Journal of East European Management Studie (JEEMS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 30 Issue 1 (2025). Previous articles were published by another publisher under the CC-BY licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement.
Job Attribute Preferences of Incoming University Students and Newly-Hired Employees in the Context of the Romanian Labour Market
, Christoph Mengelkamp 2, Gabriela Brendea 1, Daniel Metz 11 Department of Economics and Business Administration in German, Babeș-Bolyai University
2 Human – Computer – Media Institute of the University of Wuerzburg, Germany
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate which job and organisational attributes incoming first-year students prefer in a job, and whether their preferences differ from those of newly-hired employees. Factor analysis of the job attributes reveal four underlying factors: job itself, firm attributes, compensation and rewards, and supportive work environment. Results show that students’ perceptions differ from those of employees only with regard to the importance of firm’s attributes. This study also examines whether preferences for job attributes differ when students’ growth need strength, academic achievement, and gender are taken into account. Results indicate that students with high growth needs place greater importance on job attributes centred on job itself, but lower importance on job attributes concerning supportive work environment. Furthermore, female students rate job attributes pertaining to supportive work environment significantly higher than male students.