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Recent newspaper and magazine articles relate stories of MBA skills and their expectations regarding the workplace.

These concerns are shared by diverse parties: employers, professors, recruiters, and MBAs themselves. Appropriate preparation and acquisition of skills by students, how their schools can better prepare them to take their place in the work environment, and the competitiveness of their future organizations are all at issue. One recent article cited recruiter complaints that MBAs "lack creativity, people skills, aptitude for teamwork, and the ability to speak and write with clarity and conciseness--all hallmarks of an effective manager" (Deutschman 1991).

Recruiters in organizations are front-line observers and assessors of the skills MBA students possess upon graduation from their business schools. As a result, their perceptions of MBA skills shape how the schools are viewed as potential grounds for recruiting prospects. A number of recent articles and surveys have explored the relative importance of criteria used by recruiters for selecting both schools and their students (Boudreau and Rynes 1987; Deutschman 1991; Elfin 1990; Hanigan 1991a, 1991b; Rynes and Boudreau 1986).

One extensive survey of the skills important for job effectiveness of MBA graduates (Waddock 1991) pointed to the primary importance of interpersonal skills (67 percent) followed by technical skills (60.5 percent) in the respondents' jobs. Respondents in general and functional manager positions answered the following question: "If you were hiring someone to replace you, what skills, knowledge and abilities would you consider most important to be effective in your job?" Responses again reflected the primary importance of "interpersonal skills" (34 percent, 52 percent, and 23 percent, respectively, for general managers, functional managers, and commissioned salespersons). "Technical knowledge" was secondary (24 percent, 43 percent, and 25 percent, respectively), while "written or oral communication skills" was third in importance for all of these position types (14 percent, 24 percent, and 21 percent, respectively).

The responses to these surveys and others may help business schools shape an appropriate mix of curriculum offerings to prepare their students to be good managers and serve employers' needs. The present study attempts to update and broaden our knowledge about recruiters' perceptions of the skills MBAs should possess, their major problems in recruiting, criteria for selecting business schools as potential sites for student recruitment, and other selection criteria and recruiting practices of interest.

METHOD

Questionnaires were sent to 464 recruiters in each of the Fortune 500 companies named on the 1991 yearly issue presenting this listing. Recruiters in the remaining 36 organizations declined to participate in any survey as a matter of policy in their organizations.

The findings of the survey reflect a 20 percent response rate: recruiters from 56 different organizations provided usable questionnaires; 35 additional organizations indicated that they do not recruit MBA students. The 56 completed surveys were then subjected to the data analyses that follow.

Researchers called each of the Fortune 500 companies to acquire the name and appropriate mailing address of an individual who recruits MBAs in their organization. A three-page questionnaire was then mailed out to these people along with a preaddressed stamped envelope to return the survey.

Questionnaire

The survey, entitled "Survey of MBA Recruiters," asked recruiters to provide organizational information regarding the number of employees, the number of different campus sites for recruitment, the number of students interviewed on campus each year, and whether they planned to increase or decrease the number of schools to be visited during the next five years. They were also asked for estimated minimum, maximum, and mean MBA starting salaries offered in their organizations for 1991.

The next four sets of questions used a scale of 1 to 5 (1: not important at all; 5: extremely important) for the subjects to indicate the importance of a number of criteria within several categories of interest:

Importance of job skills and job experience: One category addressed the importance of various skills (well-rounded generalist skills, strong technical skills in a certain discipline, strong interpersonal skills, strong communication skills, team-oriented skills, job experience in a specific industry or profession, and job experience of any type) for different position types (general management positions, functional areas, and commissioned sales positions).

Importance of student interview criteria: A second category concerned the importance of criteria for evaluating the student's interview performance. Criteria included were appearance, presentation skills, energy and enthusiasm, communication skills, confidence, questions asked by the student, knowledge of the organization, selfknowledge, posture, and eye contact.

Importance of criteria for selecting and evaluating schools and their students: This category tapped the importance of criteria for selecting and evaluating schools and their students for recruiting purposes. The criteria were as follows:

1. number of potential recruits at the school;

2. existence of internship programs at the school;

3. job performance of previously hired students;

4. student interview performance;

5. previous work experience of students;

6. proportion of offers accepted;

7. job tenure of new hires from the school;

8. cost of recruiting at that location;

9. student grade point average;

10. school rankings in business publications;

11. visits from the school's representatives;

12. literature provided by the school;

13. alma mater of the CEO or other executives;

14. geographic location of the school;

15. placement statistics of the school;

16. faculty/staff reputation in relevant fields;

17. meeting students in an informal setting;

18. visiting a classroom at the school;

19. GMAT scores of the students.

Incremental attractiveness of schools: Colleges and universities can implement changes or improvements that make their students more attractive to organizational recruiters. Recruiting firms may find that certain schools provide the best candidates for particular types of positions available. The question posed concerned the importance of the following criteria in the decision whether to add a school to its list of recruitment sources: improvements in MBA curricula requirements, improvements in general school reputation, geographic shifts in recruitment location, low recruiting costs, raised average student GMAT scores for entry, increased contact with school representatives, changes in the types of skills required of the job candidates by the hiring organization, faculty reputation in a particular field, improved ranking in business publications, and increased familiarity with the school (through publicity, literature describing the MBA program, or contact with graduates).

The next two categories asked for the recruiter's perceptions of the usefulness of recruitment and selection practices on a scale of 1 to 5 (1: not useful at all; 5: extremely useful):

Usefulness of selection devices: The usefulness of various selection devices during the recruitment and selection process for MBAs was the focus of the next question. These selection criteria included ability tests, personality tests, application blanks and biographical data, telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, letters of recommendation, cover letters or other narratives, and career aspirations.

Strategies to identify and obtain commitments from students: The recruiters were then asked to what degree the following strategies were useful for identifying and obtaining commitments from high-potential students to their organization early in the recruiting process: early offers, job matching of candidate preferences to job opening qualifications, internships, realistic job previews, abbreviated selection procedures for outstanding candidates, using deadlines for job acceptance for preferred candidates, and recruiting directly at corporate headquarters.

Importance of student interview performance criteria: The next section asked recruiters to evaluate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with statements about whether MBAs have realistic expectations and satisfactory skills. The questions touched on whether MBAs have (1) realistic career advancement expectations, (2) realistic salary expectations, (3) satisfactory oral communication skills, (4) satisfactory written communication skills, (5) satisfactory interpersonal skills, (6) satisfactory technical skills, and (7) satisfactory knowledge in their specialty fields.