Naslov
Career development of graduates in Economics and Business Administration in Croatia

Autori
Tadić, Ivana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, magistarski rad

Fakultet
Ekonomska fakulteta Ljubljana

Mjesto
Ljubljana, Slovenija

Datum
20.12

Godina
2005

Stranica
112

Mentor
Zupan, Nada

Ključne riječi
career development; graduates in Economics and Business Administration; Croatia
(graduates in Economics and Business Administration; Croatia)

Sažetak
The term career does not correspond to the simple term as it used to be in the past when the employee's job and career were guaranteed after graduation and first employment. In those times the employee was loyal to one organisation and was its member till retirement. His/her career developed in the same direction as the organisation and this development was particularly result of the organisational behaviour in business surroundings. The employee did not have so much desire for a change. Today, career development represents a new dimension in employee's business life. It is a complex term, and also a life long process which is vital for both parties in business relationship, for an individual as one endpoint of the process and organisation as the other endpoint of the same process. The employee needs to feel satisfied and has to be treated well in order to become a content and proud member of the organisation. Career development distinguishes two main factors and those are career planning and career management. Career planning is strictly involved with the individual and through this process the employee needs to identify and implement steps to attain career goals. For the employee proper planning, considering and setting personal career goals are very important. The other factor included in career development process is organisation whose participation is related to career management. Career management considers the process through which organisation selects, assesses, assigns and develops the employee to provide a qualified person for meeting future business needs. This implies that organisation needs to be strongly involved in the stated process from the first encounter with the employee, meaning to provide careful recruitment, selection, job analysis, leadership, controlling as well as very important counselling and mentoring. Process of career management tries to achieve balance between individual career needs and organisational workforce requirements. These activities are complementary and need to reinforce each order in order to provide perfect match between organisation and its employee, which will provide benefit for both parties. Process of career development is carried out through different stages which are related to the employee's professional and also personal life. Constant participation of both actors is required in this process in order to provide "fit and happy organisation", organisation with the right employee possessing the right knowledge at proper place and in proper time. This situation will arise if all adequately perform their roles in order to provide quality correlation and coordination among all. Besides the individual and organisation's role, the role of manager who needs to act as a coach, mentor and counsellor in a personal career development is very important. All of them have to be involved in creating competitive advantage, which can be most effectively achieved through employees as the main source of competitiveness. Their capabilities need to be constantly improved and trained. Career development tools, but also training and continuous learning, have to be seen as investment in the employee and organisation as a whole, but also as a main precondition for continuous career development. Empirical part of this work presents Croatian results related to career development among graduates in Economics. Before starting with any details, at the beginning it can be stated that development of personal career among Croatian graduates in Economics does not happen entirely according to theoretical background. Firstly, starting from career stages, where first 5 years of professional career (up to age of 30) in theory schedules apprenticeship, in Croatian practice is different. In the same age group, up to 30 years, 16% of respondents still does not perform job according to their profession, while 39.3% of those employed perform job on a certain managerial level. This implies that in Croatia is still difficult to find a job soon after graduation but also that those who are employed can easily step into significant functions without theoretically adequate and sufficient practice. The main reason for such a situation can be seen in the fact that majority of Croatian companies still do not provide human resources management as a department which would in quality and organised way monitor and support individual's career development. The research found out, that almost three quarters of respondents, precisely 72.13% is employed in such organisations. Croatian employees are indeed interested in career development but at the same time they are aware of the fact that they require new or additional knowledge, and mostly consider this as their personal mission, and not the task that would be done by joined organisation’ s and individual forces. What can also be stated as a poor situation in Croatian economy is the fact that Croatian employers do not appreciate and evaluate success during education process. This means that they do not distinguish excellent students, those with shorter studying period and better grades than the others. This also means that effort during studies does not repay in terms of immediate employment. It is evident in Croatia that the one who has better connections and better recommendations will find the job sooner, or even find it at all, and those stated employees still consider it as useful during employment process. Researching the graduates in Economics in different Croatian counties, it can be concluded that those individuals do not differ too much from one another. Graduates in Economics do not differ among themselves in different Croatian counties regarding the average age when graduating, the average graduate grade, average study duration, working experience after graduation, waiting period for the first employment after graduation, number of sent job applications before the first employment after graduation, number of job positions they used to perform and number of companies they used to work for. Differences are noticed regarding the total working experience (including working experience before graduation and after it) where significant discrepancy is noticed in Istria County. This can be explained by different life habits, where more population work during the process of education or even work seasonally respecting the fact that it is County which is greatly oriented toward tourism. The other discrepancy is noticed in the average monthly pay, where Primorsko-goranska County sets as one with the greatest results. Another important conclusion comes out of the research done among the students of final year in different Croatian counties. Croatian students of final year of Faculties of Economics in a majority do not differ among different Croatian counties. They particularly do not differ from each other regarding the number of job applications they expect to send before the first employment after graduation, number of different job positions they expect to perform, number of different companies they expect to work for, average pay after apprenticeship as well as the minimal pay. Students differ from one another regarding the year of enrolment on Faculty, where Split's students started to study before others, and the expected year of graduation where Rijeka's students expect to graduate the latest among others. This could also correspond to the fact that Split's and Rijeka's students will probably take the same amount of time for their faculty education (the first one started first and the second one will finish the last) while Pula's students will study in the shortest period. Respondents also differ from one another according to the expected pay during apprenticeship and real pay that they expect to receive, which will be deserved according to their profession and occupation. These differences can arise from the fact that these are not empirical evidences but respondents' expectations and although they do not know when they will start to work and on what position they will work, can not provide proper conclusion regarding pays. Final conclusions are made regarding the differences among the graduates in Economics and the reality of their professional life and students' expectations regarding future profession. The results show that the stated groups according to majority attributes differ from each other. They do not significantly differ regarding the waiting period before the first employment after graduation and number of job applications they used to sent or expect to send before employment. It can be concluded that the students of final year are pretty pessimistic regarding their future profession and situation in business surroundings. The minimal pay they would agree to work for, as well as the pay they consider to be real according to their profession and occupation, is rather lower than the same among the graduates in Economics. This difference once again can be explained by the fact that these are just expectations, and the student now can not be aware of the fact where he/she will be working in 5 years time after graduation. (The same time that passed after the graduation of the tested graduates in Economics who already have certain positions in their companies). The other difference among these two groups is noticed regarding new and additional knowledge and importance of knowledge during education. These opinions can also be changed after certain period in practice when current students and future graduates in Economics are more familiar with real business situation.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA