Browsing by Subject "Recruitment"
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Item Applicant Attitudes across the Recruitment Process: Time is of the Essence(2012-07-16) Swider, BrianWhile extant research on recruiting has highlighted a number of applicant attitudes that predict future attitudes and decisions, questions regarding how attitudes develop over time and differentially predict applicant job choice have received scant attention. To address this currently impoverished research area, this study utilizes three prominent recruitment frameworks (signaling theory, fit, and image) to theoretically and empirically examine how applicant attitudes towards possible future employers develop over the course of the recruitment process. Also, this study explores the possible divergent patterns of development of these applicant attitudes by examining taking a job offer and passing on a job offer as two separate decision-making processes. Finally, this study investigates the pattern of relationships between proximal predictors of job choice (organizational attraction and acceptance intentions) and applicant decisions to take or pass on a job offer. Participants in this study were 178 undergraduates seeking internships during a five-month recruitment period. Applicant attitudes about organizational image, fit, attraction, acceptance intentions as well as recruiter trustworthiness and timeliness of a consistent set of firms were assessed eight times over the five-month period. Results of this study indicate that recruiting, from an applicant perspective, is a dynamic decision-making process where applicants gather and assimilate information in distinct patterns prior to making job choice decisions. Specifically, across six applicant attitudes that have previously been shown to predict recruiting outcomes such as job choice, applicant attitudes toward the organization they take an offer from increase, and at a faster rate, over time relative to organizations whose offers they pass. These attitudes significantly differ between offers that are ultimately taken and passed on as early as the start of the recruitment process (i.e. image) or as late as slightly more than three weeks (i.e. fit) into a five-month recruitment process.Item Effects of an innovative recruitment workshop on selected Texas urban high school students' knowledge and perceptions of agriculture(2009-05-15) Fraze, Lacee BrianneThe Big City, Big Country Road Show (BC2BC) is a 2.5-year project designed to recruit non-traditional populations, urban and minorities, into post-secondary agricultural science degree programs. Through experiential learning, BC2BC introduces students to various agricultural communications skill sets in an effort to broaden students? views of opportunities in agriculture. This study attempted to measure Texas urban high school students? perceptions of agriculture as a subject, a college major, and a career, before and after participation in the BC2BC program in summer of 2007. The study also looked at students? perceptions of careers attainable with an agricultural degree and students? general agricultural knowledge levels, self-reported and tested. Pre?and post?test mean comparisons revealed positive increases in student perceptions of agriculture and an increase in self-reported agricultural knowledge levels after workshop participation. The results of this study have implications for year two BC2BC workshops and may serve as a potential model for recruitment programs of underrepresented populations into colleges of agriculture.Item Investigation into Possible Factors Affecting the Recruitment of Rocky Mountain Elk on the Valles Caldera National Preserve(2013-05) Bernal, Lance; Gipson, Philip S.; Wallace, Mark C.; Parmenter, Robert R.; Liley, StewartThe Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) is a relatively new public land holding located in the Jemez Mountains in north-central New Mexico. For the past decade, low calf:cow ratios of elk (Cervus elaphus) have been recorded on the VCNP prompting concern by both the Valles Caldera Trust, the managing body for the VCNP, and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) managers who are responsible for ensuring a sustainable elk population. These studies were done to look at possible factors that may be contributing to the low recruitment of elk on the VCNP as well as simulate how the population may respond to different management actions. A serological survey was conducted on hunter-harvested elk from the VCNP during the 2010 and 2011 fall hunting seasons. We tested 119 (2010, n =74; 2011, n = 45) for brucellosis, bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bluetongue (BT), epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), parainfluenza-3 (PI-3) and 5 serovars of Leptospirosis. Exposure rates were highest for PI-3 (34.5%) and IBR (10.1%) for total samples. Exposure for BVDV was found in 2.5% of the total samples. Exposure to EHD and BT was in 1.7% and 0.8% of the total samples. Exposure to the Leptospirosis serovars hardjo (n=2) and canicola (n=1) were found in the samples tested. All samples tested negative for brucellosis. The low to medium positive exposure to all the diseases except brucellosis indicate these diseases are present within the VCNP elk population but are not likely causing the low recruitment rates. A secondary study was done to address the hypothesis that the observed low calf:cow ratios on the VCNP may be the result of low calf survival rates. To determine cause-specific mortality and estimate survival, we radio marked elk calves (n =140) born within the VCNP from 2009-2011. Two approaches were done to estimate 14 day survival, overall summer survival (t = 13 weeks), and annual survival. First, biological covariates were used to model survival for 14 day post capture and weekly summer survival for all calves. This was done in order to compare survival estimates to other studies experiencing low calf:cow ratios in the western United States. Then, the data were re-analyzed by censoring calves (n = 9) which died the day after tagging. This provided a more conservative survival estimate reduced possible biases due to handling calves and its potential effect on survival. Fourteen day survival was 0.57 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI: 0.48-0.66) when using uncensored data; survival was 0.64 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI 0.54-0.72) using censored data. Summer survival was estimated to be 0.37 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI 0.28-0.47) using uncensored data; summer survival was estimated 0.43 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI: 0.33-0.53) using censored data. Fall/winter survival (mid-August-April) ranged from 0.76-0.95 based on study year. Annual survival ranged from 0.32-0.55 with a mean of 0.42 using uncensored data; annual survival ranged from 0.32-0.59 with a mean of 0.46 using censored data. Predation accounted for 94.8% of the known deaths. Black bears (Ursus americanus) were the highest source of predation (47.3%, n = 26) and overall mortality (40.6%). Coyotes (Canis latrans) were the second highest source of predation (41.8%, n = 23) and overall mortality (35.9%). The results using both uncensored and censored data are comparable to other studies which were experiencing low calf:cow ratios. Therefore predation of elk calves is likely additive and causing suppressed recruitment rates in the elk population on the VCNP. However, it is highly recommended to estimate the large predator population prior to any large predator management to ensure the population of large predators is not reduced to a level from which they cannot recover. For the third part of this study the overall objective was to incorporate data that were available into the population simulation program POP-II, to model current population trends based the current data and then run simulated population trends based on possible management decisions. Data that were used included: summer survey data which used distance sampling to estimate population size and herd ratios; fall harvest numbers for adult male and adult female elk; and estimated summer survival rates of elk calves born on the VCNP. Models were developed based on current preseason mortality of neonatal elk with a reduction in harvest of adult males and females by 10%, both separately and collectively. Current harvest numbers were maintained while preseason mortality of neonates was reduced by 25% and 50%. Comparisons of the model output were then made for both the reduction of preseason mortality along with a reduction in harvests. Models showed that decreasing preseason mortality while maintaining current harvest rates would either stabilize or begin a positive increase in the population trend. The models also showed that making a 10% sex-specific (males only or females only) harvest reduction while maintaining current preseason mortality would maintain the current population trend. Making a 10% harvest reduction of either sexes or both sexes along with a reduction in preseason mortality should lead to positive population trends. The results of this study might be used to help guide adaptive management decisions regarding population trends of the elk herd in the Valles Caldera National Preserve.Item The lived experience of choosing nursing as a profession(2014-12) Polinard, Elizabeth Lee; Volker, Deborah L.The aim of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experience of choosing professional nursing as a career and to explore the impact that public perception of nursing had on this choice for purposes of informing effective recruitment and retention strategies. Semi-structured interviews of 10 nurses who had been practicing between 11 months and two years were conducted. Five themes emerged from the data: Up Close and Personal/Exposure and Connection, The Image of Nursing, The Conflict Inherent in Nursing, Recruitment and Retention and the Work Environment. From these themes a description of the lived experience of choosing a career in nursing was formed. For these participants, the choice of nursing as a career bespoke a passion that had been affected—but not yet eclipsed—by conflict, compromised fulfillment, and the internalization of nursing and gendered stereotypes directly influenced by the image of nursing. Recommendations involved proposals for the support and preservation of the passion for the profession newer nurses demonstrate as well as health policy initiatives for programs, including a new ad campaign for nursing, that would expose the public to the value of a career in nursing and educate them about the significance and complexities of nursing practice.Item School psychology recruitment : utilizing experiential learning to increase interest among college students(2012-08) Highley, Kristen Marie; Cawthon, Stephanie W; Patall, ErikaThe purpose of this study is to explore possible interventions aimed at educating college students about the roles, services, settings, and job outlook for school psychologists as a means to increase interest in the field as a graduate school career option. More specifically, the proposed study aims to test what type of educational activity- didactic information presentation versus didactic information presentation coupled with an experiential learning task- interacts with which learning style to produce the greatest gains in interest in the field as a graduate school option. Further, the proposed study seeks to determine if a correlation exists between knowledge of school psychology and level of interest in the field.Item The Effect of Ethical Signals on Recruitment Outcomes: Two Studies with Convergent Results(2010-10-12) Degrassi, Sandra W.The applicant decision making process is a complex one. During the recruitment process, signals from the organization provide information to the candidates and affect important recruitment outcomes. Ethics is one area the organization can utilize to communicate information regarding the organizational culture and environment. Drawing on signaling theory, this research suggests that ethical signals during the recruitment process affect recruitment outcomes through the mediating effect of the perception of the organization as ethical. Additionally, two important moderators, self-importance of moral identity and cognitive moral development, were examined. Using a study in the field as well as a rigorous laboratory study, this research found results generally consistent with the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, ethical organizational practices were related to attraction in both studies. Ethical recruitment practices were related to attraction in the laboratory study. Furthermore, the organizational practices/attraction relationship was partially mediated by the perception of the organization as ethical. Finally, some support was found for the cognitive moral development, self-importance of moral identity, and performance moderators. Practical implications and areas for future research are discussed.Item The influence of professionalization on the recruitment of prospective teachers as perceived by Texas teachers of the year(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Haney, Jan EllenThis study focused on teacher professionalization as it relates to the recruitment of teachers. Five aspects of professionalization were selected from the literature that might influence a prospective teacher to consider a career in education: compensation, credentialing, collaboration, professional development, and autonomy. The broad emphasis of this research was to create awareness among educators of their roles in promoting the profession of teaching. By collecting and analyzing the perceptions of some of the most recognized teachers, regional and state Teachers of the Year, issues that had not previously been studied were confronted and analyzed. Major research findings for the study indicated: ?? Teachers perceive that increased financial benefits, improved public perception of teachers, and positive school culture encourage prospective teachers to consider careers in teaching. ?? A majority of the teachers surveyed reported that they frequently participate in recruitment activities by sharing information on the intrinsic rewards of their careers, by identifying qualities in another person that might lead to the choice of a teaching career, and by telling that person that they would be a good teacher. Based on the findings of the study, researcher recommendations include: ?? Salary schedules should be addressed to include opportunities for teachers to be promoted, yet remain in the classroom. ?? Teachers should inspire secondary students to consider careers in education by participating in career day initiatives. ?? Teachers should invite the media into their classrooms and speak to community groups to promote the profession. ?? Teachers should write op-ed pieces for the newspapers about their profession. ?? Those teachers who have left the profession for family obligations may be lured back into teaching by expanded job-sharing opportunities, part-time positions, and district-managed day care. ?? An intense initiative should be inaugurated to encourage teachers to eliminate negative discussions about the profession. ?? Initiatives that demonstrate public appreciation and acknowledgment of the value of the profession should be implemented.Item Women in Construction Management: Identification of the Most Effective Factors in Attracting and Retaining Freshmen and Sophomore Level Students(2014-08-06) Mathew, MinnaDespite the several initiatives developed to encourage women to enter and remain in Construction Management (CM) programs, the percentage of women in CM continues to be low. This study was focused on identifying the factors and programs which are most effective in attracting and retaining female students in CM degree programs based on surveys administered to 40 female CM freshmen and sophomore students in five selected universities. Awareness of career opportunities in the construction industry, internships completed before entering the degree program, and field trips to job sites were reported by students to be the three factors which were the most positively influential in their decision to enter the construction management programs. Similarly, construction lab classes, scholarships and fellowships, and internships were identified as the most effective in retaining female CM students. The study also supports existing literature that there is a general lack of knowledge among high school students about the career opportunities and educational qualifications required in the construction industry. Several study participants advocated the need for high school initiatives such as shadowing programs to Construction Science classes and schools, mentoring programs, and workshops for high school students; and better advertisement. Finally, some guidelines on how to improve advertisement of the industry to recruit females into CM programs are also provided. Based on the results obtained, advertisements must emphasize career opportunities in the Commercial and Residential sectors of the industry in terms of job profiles (both field and office) and job security. Similarly, the target population should be made aware of the coursework of CM degree programs and the educational qualifications required for a career in the industry. Scholarships and fellowships offered should also be emphasized.