Business and technical graduates personality traits: A comparative evaluation

Abstract

The study highlights the practicality of importance-performance analysis as a means of assessing the importance of personality traits dimension that should be possessed by Malaysian graduates. The importance-performance analysis was used to evaluate the gap in the personality's traits possessed by Business and Technical Graduates. The study was carried out in two phases, namely Phase 1 which involved a focus group session and Phase 2 which focused on establishing a questionnaire appropriate for the study across a diverse range of industries. The questionnaires were distributed to managers selected from a sampling frame. Graduates' personality attributes were analysed in terms of big five personality traits, which include openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and emotional stability traits. The findings of this study suggest that the Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia should target improvements on a specific personality development component pertaining to openness and extroversion personality for business management graduates and conscientiousness personality for technical graduates as part of the curriculum development strategies of these Higher Education Institutions.