Table Of Content© Copyright by Soraya Reyes Guerrero 2017
All Rights Reserved
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ABSTRACT
Mexico’s new business graduates are facing the problem of an extensive job-search,
which impacts employability of new graduates because only 60% of them can obtain a
job during the first year after graduation (Universia Mexico, 2013). This problem was
studied from a case study perspective within the context of the automotive industry in
Puebla, Mexico as a workplace for business graduates. The purpose was to identify
automotive industry needs in terms of human talent and to contrast them with the current
university curricula in business studies. Detecting a potential gap between industry needs
and university education was the main research question. To answer the question, the
data were collected through individual interviews conducted with automotive industry
recruiters, combined with findings of business program curricula analysis of the
UPAEP’s School of Business. Using purposive sampling, (Baker & Edwards, 2016), 11
of the 68 automotive firms were invited to participate in interviews. Additionally,
curricula-related artifacts of the UPAEP School of Business programs were analyzed to
determine which skills, knowledge, abilities, and behaviors (SKABs) are transmitted to
the students during academic instruction and coded following Corbin and Strauss’ (2015)
guidelines. After comparing both sets of data, it was found that not all of the SKABs
demanded by recruiters are transmitted to students in the UPAEP’s School of Business.
The detected gaps negatively impact the employability of new graduates. A major
conclusion is that a praxis-based education is preferred to develop soft skills in graduates.
Further research is suggested to change the current state of industry/university (I/U)
relationships and graduates’ invested time to employment in Mexico.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ...........................................................1
Foundation of the Study ...........................................................................................2
Current State of the Field in Which the Problem Exists ..................................6
Historical Background ....................................................................................11
Deficiencies in the Evidence ..................................................................................15
Problem Statement .................................................................................................19
Audience .........................................................................................................20
Specific Leadership Problem ..........................................................................20
Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................21
Methodology Overview .........................................................................................22
Research Questions ................................................................................................23
Study Limitations ...................................................................................................24
Definitions of Key Terms ......................................................................................25
Summary ................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................29
Introduction ............................................................................................................29
What Universities Teach Their Business Students .........................................30
What Industry Recruiters Want ......................................................................45
Investigation of University Outputs and Industry Needs ...............................62
Summary ................................................................................................................73
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................75
Introduction ............................................................................................................75
Research Method ...................................................................................................76
Research Design.....................................................................................................77
Instrument ..............................................................................................................79
Participants .............................................................................................................84
Data Analysis Methods ..........................................................................................89
Limitations .............................................................................................................94
Summary ................................................................................................................98
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS .................................................................................................99
Introduction ............................................................................................................99
What Are the SKABs Auto Industry Recruiters Look for in a Candidate ...........101
Knowledge ....................................................................................................104
Abilities ........................................................................................................105
Behaviors ......................................................................................................108
Emerging Themes .........................................................................................109
What Are the SKABs Taught through UPAEP’s Business Curriculum ..............112
Findings from a Review of the General Studies Course Artifacts ...............113
Findings from a Review of Business Course Artifacts ................................115
Findings from a Review of Core Disciplinary Course Artifacts ..................117
Summary of the Curriculum Analysis of UPAEP’s School of
Business ........................................................................................................119
What Gaps Exist between the SKABs Auto Industry Recruiters Desire and
the SKABs Taught through UPAEP’s Business Curriculum? .............................124
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Summary ..............................................................................................................134
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................137
Introduction ..........................................................................................................137
Discussion of Findings and Conclusions .............................................................139
What Are the SKABs Auto Industry Recruiters Look for in a
Candidate? ....................................................................................................139
What Are the SKABs Taught Through UPAEPs Business
Curriculum? ..................................................................................................153
What Gaps Exist Between the SKABs Auto Industry Recruiters
Desire and the SKABs Taught Through UPAEP’s Business
Curriculum? ..................................................................................................170
Other Topics .................................................................................................182
Application of Findings and Conclusions to the Problem Statement ..................187
Application to Leadership ....................................................................................189
Recommendations for Action ..............................................................................192
Recommendations for Further Research ..............................................................196
Concluding Statement ..........................................................................................199
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................201
APPENDIX A Interview for Industry Representatives ..................................................227
APPENDIX B Research Participant Informed Consent .................................................230
APPENDIX C Instrument Validation Matrix .................................................................235
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Skills Mentioned by Recruiters...........................................................................104
Table 2 Knowledge Mentioned by Recruiters .................................................................105
Table 3 Number of Recruiters Demanding a Specific Ability .........................................107
Table 4 Behaviors Mentioned by Recruiters ...................................................................109
Table 5 Identified Emerging Themes ..............................................................................112
Table 6 Learning Outcomes for General Studies Courses ...............................................114
Table 7 Learning Outcomes for Business Courses ..........................................................116
Table 8 General Information of Core Disciplinary Courses per Business Program ........118
Table 9 SKABs Found at the UPAEP’s School of Business Programs ...........................121
Table 10 Businenss Programs Composition ....................................................................122
Table 11 Comparison of SKABs Demanded by Recruiters and SKABs Found at
the UPAEP’s School of Business programs ....................................................125
Table 12 Summary of Similarities and Differences Between Industry Needs and
Academic Instruction at UPAEP .....................................................................132
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is dedicated to my beloved family, Felipe, Chuy, and Esti, who
supported me all the way. For four years I have devoted myself to this personal dream,
and you understood and encouraged me to make it happen. I will always love you!
Two leaders played a central role in this achievement: my mother and my aunt
Armantina. Thank you, Mom, for supporting me all of these years. Thank you, aunt
Armantina for believing in me and always being by my side. I love you both very much.
My Daddy was always a support in this journey. From your silence, Dad, I know you
were always there, proud of me. Thank you.
Dr. Voigt, I have no words to thank you enough for all the help, the patience, and
your advice. As always, you are a role model for me. You have guided my professional
life from the very beginning, something I deeply appreciate. Thank you for always
helping me and for not giving up during the long hours supervising my progress.
Farah, Craig, and Sebastian, you are my family. You also were there, from a distance and
across the border, cheering for me. You are also part of this dream. Thank you for being
next to me.
To all of the UPAEP leaders who gave me the opportunity to become a doctor,
Thank you for everything. To my students, thank you for inspiring me. To my team of
colleagues, you were a great support during this journey. Thank you. And, to all my
friends within the UPAEP’s family, I am grateful for your support, for your words of
help, for your teachings, and for the patience in times when I had to be absent, and you
understood.
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As for City U, there are no words to express my gratitude to Dr. Steven Olswang
for listening to me, to Dr. Kurt Kirstein for having faith in me at all times and giving me
the opportunity to be part of your faculty, to Dr. Kelly Flores for leading a great group of
talented people who never got tired of assisting, supporting, and teaching me: Dr. Arron
Grow, Dr. Presley Rankin, Dr. Pete Anthony, Dr. Deanne Larson, Dr. Hampton Hopkins,
and Dr. Mary Dereshiwsky. My gratitude also goes to my friend Antonio (Toño)
Esqueda, who was always by my side taking such good care of me and applauding my
progress.
Thank you all!
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1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
Industry executives around the world are expressing their concern about the
inadequate preparation of graduates to meet industry needs to fill professional positions
(Baryniene & Krisciunas, 2013; Carnevale, Hanson, & Gulish, 2013; Centro de
Investigación Para el Desarrollo, A.C. [CIDAC], 2014; Manpower Group, 2015; Mihaela
& Raluca, 2015). The concern is not confined to a single industrial sector or a single
country. Voices are expressing the same concern in Europe (Ciuhureanu, Gorski, &
Baltes, 2011), the United States (Petrisko & Etchemendy, 2016), Canada (Walk &
Wright, 2014), and several other countries around the world. Therefore, the study and
understanding of industry needs is a task to be performed by university authorities with
the intention of facilitating new graduates’ employability.
However, studying the situation of all the industrial sectors of a single country
like Mexico is a challenging and wide-ranging task. With the intention to narrow the
scope and to be relevant to the country’s situation, one industrial sector was selected for
the purpose of the present research study: the automotive industry. This sector is the
greatest GDP contributor for the country (Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], 2016) and
also for the State of Puebla (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía [INEGI],
2014), the place in which the study was conducted.
The purpose of this research study was to find any potential gap existing between
industry needs and university curricula in the area of business-related disciplines in the
region of Puebla, Mexico to increase the level of alignment between them for purposes of
Description:last fact is positively related to validity purposes (Creswell & Miller, 2000). Data Analysis Methods . As suggested by Creswell and Miller (2000) and Lincoln and Guba. (1985), participants were asked to .. Additionally, the same participant stated, “If you know SAP, you can expect to have a bett
