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  • Essay / An Analysis of a Study on the Workplace Behavior of New College Graduates

    The report of the 2013 Workplace Professionalism Study by the Polk-Lepson Research Group attempts to show the he current state and trends in professionalism among new university graduates. This is the latest report in an annual study carried out over the past four years. For this study, 401 human resources (HR) personnel responded to a survey on various categories addressing professionalism in the workplace as it relates to hiring their new college graduates. The results of this survey demonstrate that, according to the respondents' perception, there is a growing concern about the professionalism of new college graduates. The survey findings reveal no clear improvement in professionalism and, in some cases, a deteriorating trend over the past four years. I was left with the impression that the Polk-Lepson report only deals with the perceptions of those responsible for hiring new employees and that it might be a poor indicator of the professionalism of the workforce as a whole . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayAnalysis/EvaluationThe study had its strengths and weaknesses. These include the limited scope of the study despite the title, the large number of respondents, the areas that these HR managers place importance on, and the generational difference between the respondents. First, this was a reasonably large study and was conducted by survey. more than 400 HR employees. The problem is that only those responsible for hiring the employees received the survey. It is their definition of professionalism and their perception of professionalism that is used in this report. The title of the article was “Professionalism in the Workplace.” Perhaps a better title would be “Professionalism in the Workplace Through the Looking Glass of Human Resources.” The perception of HR personnel is important, especially if they deal with the day-to-day running of a business, such as a small business owner. Although I suspect this is often not the case. About forty percent of those who responded came from companies with 50 or more employees. In such cases, apart from the interview, the respondent may not have regular interaction with the employees. In a situation where a unionized workforce is used, the HR department may have an adversarial type role when dealing with entry-level or junior level employees, which in my opinion distorts their understanding of the average worker in a large company. Coworkers, direct supervisors, managers, or the customer may be in a better position to assess an employee's professionalism than a human resources manager, who may not have interaction with the employee unless a problem arises. does not occur. An interesting study would be to compare the results of this survey if the new graduate's colleagues respond to it with the results of HR people. Next, let's look at aspects of professionalism. According to the study results, employees' appearance and punctuality appear to represent the bulk of what these respondents equate with professionalism. While these attributes are important and often need to be considered, perhaps they shouldn't dominate the list. I think it's hard to recognize someone's abilities when the focus is on appearance in particular. Perhaps if the definition of professionalism emphasized categories!