Graduate recruitment and graduate attributes in an integrated labour market: a study of four European countries

Recent studies have concluded that there is a gap between the demand for and supply of graduates in the EU (European Union) labour markets (CEP 2004; CIPD 2007a; Eurostat 2007; Weitzel et al. 2008). Therefore, it seems paradoxical that many European graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to gain appropriate employment at a time when they have freedom of movement and a choice of jobs in over twenty countries. The challenges they face in a large and highly competitive labour market partly arise because there are different higher education (HE) systems. On the supply side, the European labour market reflects a wide variety of educational systems, qualifications and academic disciplines, but the graduate jobs that are available - the demand side - are relatively homogeneous, and increasingly competitive. Recent studies have attempted to explore this phenomenon (Anderson and Witvliet 2008; Sackett and Lievens 2008) but have mainly concentrated on the relationship between the applicant (person) and the recruiter (organization), and have overlooked the role of HE institutions (HEIs) that prepare the person for work in the organization. The person-organization fit analysis that has dominated the literature has restricted the scope for analysing and, hence, understanding the process of graduate recruitment because it excludes the role that HE can play in the transition from study to workplace. Moreover, there is limited information
about the type of methods organizations throughout Europe use to select graduates from different countries, or about the successfulness of such methods. This study aims to go beyond the personorganization fit perspective by exploring the organization (university)-graduate (person)-organization (employer)-relationship.