Examining graduateness: the role of psychological capital, proactive career management behaviours & work readiness in selected public universities / Nur Ain Syazmeen Ahmad Zaki

In this competitive world, graduates have to equip themselves with proper skills and knowledge to acquire jobs. Despite unemployment rate kept rising, getting a degree from higher education institutions has become necessary for any individual to get a decent placement in the workforce as soon as they graduated. In Malaysia particularly, both employers and prospect employees confronted with several challenges, and one of them is the lack of graduateness skills and attributes. In response to this issue, this study focuses on the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and proactive career management behaviour (PCMB) towards graduateness among firstdegree student from selected public universities in Klang Valley. This study has also assessed the mediating effect of work readiness with regard to the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap), proactive career management behaviour (PCMB) and graduateness where the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) was employed as the research framework. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed, and a non-probability purposive sample (N = 318) of finalyear first-degree students in selected public universities in Klang Valley completed a set of questionnaires, measuring their response to related variables. The research model was further analysed using the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings of three research objectives of this study have been derived as follows: 1) psychological capital (PsyCap), proactive career management behaviour (PCMB) significantly influenced the graduateness of first-degree students in selected public universities in Malaysia; 2) work readiness as a mediating variable, have significantly mediated the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap), proactive career management behaviour (PCMB) and graduateness, and 3) career planning was concluded to be the most influential dimension of PCMB than consultation behaviour and networking behaviour in this study. This thesis contributes the relevant empirical evidence which indicates that psychological capital (PsyCap) and proactive career management behaviour (PCMB) mediated by work readiness do play significant role in influencing the graduateness of final-year first-degree students from selected public universities in Klang Valley. The results from this research hopes to obtain greater insights into the applicability of SCCT in future research on this unique topic and help the government as well as industry practitioners to find ways to enhance graduateness of students from higher learning educations particularly in Malaysia.