A Comparative Study on Students Perception Regarding Employability and Employers Expectation from MBA Graduates Before and After Covid-19 Pandemic
Author(s)
Tanjila Syed Susma , Rafia Akhtar , Md. Kutub Uddin ,
Download Full PDF Pages: 68-77 | Views: 369 | Downloads: 92 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6408434
Abstract
In the challenging and changing environment of business in 21st century, expectations from MBA graduate have increased exponentially especially after the beginning of pandemic, Covid-19. Many enterprises have significantly changed their nature of business and several new categories are introduced within the last couple of years some of which are putting new challenges to business graduates. Earlier, MBA graduates were the supposed future leaders but these positions have rapidly shifted and employer are looking for fresh MBA graduates who are problem solver and have advance knowledge in technology, rather than people who are good in making marketing strategy. Considering the maintained propositions, this paper focused on two major areas of recruitment: the perception of the employees and the expectation of the employers from business school graduates in Bangladesh. To propose a conclusive statement, data has been collected in two phases: before February, 2020 (pre-pandemic) and after January, 2022 (post-pandemic) to get a run-through of the impact of pandemic on the employment of MBA graduates. 108 graduates and 56 department heads have participated in the pre-pandemic study and the data is collected using questionnaire survey whereas in the later study 54 new graduates and 34 department heads have participated. Although, the reduction in the number of participants in the later study minimizes the nature of comparability, the overall finding has not been influenced due the changes in the number of participants. Findings of the study suggest that advance level computer literary, capacity to work under pressure, and interpersonal skills are the keys for employability especially after the pandemic and academia needs to revise the existing curriculum while maintaining a link between market demand and employers’ expectation.
Keywords
MBA, perception, employability, skill
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