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This chapter presents findings from a recently conducted process for obtaining Accounting Advisory Board (AAB) input related to Master of Accountancy curriculum of one university. Board members represent both large and small public accounting firms as well as corporate offices of Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. AAB input includes perceptions of the relative importance of over 160 candidate topics for the courses making up the program’s infrastructure, as well as written comments noting other potential topics and pedagogical approaches to consider. Comparisons of topic rankings reveal a strong level of consistency among Board member types for the traditional accounting courses with structured content, as opposed to those courses involving more systems-related topics or having a wider range of specialized topics. Furthermore, the authors compare Board perceptions regarding topic necessity to those of faculty and note faculty reactions. Specifically, the authors find that faculty ranking consistency with the Board is weak, illustrating the importance of seeking curricular Board input on an ongoing basis. To “close the loop,” faculty incorporated many curriculum changes, involving both the topics to be covered and the overall approach to the course.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant difference between employers and students on their perceptions of the importance of skills and traits critical for securing entry‐level employment in operations management. Another major concern in this study is whether employers value general skills more than technical abilities. To address our research questions, a two‐page questionnaire was developed. We found significant differences in mean scores between employers and students in their perceptions of the importance of general skills, technical skills, and personality characteristics. In addition, our findings indicate that employers value general skills significantly higher than technical skills. The results of this study provide a foundation for operations management programs in curricula reengineering and ultimately provide the business community with more qualified applicants.

This study examined the factors impeding the implementation of micro-credentials and accepting it as a credible source of earning professional qualifications and certifications necessary for pursuing higher education or other career goals.

The factors were identified by reflecting on the recent literature and Internet resources coupled with in-depth brainstorming with experts in the field of micro-credentials including educators, learners and employers. Two ranking methods, namely Preference Ranking for Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) and multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA), are used together to rank the major challenges.

The results of this study present that lack of clear definitions, ambiguous course descriptions, lack of accreditation and quality assurance, unclear remuneration policies, lack of coordination between learning hours and learning outcomes, the inadequate volume of learning, and lack of acceptance by individuals and organizations are the top-ranked and the most significant barriers in the implementation of micro-credentials.

The findings can be used by educational institutions, organizations and policymakers to better understand the issues and develop strategies to address them, making micro-credentials a more recognized form of education and qualifications.

The novelty of this study is to identify the primary factors influencing the implementation of micro-credentials from the educators', students' and employers' perspectives and to prioritize those using ranking methods such as PROMETHEE and MOORA.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors relating to retention of employers on an undergraduate work placement programme in a third level institution.

An action research methodology involving problem diagnosis, intervention planning, action and evaluation is employed. The diagnosis involved a survey of 130 employers that had taken students on placement during the first two years of the placement programme. The action research also involved workshops with the work placement team and the making of an intervention with respect to enhancing the placement process through the introduction of a Priority Partner initiative for 26 of the employers.

The survey findings reveal differences in the ranking of importance of college selection criteria by employers, as well the impact of the placement manager's characteristics on the placement process. The intervention findings show that the employer retention percentage increased for the Priority Partners but remained the same for the other employers.

The study reports qualitative findings in the context of a placement programme in one institution which limits external validity.

Employer retention would seem to be improved with the development of a customer relations management orientation with employers. The role of the placement manager is pivotal to enhancing the retention of employers as is the quality and professionalism of the work placement service.

New empirical data extends the very limited understanding of company retention on work placement programmes.

In Switzerland, the first and only Swiss quality label for systematic workplace health management (WHM) competes with a variety of national and international workplace-related labels for the attention of employers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the label “Friendly Work Space” (FWS) with ten other national and international workplace-related labels on the “Swiss label market” and to identify key success elements for the development and dissemination of WHM labels.

A literature review and qualitative analysis of publicly available documents were conducted. Information was obtained from providers or by the authors’ own research. A description of workplace-related labels is presented based on defined criteria and a typology classifying workplace-related labels available in Switzerland.

Workplace-related labels can be differentiated in terms of: deliberate registration vs non-requested selection, policy vs marketing approach and assessment vs survey-based analysis. In terms of sustainable dissemination, FWS is the most successful registration-based label in Switzerland regarding the number of employees and employers benefitting from the label. Therefore, it constitutes a best practice approach for developing and disseminating a WHM label.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically analyse and compare a WHM with other workplace-related labels on a national market (supply and demand, quality, dissemination). The authors suggest a specific typology to describe the market. Recommendations are given to build up and successfully disseminate a WHM label on a national scale.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse employer involvement in extra statutory childcare and leave arrangements. Special attention is given to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The (multi‐level) multinomial regression analyses included company‐level data on human‐resource practices of 2,865 firms nested in 19 countries, representing all European welfare state regimes.

The extended business case appeared fruitful in order to explain variations in employer involvement. Particularly, state support was found to be negatively related to employer involvement. In the liberal regime, employer involvement was high, but variations across organizations were significant. In CEE‐countries, employer involvement was lowest, and did not vary by organizational business‐case factors.

The paper used data from a cross‐sectional survey. To capture the long‐term trends, dynamics and nuances in employer involvement within and across various institutional contexts, a longitudinal in depth study is needed.

While state support in many CEE countries is declining, the analyses showed that employers will not automatically step in by providing additional work‐family arrangements. Social partners could use institutional pressure to stimulate a balance between state support and employer involvement.

The extended business‐case perspective contributes to the theory on the institutional embeddedness of decision making of employers. Moreover, it adds to the knowledge on employer involvement in institutional contexts which have hardly been studied before.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a hierarchical model to rank the challenges faced by the private Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs) in the provision of quality education and subsequently their corresponding critical success factors (CSFs) to address those challenges.

A sequential mix method was adopted in this study. Semi-structured interviews with 29 participants were initially conducted to identify the challenges and CSFs. This was followed by a questionnaire survey involving 158 respondents to prioritise the identified findings. Thematic analysis was conducted in the qualitative stage, uncovering the challenges and their corresponding CSFs. Data for both stages were accumulated from internal and external stakeholders of Malaysian private HEIs. Finally, the four stages of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were applied to rank the challenges and CSFs.

The qualitative stage identified eight challenges, i.e. “academics”, “facilities”, “students”, “programmes and curriculum”, “competition”, “accreditation”, “finance” and “research” together with their corresponding CSFs. The AHP enables the ranking of these challenges. “Finance” has been found to be the most crucial challenge and “high competency in managing the institution’s finance” as the most important CSF to address this challenge.

As the study restricted its focus on Malaysian private HEIs, the results may not be generalised for public HEIs and foreign private HEIs operating in Malaysia.

The hierarchical model developed in this study is deemed important for implementation to resolve the prioritised challenges. It spells out the specific areas in which the resources of Malaysian private HEIs need to be prudently disbursed and properly managed.

The purpose of this paper is to study and prioritize the problems impacted on construction work together migrant laborers, by using the Delphi technique. The case study is construction work in Bangkok and metropolitan zones, Thailand.

The framework of the perceived issues caused by working with migrant construction labors especially migrant construction laborers from neighboring countries were identified from literature reviews. The issue list was sent to 162 experts seeking for their opinions. Subsequently, a questionnaire was created from 58 items of suitable issue lists according to expert's opinions. The questionnaires were then submitted to 147 respondents from construction contractor companies. Their responses were calculated and prioritized by means of the Delphi technique

The polling data showed its constancy on the second round of survey. There were 34 out of 58 items passed consensus criteria. The issue “Foreman obtained incompetent or inadequate trained migrant labors when relocate them from/to other site or job” ranked 1st in priority ranking with the average score of 4.56. Subproblems were appropriately prioritized according to their mean scores.

The results of this research were expected to facilitate construction operators in making appropriate decisions and primary solution concerning main issue factors in working with migrant labors, in order to help even more increasing competition efficiency in Thai construction industries.

The research provides a list of main issue occurred in the case study. These outcomes are also expected to provide important information for other case studies on the issue working with migrant construction labor.

Mature graduates′ reasons for choosing degree courses and subsequent careers are examined, focusing on their destinations after graduation. The study is based on replies from 1,345 older graduates who completed full‐time degree courses in 1987 and 1989. The findings show that the prime motivator for choosing courses was interest in academic subjects, while the most important consideration in choosing a career was job satisfaction. Mature graduates are more inclined than younger colleagues to pursue postgraduate study and public sector employment. The majority of the respondents were satisfied with career progress to date and optimistic about future prospects. They indicated that they felt religious and voluntary organisations, education authorities and local government were more favourably disposed towards older candidates, while they gave public utilities, the media, financial and commercial organisations a low rating. Their recommendations included the abolition of age limits, specific mention of mature graduates in brochures, application forms amended to suit their needs and better selection interview training for interviewers.

This study aims to provide an extensive review of the employer brand literature by capturing research trends and proposing a research agenda.

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to study 232 peer-reviewed articles indexed on Scopus from 2004 to 2021. Content analysis is added where appropriate to further explore empirical studies and influential papers.

Based on bibliometric analysis, this study provides data about the volume, growth trajectory, geographic distribution, main authors, three main themes and future research avenues for each of these themes. Content analysis sheds light on research subjects, types of data, methods and most influential papers.

This paper is among the first to conduct a bibliometric analysis along with content analysis focusing on employer brand. An extensive research agenda derived from the studied literature is also provided for interested scholars.