Running Head: CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER

Choosing the Right Career among Business Administration Students of International Islamic University Malaysia (Employed Versus Self-employed)

Nor Musahhadah Binti Marhaban 0922318 Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences International Islamic University Malaysia

LE 4000 English for Academic Writing Section 33 Instructor: Madam Rabeah Muzammil

14th December 2012

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Abstract Nowadays self-employment is encouraged in our country. Malaysian government has drafted the policies to encourage self-employment through small businesses, petty trading, agriculture, and services. The purpose of this study is to examine the career choice among Business Administration Students of International Islamic University Malaysia between salaried employee and self-employed. Questionnaires were used in order to collect the data. This research was conducted through survey by distributing questionnaire to business administration students in International Islamic University Malaysia. There are 20 respondents consists of 8 brothers and 12 sisters. The study indicates the two type of employment which student can choose after graduation. Who influence them in make a decision and what factor contribute to their choice. Therefore the factors should be identified before their come out with their choice whether to be salaried worker or self-employed.

Key terms: Self-employed, salaried employee, career

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Choosing the Right Career among Business Administration Students of International Islamic University Malaysia (Employed Versus Self-employed)

The number of higher education in Malaysia is increasing and each year they produce thousands of graduates especially in business administration field. Compared to the supply of graduates, the demands in the work field is too limited and make the market become saturated. Nowadays, more and more graduates have decided to run their own business. They not only provide themselves with employment but also contribute to the economic growth of the country because they also need to hire other people in order to start their business. Malaysian government has drafted the policies to encourage self-employment through small businesses, petty trading, agriculture, and services (Ninth Malaysia Plan, 2006-2010). Business Administration students have a choice whether to be an employee and get a fixed monthly salary or use all of the knowledge that they had learned in the university to become the successful businessman. The previous research had been done regarding the entrepreneurial intention among Malaysians. This research is emphasised more on the self-employed and why Malaysians should choose to be entrepreneur. The other research, title Underlying Factors of Career Choice had been done by the students from INTI International University College. The research was conducted on students who majored in accounting, marketing, finance, and business administration and the scope of the study are too broad. The subject of this research will focus more on one major that is business administration students in IIUM.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER The purpose of this study is to investigate why Business Administration students in IIUM choose to work as employees or be the self-employed person. The main objectives were defined as follow: 1. To investigate what type of employment that BBA students of IIUM prefer after graduation. 2. To examine who influence them to choose the type of employment. 3. To find out the factors on choosing the employment whether to be a worker or selfemployed. The questions that need to be addressed in this mini research paper are whether BBA students of IIUM prefer to run their own businesses or being employed? If that so, the researcher would like to know who have influence them. Besides of that, what are the factors that influence them in their career choice. Anh T. Le (1999) defines self-employment as individuals who perform some work for profit or family gain, in cash or in kind. Included in this category are employers, own account workers and persons in production of goods or services and household consumption. Selfemployed differ from wage workers because employees usually work under a contract, while the self-employed bear risk for not receiving payment for work on a regular basis ( Steven Balkin 1989, p. 15). Department Of Statistics Malaysia (2007) shows that the total labour force in Quarter 1 2007 is 10,826,700 and 2, 714 in business administration field are unemployed. From my point of view, this problem is largely contributed to the increasing of business administration graduates involved in self-employment. Golzen & Kogan (1999) supported this statement by saying that self-employment is an alternative to unemployment.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Research by Golzen & Kogan (1999) has come up with some interesting conclusion said that men are likely to be involved in self-employment than women. Besides, older people and married people are self-employed. Other than that, more highly qualified women compared to men are self-employed and lastly, self-employed people work longer hours that other employed people. There are many factor that contribute to the type of employment choice among graduate students especially Business Administration field. According to Steven Balkin (1989), people are concern about the monetary and also nonmonetary returns before they select the type of employment. They tend to choose the type of employment that can give them the highest present value of expected after- tax income. He added that, self-employed and salaried worker should earn the same amount of return if their works are the same in terms of risk, skills, and occupation. On the other hand, if self-employed activities have higher risk, their return should be higher than salaried worker. Apart from that, personality characteristic also influence choice of employment. Peel & Inkson (2004) stated high personality characteristics were important in self-employment. The most common characteristics of self-employed person are high need for achievement, need for control, and tolerance of ambiguity. Elizabeth & Beverley (2007) add Peel & Inkson statement that motivation for self-employment as being driven by personal characteristics, such as the need for achievement or a high internal locus of control. Locus of control means that individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Individual attributes such as high personal drive and having high self-confidence are often used to describe successful owners of small businesses. To be successful businessman a person should be a risk taker because the outcome of the investment is unpredictable and they may face failure in

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER their business. Besides of that, to be self-employed a person should be productive and innovative people so that they can create competitive advantage in their business. Other than that, family background also contributes to the type of employment choice. Normally students will be influence by their parents occupation. Individuals are more likely to be self-employed if their fathers are managers or farmers, and less likely to choose this employment status if their fathers are unskilled (Anh T. Le, 1999). In conclusion, there are several factors that are contributed to the choice of employment. This research is to discover whether Business Administration students of IIUM like to be self-employed person or salaried worker and also what have influence them to choose that two types of employment after graduation.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Methodology Participant The respondents of this research were third and final year students of business administration in IIUM. Total numbers of 20 students were selected. All questionnaires distributed were returned. The selection on samples was based on convenience and these students are randomly picked at Kulliyah of Economics and Management Sciences. Of these numbers, 12 were female students while the rest 8 were male. Materials This research utilized quantitative research methodology. The material used to collect the data is through questionnaires. The data for this study were collected through selfadministered questionnaires distributed by researcher. Procedures Firstly, in conducting this research, the researcher has conducted a library research in order to get a general view on the topic concerned. It involved the method of searching and collecting any data and information that are available in the library. The purpose of conducting the library research is to find books, articles, journals and references that are related to this research. Then, after conducting the library research, the writer proceeds to prepare a set of questionnaire. This set of questionnaire is newly designed and developed by the researcher. The questionnaires were distributed at Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences. Respondents were approach with an initial question of whether they are business administrations, before the questionnaire was given to them.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Data Analysis After researcher collected all of the questionnaires, the data gathered were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and findings were reported in forms of bar charts and pie charts.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Results The results were supported by the graft. The graft related to the main objectives and research questions were attached here. The rest were attached in appendix section. According to the research on career choice among business students in IIUM, these are what the researcher found. Figure 1 described respondents gender. This data had analyzed through pie chart. The survey was distributed to 20 undergraduates BBA students. From the data, 60 percent of respondents were female student which mean 12 of them were female students. The other 40 percent were male students.

8 6 4 2
salaried employed self-employed

male

female

Figure 2: Type of employment BBA student choose after graduation

Figure 2 shows the respond on the type of employment they prefer after graduation. Researcher has divided the chart into female and male students. Out of 12 female students, 8 students prefer to be salaried employee and the other 4 prefer to be self-employed person.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Meanwhile, out of 8 male students, 6 of them choose self-employed as their preferred type of employment and the other 2 students respond that they would like to be salaried employee. Figure 3 shows the answer for the who have influence your to choose the type of employment? 35 percent of respondents answered parents who influence them. 25 percent said they decide it by themselves. 15 percent of respondents answered that they are influence by their senior. The other 15 percent stated that they influence by the other people like the lecturers and friends. 10 percent of the respondents said that they influence by their siblings. Thus, majority of the students said that parents were the most influential person in career choice among BBA students.

working hours 25% monetary return 50% family background 20%

nonmonetary return 5%

Figure 4 : Factors that contribute to the employment choice Figure 4 indicated the factors that contribute to the career choice among the respondents. The data had presented in pie chart form. 50 percent of the respondents said that monetary return was the career choice factor among BBA students. 25 percent answered working hour, 20 percent answered family background and the other 5 percent said

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER nonmonetary return. Hence majority of the student assumed that monetary return was the main factor that influences career choice. Figure 5 stated the importance of high personality characteristics in self-employed person. The data collected was presented in bar graft. 90 percents of the respondents agreed that in order to be successful businessman high personality characteristic was important. The other 10 percent disagree with it. So majority of the students agree with the statement.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Discussion The finding and data that researcher got from the survey that conducted among IIUM business administration students have answer all of the research questions for this mini research. Figure 2 answered the research question of the type of employment that students choose after graduation. The result clearly showed that the amount of respondents between salaried employed and self-employed was the same with 10 students each. On the other hand, if we compared the results between the genders, it clearly said that male students prefer selfemployment compared to female students. For female students, they preferred to be salaried employee. Thus these findings supported the study reported by Golzen & Kogan (1999) said that men are likely to be involved in self-employment than women. Next, the second research question is asking who influence the respondents to choose the type of employment. Figure 3 at the appendix section was answered this research question. Most of the respondents said that they were influence by their parents by 35 percent. 25 percent of them said that they decide it by themselves. They know what is good for them and they want to decide their own future without being influence by other. 15 percent of the students said they have been influenced by their seniors. The other 15 percent of respondents said their decision was influence by other people like lecturers and friends. They may have consulted with their lecturers what is the best for their future after graduation. 10 percent of them said their sibling have influence them in career decision. According to the findings in Figure 4, it answered the research question of what factors that contribute to the career choice among the respondents. Majority of respondents said the main factor that influenced career choice was monetary return by 50 percent. Monetary return in this context was salary that they will earn. 5 percents of them were more concerned on nonmonetary return. Steven Balkin (1989) recognized this finding by saying

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER that people are concern about the monetary and also nonmonetary returns before they select the type of employment. Besides of that, if they choose to be the salaried employee they will get fixed amount of money every month but for self-employment the amount that they will get may be less for what they has invest. This statement suited with the definition of both type of employments. Self-employed differ from wage workers because employees usually work under a contract, while the self-employed bear risk for not receiving payment for work on a regular basis ( Steven Balkin, 1989). People tend to choose return that can be maximized in the future and give most benefit to them. The other 25 percent of respondents choose working hours as the factor contribute to the career choice. Self-employed person need to work more hours compared to salaried employee. 20 percent of the students answered family background as the factor that contributed to the career choice among IIUM BBA students. This result support Anh T. Le (1999) statement that students will be influenced by their parents occupation. Figure 5 in appendix section illustrated that 90 percent of respondents agreed that high personal characteristics were important in determine the successful self-employed person. This result supported Peel & Inkson (2004) statement in literature review section. The other 10 percent disagreed with it. Respondents also provided the answer of personality characteristics that were needed in self-employment. From the result gathered the respondents said that a successful businessman should have high self-confidence, risk taker, productive, innovative, emotional stability and extraversion. Even though this mini research had met the objectives, there were still limitations in this research. The number of respondents is only 20 students and it was considered as small. To see whether this study was true or not, another research should be done in the large scale of respondents that involve all business administration students.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER The following conclusion can be drawn based on the findings of the study. Firstly, male students were likely to be the self-employed person and female students prefer to be salaried employee. Secondly, most of the students were influence by their parents in their career choice. Thirdly, monetary return was the main factor in order to choose the type of employment. Lastly, high personal characteristics were importance for self-employment. This mini research answer the main objectives that were the type of employment that IIUM BBA students choose, person who influence them in choosing the right career and factors that contribute to their career choice. This study has implications to students. The students should choose the right career whether to be salaried worker or self-employed. They should choose the type of employment that is suitable for them in order to success in their future. They still have time to decide their future because find more information about both type of employment.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER References Ant T. Le. (1999). Empirical studies of self employment, Journal of Economic Surveys Vol. 13, No. 4 Balkin S. (1989). Self-employment for Low-Income People. New York: Praeger Publisher. Elizabeth A. Walker, Beverley J. Webster, (2007),"Gender, age and self-employment: some things change,some stay the same", Women In Management Review, Vol. 22 Iss: 2 pp. 122 135. Golzen, G. & Kogan, H. (1999). Guide to Working for Yourself. London: Kogan Page Limited Simon Peel, Kerr Inkson, (2004),"Contracting and careers: choosing between self and organizational employment", Career Development International, Vol. 9 Iss: 6 pp. 542 - 558.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER Appendix

Figure of graphs

gender

male 40%

female 60%

Figure 1: Gender

10% parents 15% 35% senior ownself other

25%

15%

siblings

Figure 3 : People who influence them to choose the type of employment.

CHOOSING THE RIGH CAREER

100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%

90%

10% agree disagree

Figure 5 : high personality characteristics is important in self-employment