Mansura Nusrat and Nafia Sultana
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether soft skill requirements found in employer job postings (advertisements) within different roles of business are similar to the soft…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether soft skill requirements found in employer job postings (advertisements) within different roles of business are similar to the soft skills practically needed in the workplace and the perception of faculties at schools of business in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-phased study was administered. Phase 1 involved reviewing the latest relevant literature and hundreds of job advertisements; and in phase 2, questionnaires were administered to elicit responses from executives and faculty members from different universities in Bangladesh. Judgment sampling and the snowball technique were used to develop the sample of 84 respondents with a response rate of 56 percent. In total, 15 soft skills were used to develop the instrument. Descriptive statistics and a Kruskal–Wallis test were performed to analyze the collected data, where factors that retained α at or below 0.05, a family-wise Bonferroni adjustment (Mann–Whitney U test) was applied.
Findings
All the mentioned soft skills are found to be desirable by the recruiters and faculties also agreed with them. However, there exist disparities on the perceived importance of four soft skills among faculties and recruiters, and a gap was found between the business curriculum and industry expectations from fresh-out business graduates.
Originality/value
This study could be a basis for future studies and would help business education institutions guide their students to master the skills, and to develop and prepare them for real life battle in the job market. Moreover, the study indicates the gap between executives’ expectations from the graduates and the institutional teaching provided by higher education institutions (for business majors), which would help practitioners reform their business curriculum to better ensure employability for their business graduates. Moreover, the study opens an avenue for further research in this field for implementing training programs for attaining the most desired soft skills among higher education institutions.
Details
Keywords
Nafia Sultana, Sanjida Amin and Azharul Islam
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to examine the influence of customers' green considerations in the form of perceived green knowledge and environmental concern…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to examine the influence of customers' green considerations in the form of perceived green knowledge and environmental concern on their intention to stay at green hotels; and secondly, to explain the mediating role of green trust among the considered variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates green hotel visit perceptions of 213 customers of hotel industry of Dhaka, Bangladesh using Partial Least Square method. Data was collected using a standard structured questionnaire.
Findings
The findings display a significant positive influence of perceived green knowledge and green trust on customers' green hotel visit intention. Moreover, green trust mediates the relationship of green visit intentions with customers' green knowledge and environmental concern.
Practical implications
The study demonstrates that environmental knowledge and green trust make customers choose green hotels. The findings of the current study may assist the hotel business administrators to understand the underlying factors for choosing green hotels and adopting green practices in their business operations accordingly.
Originality/value
To the best knowledge of the researchers, the study is first to measure the mediating impact of green trust on the influential factors of customers' green hotel visit intention in Bangladesh. The result reveals how considered variables interact with each other to influence green hotel choice decisions.