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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of graduate recruitment in the professional socialisation and subjectification of Big Four professionals.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of graduate recruitment in the professional socialisation and subjectification of Big Four professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on documentary data and interviews conducted at one British university. It adopts an interpretive perspective and is informed by Foucault’s work on technologies of power and technologies of the self.
Findings
The paper argues that the graduate recruitment practices of Big Four firms represent a series of examinations which produce the category of ideal recruits. It moreover suggests that this category serves as the ultimate objective of an ethical process whereby aspiring accountants consciously and deliberately seek to transform themselves into the type of subjects they aspire to be – ideal recruits.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the paper are primarily based on interviews conducted at one university. Future research could explore if students at other universities experience graduate recruitment in similar or different ways.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the constitutive role of graduate recruitment practices and shows that they can construct ideal recruits as much as they select them. It also shows that graduate recruitment is an important anticipatory socialisation mechanism that can compel aspiring accountants to learn how to look, sound and behave like Big Four professionals long before they join such organisations. Finally, the paper discusses its implications for the future of the profession, social mobility and the use of Foucault’s work on technologies of power and the self in studying subjectivity at elite professional service firms.
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This paper seeks to emphasise the need to re-evaluate university teacher recruitment processes. The implementation of lean processes helps to improve organisational practices; in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to emphasise the need to re-evaluate university teacher recruitment processes. The implementation of lean processes helps to improve organisational practices; in the case of university recruitment, however, organisational processes have remained unchanged for decades. Although there is a traditional justification for having academic recruitment as a rigorous and complex process (as a practiced method by which to identify the most suitable applicants), the increase of competition across the sector, and the internet revolution, has rendered these older methods partially ineffective. The author argues that recruitment systems and practices need reviewing to overhaul inefficacious elements.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a quasi-literature discourse combined with the author’s experience in human resources management teaching and recruitment expertise at the Higher Education level.
Findings
Lean approach if successfully introduced to academic recruitment might reduce the effect of discouraged job seekers paradox and workload on human resources (HR) officers.
Research limitations/implications
The volume of studies reviewed is limited, and therefore, more empirical findings are required in the area of lean recruitment.
Practical implications
HR departments of universities might consider practices that will improve the recruitment process and promote labour force participation.
Originality/value
According to the author’s knowledge, lean concept has been applied to HR (recruitment) for the first time in this study.
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Richard D. Johnson, Dianna L. Stone and Kimberly M. Lukaszewski
The hospitality and tourism industry faces a number of workforce challenges, especially the high turnover rates and associated replacement costs associated with continually…
Abstract
Purpose
The hospitality and tourism industry faces a number of workforce challenges, especially the high turnover rates and associated replacement costs associated with continually identifying and hiring new employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how hospitality and tourism organizations can use electronic human resource management (eHRM) and artificial intelligence (AI) to help recruit and select qualified employees, increase individual retention rates and decrease the time needed to replace employees. Specifically, it discusses how e-recruiting and e-selection and AI tools can help hospitality and tourism organizations improve recruiting and selection outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Research on eHRM, AI, employee recruitment and employee selection are applied to the hospitality and tourism industry and insights for how eHRM and AI can be applied to the industry are discussed.
Findings
eHRM and AI have the potential to transform how the hospitality and tourism industry recruit and select employees. However, care must be taken to ensure that the insights gained and the decisions made are well received by employees and lead to better employee and organizational outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
This paper represents the first research that integrates research from eHRM and AI and applies it to the hospitality and tourism industry.
Originality/value
This paper represents the first research that integrates research from eHRM and AI and applies it to the hospitality and tourism industry.
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Keywords
Abstract
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Alan Boyd, Shilpa Ross, Ruth Robertson, Kieran Walshe and Rachael Smithson
The purpose of this paper is to understand how inspection team members work together to conduct surveys of hospitals, the challenges teams may face and how these might be…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how inspection team members work together to conduct surveys of hospitals, the challenges teams may face and how these might be addressed.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered through an evaluation of a new regulatory model for acute hospitals in England, implemented by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during 2013-2014. The authors interviewed key stakeholders, observed inspections and surveyed and interviewed inspection team members and hospital staff. Common characteristics of temporary teams provided an analytical framework.
Findings
The temporary nature of the inspection teams hindered the conduct of some inspection activities, despite the presence of organisational citizenship behaviours. In a minority of sub-teams, there were tensions between CQC employed inspectors, healthcare professionals, lay people and CQC data analysts. Membership changes were infrequent and did not appear to inhibit team functioning, with members displaying high commitment. Although there were leadership authority ambiguities, these were not problematic. Existing processes of recruitment and selection, training and preparation and to some extent leadership, did not particularly lend themselves to addressing the challenges arising from the temporary nature of the teams.
Research limitations/implications
Conducting the research during the piloting of the new regulatory approach may have accentuated some challenges. There is scope for further research on inspection team leadership.
Practical implications
Issues may arise if inspection and accreditation agencies deploy temporary, heterogeneous survey teams.
Originality/value
This research is the first to illuminate the functioning of inspection survey teams by applying a temporary teams perspective.
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Andrew Thomas, Casey Piquette and David McMaster
Whilst English remains the language of global commerce, the role and outcomes of English language provision in English-medium higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf…
Abstract
Whilst English remains the language of global commerce, the role and outcomes of English language provision in English-medium higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf countries remains central to any discussion on graduate profile and the employability of graduates in the global marketplace. This paper describes the findings of research into English workplace communication skills amongst a sample of Bahrain employers and students at Bahrain Polytechnic. Using a mixed methods approach, data was gathered through telephone interviews, student workplace simulations and employer focus groups. Findings show that generic employability skills, channelled through English as a second or additional language, are highly valued by Bahrain’s employers. In particular, students need to market themselves as confident, knowledgeable individuals during the recruitment process and after recruitment, continuing to operate successfully in the sociolinguistic culture of their company. Consequently, it is concluded that English language training in higher education programmes needs to move from purely linguistic and degree-related content areas to a broader remit of English for communication purposes that covers both specialised discourse fields and broader generic employability skills and competencies.