Collecting enough relevant data is essential for this type of research. Firstly, it is important to gather an adequate amount of basic descriptive information from both, companies and recent business graduates. For this purpose, two questionnaires were created. Please, see Appendix 8 and 9. Generally, surveys may be described as a gathering of primary data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences and behavior (Armstrong & Kotler, 2007). In addition, survey research is the most widely used method for primary data collection and it is very efficient in collecting descriptive information.
The above mentioned questionnaires contain a very similar set of questions.
Consequently, it should be possible to compare answers to particular questions and find out possible differences between graduates’ and companies’ opinions and between recruitment practices in the Czech Republic and Taiwan. Furthermore, the questions correspond to the purposes and objectives illustrated in chapter one and the issues related to the recruitment of recent business graduates that were described in the literature review. Consequently, the questionnaires were divided into the following 6 sections:
Questionnaire for Companies:
- General Information: questions regarding the background of companies (area of business, number of employees, international / local company)
- Recruitment Sources: questions referring to popular sources used for recruitment of recent business graduates and to what extent they are being used for this purpose
- Recruitment Practices and Related Issues: questions about the job advertisements, timing of recruitment campaigns, graduates’ experiences, skills, knowledge and characteristics
-55-
- Wants, Values, Personnel Policies and Other Factors Influencing Recruitment:
questions that should reveal by what attributes and characteristics companies attract recent business graduates
- Location: results of this category should examine the level of graduates’ mobility according to the opinions of HR professionals; and also what attributes of the location and to what extent companies take into consideration in relation to their employees and possible job candidates
- Educational System: category’s outcomes evaluate satisfaction of companies with national educational systems; besides that, it examines what skills of graduates are developed during the university studies and if it is possible to study and work at the same time
Questionnaire for Graduates:
- Personnel Information: questions regarding the background of graduates (age, gender, field of study)
- Recruitment Sources: questions referring to what sources and to what extent graduates would use if they were looking for a job
- Recruitment Practices and Related Issues: the results of this category should show what information graduates want to find in job advertisements; when they start looking for a job; whether they have clear ideas about their future occupation and which companies, local or international, they prefer and why
- Wants, Values, Personnel Policies and Other Factors Influencing Recruitment:
questions that should illustrate what characteristics and attributes (salary, benefits, challenging job, open environment, stimulating colleagues etc. ) of the job are important for recent business graduates
- Location: results of this category should examine the importance of location and related factors (living conditions, commuting time, sport and cultural facilities, etc.) in graduates’
decision-making about their future occupation
-56-
- Educational System: category’s outcomes evaluate satisfaction of graduates with Czech / Taiwanese universities; graduates may also express their opinions on the feasibility of studying and working at the same time
These categories and questions reflect the themes and topics related to the recruitment practices, relevance of location and different cultures and educational systems of Taiwan and the Czech Republic previously described in the literature review. Questions addressing values and characteristics of recent business graduates, and factors related to the location refer to the research of Florida (2002) and his creative class theory. Furthermore, sections of the questionnaire focusing on recruitment sources and practices, and issues related to the compensation, benefits and other HR related topics are based on the theories described in the works of Jackson and Schuler (2003), Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright (2004), and DeCenzo and Robbins (2005) that were discussed in detail in chapter two. In addition, the research of Dekoj, Kratkova and Smidova (2006), members of the Czech Center for Higher Education Studies, who conducted a study that focuses on skills and competencies of Czech graduates, and similar research done by the Cabinet's National Youth Commission and professors from National Chiao Tung University, National Sun Yat-sen University, and National Central University described in the article of China Post (2006a) provided the necessary inputs for the section and questions regarding the educational system, and skills and competencies that universities develop in recent business graduates.
Sampling Unit
The survey participants may be divided into 2 groups. The sampling unit of the first group was comprised of students who were going to graduate within several months or who had graduated recently (Æ recent business graduates). Therefore, it is possible to predict what they were thinking or really facing in regards to the situation of looking for a job.
Consequently, they could provide the right feedback on the questions. HR professionals of real companies formed the latter group. Their answers should have provided relevant information about current recruitment practices of companies operating in Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
Sampling Size
This research is very descriptive and thus, it was essential to collect as much data as possible in order to be able to properly explain the recruitment practices of recent business graduates
-57-
and related issues in both countries. Below, please find the amounts of collected answers for each group:
- Taiwanese companies: 108 answers - Czech companies: 96 answers - Taiwanese graduates: 93 answers - Czech graduates: 91 answers
Language
Because this research studies recruitment practices of recent business graduates in two countries that speak completely different languages, both versions of the questionnaire were translated to Chinese and Czech. The translations should have made filling in the survey easier for participants. Nevertheless, in Appendices 8 and 9 it is possible to find the questionnaires in English.
Methods of Data Collection
Questionnaires were published online on the website www.graduates.cz. This name was chosen on purpose. The name of the website should have been in line with the topic of the research. Consequently, it should have been more trustworthy and should have attracted more people to participate in the survey. Also invitations to the survey were sent from an e-mail address ending with ‘graduates.cz’. The reason was the same – to illustrate more credibility.
The questionnaires were created in an open-source tool named LimeSurvey. This free online program provides a comprehensive set of tools for the creation of surveys. For example, LimeSurvey offers the following functions (LimeSurvey, 2008):
- Unlimited number of surveys at the same time
- Unlimited number of questions in a survey (only limited by the database) - Unlimited number of participants to a survey
- Multi-Lingual Surveys - Assessment surveys
-58-
- Option for participants to buffer answers to continue the survey at a later time
- Enhanced import and export functions to text, CSV, PDF, SPSS, queXML and MS Excel format
- Basic statistical and graphical analysis with export facility
All these functions were essential for data collection and for following data evaluation and data analysis.
Period of Data Collection
The questionnaires were active from April 2008 to July 2008. This is the period when most of the graduates in the Czech Republic and Taiwan finish their studies and start looking for a job.
Subsequently, in the period of data collection participants were probably actively or at least passively present on the labor market. Also, companies are frequently looking for future graduates in these months. They run their recruitment campaigns focused on recent business graduates, they participate in job fairs and some of them even start their management trainee programs.
Demographics
During the above mentioned period of time, 184 recent or future graduates filled in the questionnaire. 93 of them were from Taiwan and 91 from Czech Republic. Most of the Taiwanese participants of the survey studied majors related to business administration.
Nevertheless, some of them attended programs with a focus on human resources, public relations, health care management, finance and international business. Furthermore, 35.5% of them were males and almost 39% of them studied or worked abroad and thus, they have already had at least some international and cross-cultural experience. Czech graduates mostly completed very similar study programs. The percentage of males sharing their knowledge and experiences in the survey was higher (44%), but less of the Czech participants had some experiences from abroad - only 24%.
The questionnaire designed for companies was completed by 108 Taiwanese and 96 Czech organizations. Table 9 shows some basic descriptive characteristics of the firms that provided information about their recruitment practices. A lot of Taiwanese companies were involved to a certain extent in the electronics industry (e.g. semiconductor / LCD / circuit board manufacturing). It is interesting to see that almost 80% of Taiwanese companies
-59-
participating in the survey were local – meaning the owners of the companies come from Taiwan; so they can operate internationally. On the contrary, companies doing business in the Czech Republic and sharing their experiences from the recruitment of recent business graduates had mostly origins and owners in foreign countries.
Table 9: Characteristics of Companies Participating in the Survey Local / International
Taiwan Czech Republic
Local 84 77.78% 16 16.67%
International 24 22.22% 80 83.33%
Total 108 100.00% 96 100.00%
Service / Manufacturing
Taiwan Czech Republic
Services 43 39.81% 44 45.83%
Manufacturing 60 55.56% 44 45.83%
Others 5 4.63% 8 8.33%
Total 108 100.00% 96 100.00%
Number of Employees
Taiwan Czech Republic
Less than 50 17 15.74% 16 16.67%
50 to 100 35 32.41% 24 25.00%
101 – 1000 31 28.70% 40 41.67%
1001 – 5000 18 16.67% 10 10.42%
more than 5000 7 6.48% 6 6.25%
Total 108 100.00% 96 20.83%