Attitudes Of Business Students Toward Careers In Banking

College Student Journal, March, 1999 by Cathy Pearson, Michael A. Pearson

Business students were queried to determine their attitudes toward careers in a specific industry and their perceptions of the importance of various industry characteristics. Results indicate the banking industry image needs Improvement. Male students and female students vary little in their rankings of banking with respect to the industry characteristics, but males and females vastly differ in their perceptions of the importance of a number of the characteristics. The methodology employed in this study can easily be replicated to obtain student views regarding other industries and other characteristics.

Is a banking career viewed favorably by today's business students? How important to students are various industry characteristics (e.g., opportunity for advancement, job stability)? These questions were explored in research conducted recently in managerial accounting classes at Kent State University. The findings should provide faculty and advisors with an understanding of student interests and needs, which in turn should result in more effective career counseling.

Ranking The Banking Industry

Business students enrolled in Introduction to Managerial Accounting (a sophomore-level course) were asked to assume they were about to graduate and were considering a career in one of four industries: banking; manufacturing; retail; and business services, which includes, as examples, an ad agency, computer systems design, and equipment rental. Students were then asked how they perceived the banking industry ranks in relationship to the other three industries with respect to several characteristics.

The resulting banking industry rankings provide useful information only if students' perceptions of the importance of the various industry characteristics are known. For example, students may believe banking ranks first with respect to a particular characteristic but may not attach much importance to that characteristic. Hence, the same group of students was later asked to indicate the importance of each industry characteristic. An importance rating was computed for each characteristic based on the students' average (mean) responses of (1) very important, (2) important, (3) somewhat important, and (4) not important. (Note that the smaller the importance rating, the more important is the characteristic to the students.)

The research phase-one survey (ranking the banking industry) involved 135 College of Business Administration students, while the research phase-two survey (rating the importance of industry characteristics) involved 137. Almost all of the students participated in both research phases. The students' banking industry rankings, along with characteristic importance ratings, are provided in Table 1.

Table 1 Students' Banking Industry Ratings

During research phase-one, students were told to assume they were about to graduate and were considering a career in one of the 4 industries: Banking, Manufacturing, Business Services (examples given: ad agency, computer systems design, equipment rental), and Retail. Students were then asked to rank the Banking industry in relationship to the other 3 industries with respect to several characteristics. The percentage of students ranking banking first, second, third, and fourth appears below for each characteristic. During research phase-two, students were asked to indicate the importance to them of each industry characteristic by responding (1) very important, (2) important, (3) somewhat important, or (4) not important. The average (mean) response (i.e., the importance rating) appears below for each characteristic. Note that the smaller the importance rating, the more important is the characteristic to the students.

                                                 Percent Ranking
                                                    Banking
Importance
Rating                                             1st   2nd

1.99         Starting salary                        10    47
1.21         Opportunity for advancement             9    38
1.39         Interesting work                       12    34
2.23         Prestigious work                       27    41
1.99         Creativity appreciated                  3    13
2.20         Flexible working hours                 12    24
1.30         Job stability                          29    50
1.37         Fair hiring & promotion practices      16    44
2.18         Diversity in work experiences           8    29
2.20         Team-oriented leadership style          6    33
2.80         Percentage of women executives         23    41
2.82         Day-care for children provided         14    30

                                                 Percent Ranking
                                                    Banking
Importance
Rating                                             3rd   4th

1.99         Starting salary                        36     4
1.21         Opportunity for advancement            45     7
1.39         Interesting work                       31    23
2.23         Prestigious work                       24     8
1.99         Creativity appreciated                 31    50
2.20         Flexible working hours                 34    27
1.30         Job stability                          17     4
1.37         Fair hiring & promotion practices      30     8
2.18         Diversity in work experiences          38    25
2.20         Team-oriented leadership style         42    19
2.80         Percentage of women executives         26    10
2.82         Day-care for children provided         30    27