Perception of Business Management Students about Human Resource Hiring

Human resources are the backbone of any organization. Any flaws in hiring practices can invite unsuitable candidates, adversely affecting the working environment and culture of the organization. Business management students' hiring decisions can significantly affect organizations across disciplines. This paper aims to examine business management students' perceptions of human resource hiring. The study is motivated by the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in ensuring effective hiring practices. The primary data was gathered from second-year business management students (n=128) using Google Forms and open-ended questions. They were presented with several categories of qualified candidates to hire candidates for their organizations and justifications for their hiring decisions. ATLAS.ti 23, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), was used to analyze descriptive survey data using a thematic analysis framework. Themes were identified using an inductive and in-vivo coding approach. Code co-occurrence analysis and a significant c-value were used to arrive at conclusions. The themes were interpreted for different types of respondents and with different combinations of themes. The emerging themes show that female recruiters were significantly more sensitive towards hiring transgenders, single mothers, differently-abled people, single fathers, and mothers than male recruiters. On the contrary, male recruiters were significantly more sensitive towards hiring unmarried and married males, unmarried males & married females, and unmarried males & unmarried females than female recruiters. Several thematic networks, screenshots, and tables have been shown to support emerging themes. The findings have practical implications for organizational hiring and human resource practices and for ensuring effective organizational human resource policies and practices.