3.614

3.523

3.744

3.503

3.643

1.10

Workingisausefulway

toservethe

community

3.854

3.404

4.456

3.534

4.305

4.074

3.714

3.64**

Workinggivesmestatus

andprestige

4.195

4.445

3.543

4.976

3.523

4.326

4.115

6.62***

Workingkeepsmeoccup

ied

4.436

4.626

4.395

4.245

4.446

4.145

4.626

0.89

Typeoforganisations

Privatelargeorganisations

3.521

5.196

2.211

3.132

3.782

3.712

3.291

15.67***

Stategovernment

3.562

3.593

4.826

1.441

3.701

4.074

4.163

24.93***

Federalgovernment

3.923

2.841

4.474

3.903

3.964

3.641

4.696

7.64***

Internationalgoverningor

supranationalorganisations

4.234

3.052

3.852

5.847

3.853

4.003

4.495

13.72***

Privatesmallbusinesses

(lessthan40

employees)

4.705

5.988

3.893

5.276

4.565

4.546

3.672

10.25***

Workformyself

5.116

5.767

4.775

5.958

5.076

4.255

4.274

5.14***

Non-profitnon-governme

ntal

organisations

5.417

4.734

6.158

5.234

5.708

5.867

5.187

3.45**

Localgovernment

5.558

4.865

5.847

5.245

5.377

5.938

6.248

4.28**

Notes:Levelofsignifica

nce:*p,

0:05,

**p,

0:01,

***p,

0:001;rankingsofitemswithineachsectionareshownbysuperscripts

Table I.Views on working andorganisational type: alland by discipline

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these were controlled for gender in the second stage of analysis, the results remainedsignificant, showing the significant influence of discipline on organisational choice.The respondents from politics and education showed a stronger preference forgovernment organisations (state, federal, and local) than those from business and

science. The respondents from politics and education were also more positive aboutjoining non-profit organisations than those from business and law. When it comes tointernational governing organisations (such as the United Nations and the WorldBank), the respondents from politics, business and law appeared to be keener thanthose from education and science. On the other hand, the respondents from politicswere significantly less interested in joining private large organisations than theircounterparts from business and even education. Similarly, they, along with therespondents from education, were less favourable towards working in private smallorganisations than those from science and business.

Having examined the respondents attitudes towards working and organisations, itis now relevant to report on their attitudes towards work attributes, first starting withthe general aspects, followed by the more specific aspects of work motivations. Theresults in Table II show the relative importance of general attributes in the workplace.The nature of work was highly valued, followed by working conditions. Although therespondents from all disciplines ranked the nature of work as their first choice, thosefrom politics and science appeared to regard the nature of work to be more importantthan those from business and law, as suggested by the former groups smaller meanranking values.

For most of the respondents, intrinsic rewards received a lower ranking thaneconomic rewards. It was the respondents from politics, arts and science who gave ahigher ranking to intrinsic rewards relative to extrinsic rewards. A comparison of themean values also showed that the respondents from politics and education valuedintrinsic rewards more than those from business and law. However, when compared toextrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards received a lower ranking amongst the educationrespondents. The organisation was also considered to be more important to those frombusiness, arts and politics than those from education and science. It appears that therespondents from politics placed a significantly higher priority on the nature of work,intrinsic rewards and the organisation than those from other disciplines such as law.

The results under the section on specific attributes in Table II show that when itcomes to nature of work, most of the respondents were concerned about a good matchbetween job requirements and abilities and experience. No significant findings werefound across disciplines. Under working conditions, good working relationships andflexible working hours appeared to be the main priorities. The respondents frompolitics and business valued an opportunity to contribute to important decisions higherthan those from law, education and science. Conversely, the latter groups regardedgood physical conditions to be significantly more important than the former groups.

Job security and a fair salary were the economic rewards that were highly valued bya majority of the respondents. These findings, however, were found to varysignificantly across disciplines. A comparison of the mean values indicated that jobsecurity appeared to be more valued by the respondents from education, science andarts than those from politics and business. Fair salary was considered to be a higherpriority for those in education, law and politics than those in business and arts.Opportunity for promotion was regarded as being more important to the respondentsfrom business and politics than those from education and law. On the other hand, the


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Meanrankingvalue

Total

(N297)

Politics

(N

63)

Business

(N

62)

Education

(N6

2)

Law

(N

27)

Arts

(N

28)

Science

(N55)

F-value

Generalworkattributes

Natureofwork

2.421

2.161

2.941

2.481

2.561

2.501

1.981

2.77*

Workingconditions

3.272

3.302

3.603

2.942

2.782

3.362

3.443

1.82

Economicrewards

3.323

3.594

2.941

3.103

3.073

3.615

3.655

2.11

Intrinsicrewards

3.645

3.513

4.155

3.344

4.075

3.544

3.382

2.33*

Themanagement

3.614

3.785

3.342

3.845

3.564

3.503

3.534

0.92

Theorganisation

4.756

4.676

4.054

5.316

4.966

4.506

5.026

5.42***

Specificworkattributes

Natureofwork

Goodmatchbetweenjob

requirementsandabilities

andexperience

2.101

2.291

1.891

2.001

2.221

2.071

2.221

1.10

Enoughinformation,authorityandequipmenttodo

myjob

2.472

2.543

2.312

2.522

2.522

2.613

2.422

0.56

Varietyinworkassignm

ents,tasksandroles

2.683

2.412

2.843

2.954

2.674

2.502

2.603

1.91

Freedomfromsupervisio

n

2.754

2.764

2.974

2.533

2.593

2.824

2.764

1.07

Workingconditions

Goodworkingrelationships

2.141

2.291

2.261

2.131

1.781

2.041

2.091

0.98

Flexibleworkinghours

2.702

2.653

2.793

2.683

2.562

2.612

2.783

0.21

Goodphysicalworkingc

onditions

2.793

3.144

2.894

2.602

2.593

2.823

2.582

2.41*

Opportunitytomakeacontributiontoimportant

decisions

2.974

2.432

2.692

3.314

3.594

3.074

3.154

4.75***

Opportunitytoengagein

satisfyingleisureactivities

4.405

4.495

4.375

4.295

4.485

4.465

4.405

0.32

Economicrewards

Goodjobsecurity

2.351

2.681

2.812

1.711

2.301

2.251

2.251

4.69***

Fairsalary

2.982

2.903

3.684

2.312

2.812

3.213

3.022

4.20**

Opportunityforpromotion

3.183

2.752

2.711

3.713

3.633

2.822

3.584

7.02***

Highsalary

3.674

3.865

3.153

4.065

3.704

3.824

3.513

2.20

(continued)

Table II.Views on workmotivational attributes:all and by discipline

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Meanrankingvalue

Total

(N297)

Politics

(N

63)

Business

(N

62)

Education

(N6

2)

Law

(N

27)

Arts

(N

28)

Science

(N55)

F-value

Attractivefringebenefits

3.915

3.844

4.135

3.824

3.785

3.935

3.875

0.44

Highprestigeandsocial

status

4.916

4.976

4.536

5.396

4.786

4.966

4.766

2.84*

Intrinsicrewards

Workthatisinterestingandsatisfying

1.591

1.561

1.692

1.651

1.331

1.571

1.561

0.98

Opportunityforself-improvement

1.982

2.162

1.661

1.972

2.112

1.892

2.112

4.09**

Opportunitytobenefitth

ewidercommunity

2.443

2.293

2.653

2.393

2.563

2.543

2.333

1.99

Themanagement

Skilled

1.961

1.731

1.951

2.163

2.153

2.043

1.861

2.28*

Friendlyandapproachab

le

2.002

2.383

2.022

1.821

1.811

1.961

1.861

3.46**

Responsiveanddecisive

2.043

1.892

2.033

2.022

2.042

2.002

2.292

1.91

Theorganisation

Itshighstandards

1.391

1.161

1.551

1.501

1.441

1.391

1.311

4.03**

Itshighprofile

2.693

2.733

2.34

2.923

2.633

2.753

2.763

6.81***

Itsgeographicallocation

1.932

2.112

2.112

1.582

1.932

1.862

1.932

5.54***

Notes:Levelofsignifica

nce:*p,

0:05,

**p,

0:01,

***p,

0:001;rankingsofitemswithineachs

ectionareshownbysuperscripts

Table II.


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respondents from business, law and science placed a higher emphasis on prestige andstatus than their counterparts from education, politics and arts.

The intrinsic reward which was rated highest by the respondents was work that isinteresting and satisfying, followed by an opportunity for self-improvement. Analysis

by discipline showed a significant difference in the attribute opportunity forself-improvement, with respondents from business, arts and education showing ahigher interest in it compared to those from politics, law and science. When it comes tomanagement and organisation, the highest ranked attributes were skilled managementand the organisations high standards, respectively. Skilled management wasconsidered to be significantly more important to the respondents from politics, scienceand business than those from education and law. Friendly management was valuedhigher by those from law, education and science than those from politics and business.When it comes to organisation, its high standards were valued more by therespondents in politics and science than those in business and education. Its highprofile was also more important to those in business and law, but less important tothose in education and science. The location of an organisation appeared to mattermost to those in education and arts, and least to those from politics and business.

Table III reports only on the findings that showed a significant difference betweenthe respondents with work experience and those without work experience. Therespondents without work experience appeared to be significantly more agreeable to

joining international governing organisations than their peers with work experience,as shown by the lower mean value. When it comes to general work attributes, thosewithout work experience placed a significantly higher emphasis on the organisationbut less on working conditions than those with work experience. As for specific workattributes, the respondents with work experience viewed freedom from supervision tobe significantly more important and a match between job requirements and abilitiesand experience to be significantly less important than those without work experience.

Mean ranking valueWithout work experience

(N 197)With work experience

(N 100) T value

Type of organisationsInternational governing organisations 3.78 4.46 2.49 *

General work attributesWorking conditions 3.54 3.13 2.14 *

The organisation 4.32 4.96 3.34 * *

The organisation

Its high standards 1.49 1.34 2.12 *Its high profile 2.57 2.75 2.22 *

Nature of workGood match between job requirementsand abilities and experience 1.93 2.19 2.00 *

Freedom from supervision 3.01 2.61 2.98 * *

Notes: Level of significance: *p , 0:05, * *p , 0:01, * * *p , 0:001

Table III.Significant differencesbetween the respondentswith work experience andthose without experience

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The respondents without work experience appeared to place a significantly higheremphasis on the high profile of the organisation, but less on its standards compared tothose with work experience.

DiscussionInterpretations of this studys findings are circumscribed by the studys methodology.This is a case study of a small group of university students from an Australianuniversity. Although the universitys student statistics in terms of gender, age,nationality and type of degree may be quite similar to those from many universities inthe industrialised world, one cannot rule out differences as result of factors such asinstitutional differences. Certainly more research needs to be undertaken on a largersample of the new workforce before any generalisation can be made with any degree ofconfidence. Accordingly, this discussion will focus more on recruitment of therespondents instead of attempting to generalise the findings to the wider Australianlabour force of university graduates.

Despite this limitation, this survey has shown the significance of carrying outrecruitment research on the new generation of workers. The small group of universitystudents, including those without work experience, was found to possess preconceivedviews about working and organisations, and what motivates them best. It shows thatnewcomers do not arrive at organisations as blank slates (Cable and Turban, 2001,p. 118) without any prior conceptions of expectations about the organisation or awarenessof their needs, regardless of whether these attitudes are accurate, or will remain consistentover time. In addition, it is likely that the job applicant pool in the public sector, or in anyother sector, will consist of individuals with and without work experience. Individualswho are new to an organisation are likely to be more concerned about familiarisingthemselves with their work and workplace, say, by a good match between their jobrequirements and abilities, than exercising their autonomy. This explains the findings in

Table III (nature of work) in terms of the higher importance placed on achieving a matchbetween job requirement and ability by the respondents with no work experience, and thelower emphasis on freedom from supervision. Studies on young employees generallyreport that independence and autonomy are valued by this group of individuals (Bovaand Kroth, 2001; Jurkiewicz and Brown, 1998; Lewis and Frank, 2002). But this can be dueto the fact that past studies tend to concentrate on individuals who are already working inthe organisation, rather than those who intend to join or prefer to work for theorganisation. This study therefore highlights the utility of examining and comparing thework attitudes of individuals with and without work experience.

More importantly, the study appeared to support the finding by Pratchett andWingfield (1996) of the lack of a public service ethic amongst most respondents. Intheir study of local government employees who had been exposed to the NPM

experience, Pratchett and Wingfield (1996) reported that almost half of the respondentsheld a negative perception of the public service ethic. A majority of the respondents inthis study ranked economic rewards higher than intrinsic rewards. The implication ofthis finding will be discussed later.

While a majority of the respondents were found to value extrinsic over intrinsicrewards, those who showed an interest in joining the public sector were found todisplay the public service ethic. The politics respondents were found to show a stronginclination to join the public sector. They tend to view working as being more about


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serving the community, and less about getting an income and prestige. This publicservice ethic that prioritises intrinsic over extrinsic rewards has been commonlyreported among public sector employees (Crewson, 1997a; Gabris and Simo, 1995;Perry and Wise, 1990; Staats, 1988). It has also been reported among young individuals

who are attracted to the public service, including university students and graduates(Chetkovich, 2003; Lewis and Frank, 2002), and the general population (The Council forExcellence in Government, 2004). This survey confirmed past research, both nationallyand internationally, on the presence of a public service ethic among individuals with apredisposition for the public sector.

Although the politics respondents generally tend to emphasise the importance ofintrinsic over extrinsic rewards compared to their counterparts from other disciplines,there were two unexpected findings. Promotion as a reward motivator had been rankedhigher in importance by private than public employees in several past studies (e.g.Crewson, 1997b). However, this study found the respondents from politics to besignificantly more concerned about opportunity for promotion than those from law andeducation. One possible explanation is that the politics respondents, upon graduation,

are likely to enter the public sector at or close to the entry level. Accordingly, they mayview opportunities for advancement to be important if they are to remain in the publicsector. Further research is needed to confirm this finding. Another unexpected findingrelates to opportunity for self-improvement. Studies on young workers tend to reportthem as being attracted to workplaces offering opportunities for self-development(Bova and Kroth, 1999; Rodriguez et al., 2003). Yet, this study has shown that therespondents from politics appeared to be less concerned about this work attribute thanthose from business and arts. It is possible that they perceived the public sector asoffering less opportunity for self-improvement. This has been reported by youngpeople in Australia (Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employmentand Department of the Premier and Cabinet, 2002), and other countries such as the US(The Council for Excellence in Government, 2004). Work attributes such as this, which

are valued by the respondents but are perceived to be lacking in the public sector,should be addressed and communicated clearly during recruitment programmes.

The findings generally point to the importance of effective recruitment strategies forattracting the new workforce to the public sector, communicating the opportunitiesoffered and minimising any misconceptions about the image of public service. Boththeoretical and empirical research indicate that organisational attributes can matter asmuch as job attributes during recruitment (Cable and Judge, 1996; Turban and Keon,1993). Job applicants often make many critical decisions about organisations beforethey attempt to find out specifics about the jobs in the organisations (Cable andTurban, 2001). Since joining an organisation is a public expression of ones values andabilities (Popovich and Wanous, 1982), job seekers can evaluate potential employersbased on a match between their values and needs, and the characteristics that they

perceive employers to possess (Cable and Judge, 1996; Kristof, 1996). The fact that therespondents without work experience regarded an organisations high profile to besignificantly more important than those with work experience would suggest that it isworthwhile for public sector organisations to increase their profile or visibility amongthese university students. In the US, the Council for Excellence in Government (2004)acknowledged that the major barrier to recruiting workers to federal employment iswidespread ignorance about the opportunities offered. This was also reported inAustralia: [T]he public sector as an employer is largely invisible in the employment

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market place (The Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employmentand the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, 2002, p. 9).

In addition, the governments competitors for the respondents are multiple. Thegovernment faces competition from other sectors such as the private sector, as well as

within the levels of government, particularly between the federal and state governments.For example, the politics respondents assigned a pattern of consecutive rankings to thethree levels of government, international governing organisations and the non-profitorganisations (Table I). This implies that any competition for this group of universitygraduates is likely to be among the three levels of government the internationalgoverning organisations and the non-profit organisations than with the private sector. Itis possible that the respondents perceived these organisations to be offering almostsimilar opportunities, such as the ability to serve the community. In the quest forhigh-performing politics graduates, it may be valuable for a government organisation tohave an effective recruitment programme that distinguishes itself not only from othersectors but also from the other levels of government.

The significance of effective public sector recruitment programmes is further

supported by the absence of the public service ethic amongst most respondents, andthe presence of it among respondents who were favourably predisposed to publicservice. Since recruiting that targets people who are favorably predisposed togovernment services should yield greater success (Lewis and Frank, 2002, p. 128), theopportunity to satisfy this need can be a major selling point of public sectoremployment amongst the respondents. This attribute therefore needs to be leveragedto the governments advantage during recruitment of this group of individuals.Although money may not be a primary factor that drew the respondents togovernment service, the recruiters should not overlook or downplay the relevance of afair salary during recruitment. Past studies on public sector employees, largely carriedout through public-private comparative studies, often project an image of them asbeing less motivated by high salary than their private sector counterparts (Lawler,

1971; Rainey, 1982, 1991). The common conclusion is that salary is less important topublic sector than private sector employees. Yet, it is common knowledge that moneyis one of the main reasons why people seek employment (Latham and Locke, 1992).This has been observed in this study with the receipt of income receiving the highestranking among work goals. Salary was accordingly distinguished between high andfair salary. Most of the respondents in this study were found to be more motivated by afair salary than a high salary. Along with those from education and law, the politicsrespondents had placed a higher priority on fair pay than those from business and arts.This suggests that while the politics respondents were found to be comparatively lessconcerned about status and job security, and displayed the public service ethic trait,they did not in any way disregard the importance of salary as a motivator.

There is little doubt that this studys respondents and todays university studentswill represent tomorrows workforce. The new career of graduates (King, 2003, p. 6)is characterised by frequent employer changes, lateral moves, a high priority given toexternal employability and self-responsibility for outcomes. The Australiangovernment recognises that [g]iven Australias demographic changes in which thesize of the working population will decline in relation to the total population, the publicsector will face increasing competition for new entrants (Australian Public ServiceCommission, 2003a, p. 165). Finding out the work motivation and organisationalpreferences of university graduates and understanding how these attitudes are shaped


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are thus vital for maintaining a highly productive public sector workforce. Being anemployer of choice for the next generation of workers is obviously not an easy task.

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Recruiting_university Graduates_an Australian Case Study