An Investigation into career information seeking behaviours
of postgraduates in Sheffield
A study submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of
the degree of Master of Information Management
at
The department of Information School
The University of Sheffield
By
Qiu Sun
September 2011
1
Acknowledge
I would like to thank all of those who participated in the questionnaire and
interviews. Thanks for their time and cooperation. Especially, thank for my
supervisor, Professor Nigel Ford, thanks for his patient and essential advices, this
really help me a lot. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their support. I do
appreciate it.
2
Abstract
Background. The current society is an information society. Information behaviour
plays an important part in human‟s daily life. Every day, people seeking information,
selecting information and then using them. Further, career information is one kind of
indispensable information for us. This research tries to point out postgraduate
students‟ career information needs and information seeking behaviour and identify
their information seeking barriers. This study subject was conducted because it seems
there were limited researches in this field especially for postgraduates.
Aims. The aim of this study is to offer some useful recommendations to universities‟
career department, search systems and employers to improve their services.
Methods. There are two main methods applied in this study: secondary research and
primary research. Secondary research is presenting analyze data and statistics from
three previous literature. Secondary research can be evidence to show changes and
difference with this study, and can also be a comparison of this study. For primary
research, both quantitative data and qualitative data are collected via questionnaire
and interview. There are 126 postgraduate students took part in the questionnaire, this
is higher than expectation, and 4 follow-up interviews were conducted by
participants who already completed the questionnaire.
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Results. The data suggests that job information about general management was the
most popular information for postgraduates, and the UK was the most desirable job
location for a majority of students. Further, the most commonly used information
sources for postgraduates to seek job-related information is the Internet, and most
useful and helpful information channels that be identified by respondents is Family
and friends. The Internet is also the most postgraduates recommended to others. In
addition, choosing sectors of jobs is the most popular ways for postgraduates to seek
job information, and a majority of them found it is difficult to deal with the large
amount of information available.
Conclusions. Occupational information needs have a significant impact on
postgraduates‟ career information seeking behaviour, for example, the choice of
seeking language. Besides, respondents‟ course content or subjects determined their
occupational information needs and seeking behaviours to some extent. It also worth
to notice that, some connections can be seen between the popularity and helpfulness
of information sources. It is interesting that, the most useful channel that respondent
claimed was not always the one which was chosen to recommend to others.
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Content
Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 8
1.1 Introduction and Context................................................................................. 8
1.2 Research aims and objectives .........................................................................10
1.3 Methodology .................................................................................................. 11
1.4 Practicalities ..................................................................................................13
1.5 Ethical aspects ...............................................................................................14
Chapter 2 Literature review .................................................................................15
2.1 Brief description of previous study in research scope .....................................15
2.2 Relevant studies to Information ......................................................................17
2.2.1 Information ........................................................................................................17
2.2.2 Information needs ..............................................................................................20
2.2.3 Models of Information seeking behaviour ..........................................................22
2.3 Relevant concepts of Information Behaviours. ...............................................26
2.3.1 Information Behaviours .....................................................................................27
2.3.2 Information seeking ...........................................................................................28
2.3.3 Information source .............................................................................................30
2.3.4 Information Seeking Strategies ..........................................................................32
2.3.5 Information Seeking Barriers .............................................................................33
2.4 Theoretical studies in relation to Job-relation Information and Job-related
Information Seeking Behaviour ............................................................................35
2.4.1 Job-related information ......................................................................................36
2.4.2 Job searching process and strategies ...................................................................37
2.5 Conclusion .....................................................................................................38
Chapter 3 Methodology ........................................................................................40
3.1 Analysis of three existing studies ...................................................................40
3.2 Primary Research ...........................................................................................43
3.2.1 Quantities approach ...........................................................................................43
3.2.3 Combining quantitative research and qualitative approach..................................45
Chapter 4 Implementation of research methods .................................................49
4.1 Implementation of Secondary Research .........................................................49
4.2 Questionnaire Design and Distribution ...........................................................50
4.3 Interview Method...........................................................................................53
4.4 Conclusion .....................................................................................................54
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Chapter 5 Secondary research results .................................................................55
5.1 Previous Study 1 ............................................................................................56
5.2 Previous Study 2 ............................................................................................58
5.3 Previous Study 3 ............................................................................................59
5.4 Conclusion .....................................................................................................61
Chapter 6 Primary research results and analysis ................................................61
6.1 Questionnaire results ......................................................................................62
6.1.1 Response Rate ...................................................................................................62
6.1.2 Profile of Participants‟ General Information .......................................................63
6.1.3 Profile of Employment Information Needs .........................................................66
6.1.4 Profile of Information Seeking Behaviour ..........................................................71
6.1.4.1 Information Resource ................................................................................ 71
6.1.4.2 Information seeking strategies ................................................................... 79
6.1.4.3 Choice of information seeking language ................................................... 80
6.1.4.4 Information Seeking Barriers .................................................................... 80
6.1.4.5 University‟s training on securing job vacancies. ....................................... 81
6.1.4.6 Comments from the Participants ............................................................... 82
6.2 Interview results ............................................................................................84
6.2.1 Interview response .............................................................................................84
6.2.2 Interview results ................................................................................................84
Chapter 7 Conclusion and Recommendations ..................................................87
7.1 Conclusion .....................................................................................................87
7.1.1 Limitations ...............................................................................................89
7.2 Recommendation ...........................................................................................89
Appendix ...............................................................................................................97
Appendix 1 ..........................................................................................................97
Appendix 2 ........................................................................................................ 104
Appendix 3 ........................................................................................................ 106
Appendix 4 ........................................................................................................ 108
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List of Figure
Firgure2.1. Wilson‟s model of information seeking behaviour. ...............................23
Figure 2.2. Dervin‟s (1983) Sense-Making theory. ..................................................24
Figure 2.3. Kuhlthau‟s (1991) model of information-seeking behaviour stages. .......25
Figure 1.4. Wlison‟s (1996) model of information seeking behaviour......................26
Figure 6.1. First Language of the Respondents. .......................................................65
Figure 6 2. Comparison of Desirable Job Location between Chinese and British. ....67
Figure 6.3 . Desirable Job Sectors of the Participants. .............................................69
Figure 6.4. Occupational information seeking strategies. .........................................79
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List of Table
Table 1 ....................................................................................................................63
Table 2 ....................................................................................................................65
Table 3 ....................................................................................................................73
Table 4 ....................................................................................................................74
Table 5 ....................................................................................................................76
Table 6 ....................................................................................................................78
Table 7 ....................................................................................................................80
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction and Context
Currently, it is an information society, information full of almost every aspect of our
lives, information exchanging and communicating play a significant role in daily life.
With the development of technology and economy, people‟s information need and
information seeking behaviour have been changed a lot. The aim of this research is to
investigate different career information needs and information seeking behaviours
relating to individual different factors such as gender and course contents. In order to
make research more valuable and the process of research more efficient, the targeted
participants are only postgraduate students.
It is hoped that this exploration will result in some valuable suggestions for graduates
to use employment information more efficiently and expand their employment
opportunities. Likewise, it also provides recommendations for information search
systems and university career service to improve their services and satisfy more
students‟ employment information needs. Although there are some existing studies
that related to this area, the topic is still worth to investigate because limited previous
research into this career field, especially for postgraduate students.
9
Moreover, according to study by Marcella and Baxter (1999: 43), they defined career
information as “survival information”, it is obvious that employment information is
vital for postgraduate students, and almost all the postgraduates may need career
information to find jobs.
In the light of statistic by UK CISA (2009), it stated that “The total number of non-
UK students for 2008/09 was 368,970, compared with 325,985 in 2007/08, an
increase of 8%. Strongest growth was in full-time taught postgraduate programmes
(up 17% for non-UK students).” Apparently, there is increasing amount of
postgraduate students in UK, and they have a significant impact on the development
of society, school and economy. In addition, according the report by Webber and Zhu
(2007), they claimed that “Unemployment has significant impact on quality
life…people who were unemployment for more than six months were more likely to
have psychological disorders.”
Nowadays, not only government, but also public organizations pay more and more
attention on providing job opportunities and career-related information, and they has
realized that it is important for huge number of postgraduates to gain job-related
information and help them to find job. For example, University of Sheffield
established Job Centre to provide career advices and job opportunities for graduates.
Employment is not only has a crucial impact on individual‟s life, but also essential
for the whole society. Investigating postgraduate students‟ information needs and
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information seeking behaviour is helpful for graduates to equip them with
information seeking skills to facilitate job finding. However, there is only a little
research in this area, there is no full investigation on career information seeking
behaviour, in particular for postgraduate students. In this case, this research is
conducted to explore related issues.
As Liu (2009) pointed out that “information seeking is a complex process, which
aims to make a more completed sense of the world.” It is valid to look into job
information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students to identify information
seeking barriers among them. Also, some recommendations could be provided for
career organizations and information search systems.
1.2 Research aims and objectives
The aim of this research is to investigate career information needs and information
seeking behaviours relating to different gender and course content for postgraduate
students, and identify information seeking barriers among them. Finally, useful
recommendations can be given to university career department, search engines and
employers for improvement.
In order to collect more valuable results, the participants of this study are various
postgraduate students in Sheffield, and they come from different countries, such as
China, UK, Saud Arabia, India, Dubai, German, South Korea and act. The aims and
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objectives can be carried out through these research questions as follows:
·To identify the information needs of postgraduates relating to career information,
such as what kind of career information they need? Where is the most popular
location for postgraduates to look for jobs?
·To identify are there any connection between postgraduates‟ course content and their
occupational information seeking behaviour.
·To identify what kind of information channel or tool they use most, what kind of
information tool they think the most helpful, what kind of information tool they
recommend most to others, and are there any connections among these three aspects.
·To identify are there any gender differences in choosing information channel.
·To compare different strategies that postgraduates use to seek occupational
information.
·To identify postgraduate students‟ information seeking barriers.
·To provide some suggestions or advices to improve the quality of postgraduates‟
information seeking behaviour.
1.3 Methodology
Basically, both secondary research and primary research will be involved in this
study. The aim of secondary research is to present analyze data and statistics from
three previous literature. Secondary research can be evidence to show changes and
difference with this study. Further, the primary research is a combination of
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quantitative and qualitative approach. As Glass (1976) argued “Primary analysis is
the original analysis of data in a research study. It is what one typically imagines s
the application of statistical methods.” In this case, primary research is the survey,
questionnaires and interviews will be used during data collecting.
In the section of questionnaire, quantitative data will be included. The questionnaires
will be designed by myself, and the design of questionnaires is not only concentrated
on investigating the employment information seeking behaviour, but also concern
about classify the participants into different groups. The questionnaires will be
posted online for public to view. Invitation letters will be sent via email to invite
postgraduate students to get involved in survey. It is important to choose the right
sample, so the samples will be chosen randomly to make sure more valid data.
Furthermore, qualitative research will be carried out by interviews. Qualitative
research is more efficient way to collect in-depth data, and these data can facilitate to
analyze and observe human behaviour. It seems that quantitative data and qualitative
data can be a complement to each other.
The issue of time consume is important during collecting data. The time for finishing
questionnaire should be controlled between 8 minutes to 15 minutes. Interview
includes 8 questions, the maximum time for interview is 30 minutes, and tape
recorder will be used during interview.
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1.4 Practicalities
The findings and results of this research will provide several values for both
individuals and public organizations. Firstly, for postgraduate students who intend to
search career information, this study can address information seeking barriers to
improve their searching skill, and enable information users to use employment
information more efficiently. According to analysis by Bunch (1982), he draw valid
conclusion that the reason why people cannot find job is not due to lack of relevant
qualifications for job requirements, instead, lack of job information is main reason
for their unemployment. It is obvious that job opportunities can be expanded if
postgraduates can address information seeking barriers.
In addition, this dissertation is proposed to provide some advice and
recommendations to improve information search system. That is to say, information
retrieval system especially career information search system (such as websites or
databases) could run more effectively by understanding what is the information
needs and information seeking behaviour of postgraduates. In addition, for
universities and employers, the results can give some ideas to specific department to
develop their service, for example, as mentioned before, according to analysis and
results of this research, job centre in University of Sheffield can know more clearly
what kind of career information is most needed for different postgraduates, and they
can also provide relevant employment training to individuals. Finally, this
dissertation can be a reference for the similar project.
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1.4 Ethical aspects
Ethical issue is an important part in research project. This research involves both
questionnaires and interviews as methods. Burns (2000) claimed that “ethical
problems can relate to both the subject matter of the research as well as to its
methods and procedures, and go well beyond courtesy or etiquette regarding
appropriate treatment of persons in a free society.” So I will pay extra attention on
designing of questionnaires and interviews.
Before survey begin, I will fully explain to every participant about relevant contents
of questionnaire and interview, such as purpose, content, approximate time needed,
and also send consent form to inform them about research project. During the
process of designing questionnaire and interview questions, ethical issues will be
concerned. Moreover, private data protection is also important. Data Protection Act
(1998) stated “Data which relates to a living individual who can be identified from
those data, or from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or
is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes an
expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the
data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.” It is apparently that
good data protection can protect human privacy and rights, therefore, all the data will
be saved in a personal computer with password.
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Chapter 2 Literature review
2.1 Brief description of previous study in research scope
According to previous studies, there are not many literature focuses on career
information and career information seeking behaviour itself, so this section will put
major attention on more general terms and phrases, such as information and
information seeking behaviour.
In the current changeable age, information plays an essential part in our lives. There
are various types of information, and people seeking information, selecting it and
using it every day. Information seeking, as one of the most important and common
activities, has been paid more and more attention. According to Liu (2009: 14), she
summarized “the recorded systematic study on information seeking and information
needs can date back nearly a century”, more and more studies which related to
information needs and information seeking were appearing since the 1940s. Case
(2002: 6) stated “By the 1960s, such investigation, particularly of the specialized
information needs and uses of scientists and engineers, were appearing regularly in a
variety of journals and reports.”
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With the deeper investigation of information seeking behaviours, many researchers
paid their attention on the model of information behaviour. For example, Wilson
(1981) presented the model of information behaviour on 1981, and he also explained
the rise of information needs and barriers during the process of information searching.
Afterward, Dervin (1983), Ellis (1989), Kuhlthau (1991) and Wilson (1996)
developed new models of information behaviours in the next few decades. These
models considered both human and technology factors, which is a trend of
researching information needs and information behaviours. Furthermore, the vast
amount of studies about Information sources, Information seeking strategies and
Information seeking barriers have also been conducted over the last few decades.
These terms are closely relevant to Information Behaviours.
There are also some researches in more specific area, which are job-related
information and job searching processes. According to Marcella and Baxter (1999),
they described employment information as survival information, and it implies the
importance of seeking employment information. Moreover, as Liu (2009) analyzed
that information about employment or job opportunities ranked top three among all
information needs (such as information about academic study or leisure and
entertainment) that required by postgraduates.
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In a word, previous studies illustrate that researches in Information and Information
Behaviours has a long history. Significant literature provides resources and evidences
to the following sections.
2.2 Relevant studies to Information
There are some relevant terms and concepts to Information that be used frequently,
namely Information, Information needs and different models of information seeking
behaviours. In the next section, these terms will be analyzed to facilitate better
understanding to accomplish this study effectively.
2.2.1 Information
In some current literature, most scholars tend to offer a range of theories which
attempt to generalize, explain tendencies in this field. As Marchionini (1995:5) stated
“Information is a general manner that includes objects in the world, what is
transferred from people or objects to a person‟s cognitive system, and as the
components of internal knowledge in people‟s minds.” It implies that information is
transferable, which means information can be delivered between people and objects.
It also indicates that information is a broad and wide concept, and information can be
a term that both related to tangible objects and implicit objects that inside people‟s
mind, such as belief, thought or commitment. This view can be supported by Chen
18
and Hernon (1982: 5), “Information is defined as all knowledge, ideas, facts, data,
and imaginative works of mind which are communicated formally and/or informally
in any format”. Further, McCreadie and Rice (1999: 46-49) divided information into
four aspects, “information as commodity/resource; information as data in the
environment; information as a representation of knowledge; information as part of
communication process.”
Moreover, through comprehensive studies, the term of Information has been
explained in deeper level. For example, According to the report by Case (2002:5), he
pointed out “Information can be any difference you perceive, in your environment or
within yourself. It is any aspect that you notice in the pattern of reality.” Information
has different formats, and information depends on the certain background and
context. Hoyer (2010: 11) supported that “information is social.” In the study, he
pointed out that the interacting of information is highly related to environment
framework. Furthermore, Madden (2000: 348) defined information as “A stimulus
originating in one system that affects the interpretation by another system of either
the second system‟s relationship to the first or of the relationship the two systems
share with a given environment.” Information can be defined by different users, that
is to say, different context that users get involved can lead to different understandings
of information.
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Another aspect of information that needs to pay attention is information lifecycle. In
some more recent studies, EMC et al (2010: 2) concluded “The information lifecycle
is the change in the value of information over time.” Moreover, according to Al-
Fedaghi‟s (2008: 473) statement, he summarized that information lifecycle has eight
steps: “information is received”, “information is processed (e.g., compressed,
translated, mined, etc.)”, “information is disclosed”, “information is transmitted”,
information is created”, “information is used”, “information is stored” and
“information is destroyed”.
In a word, information is an abstract and broad concept, and it is difficult to give a
formal explanation. However, it is important to understand Information, as it is a root
of Information Science studies. As far as I am concerned, Information is a term that
implies objects both in relation to the explicit and the tacit world, it is environmental
related, and can be a way for seekers to solve problems and learn new knowledge.
Currently, information plays more and more vital role in our lives, and many more
people realized the importance of it. In this digital and technical age, large volumes
of information is required and sought. Therefore, it is important to equip information
seeking skill to get high quality information and satisfy different information needs.
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2.2.2 Information needs
Information needs is an ambiguous concept, and it has some similar but different
terms, such as need, want, demand, use or requirement. (Roberts, 1975) In some
more recent literature, researchers concluded that information needs is a purpose or
reason why people start to seek information (Wilson, 1997), it can be a root or trigger
of the whole information seeking process. According to Wilson (1997: 89),
information needs could trigger information seeking behaviours, and he also
concluded that “the full range of human, personal needs is at the root of motivation
towards information-seeking behaviour, it must also be recognized that these needs
arise out of the roles an individual fills in social life.” Besides, as the statement by
SCOUNL seven pillars of information literacy (Society of College, 2006), it pointed
out “Recognizing that you have an information need, and being able to analyze that
need are essential first steps to information literacy.” People will seek information
unless they realize their information need.
Wilson (1981: 7) considered that information needs could be divided into three
aspects: “physiological need, such as the need for food, water, shelter etc.; affective
needs such as the need for attainment, for domination ect.; cognitive needs, such as
the needs to plan, to learn a skill ect.”. These three aspects could affect each other,
that is to say, the trigger of physical needs may lead to affective or cognitive needs,
and affective needs have interrelation with cognitive needs. On the other hand,
Taylor (1962) separate information needs into four levels: “the visceral need, the
21
conscious need, the formalized need, and the compromised need.” (pp. 392) Indeed,
in the first level, information needs (problems) is recognized, but it cannot be
expressed. For the conscious level, information can be expressed and delivered by
information seeker‟s description, although the description is ambiguous. The next
level is the formalized need, and it means information seekers can state and articulate
problems clearly. Finally, the articulated thinking will be presents in different forms.
Information needs is mind related, as Case (2002:5) claimed “Information need is a
recognition that your knowledge is inadequate to satisfy a goal that you have.”
Further evidence can also be found in study by Choo et al (2000:3), they said
“information needs are frequently thought of in terms of a person‟s cognitive needs-
gaps or anomalies in the state of knowledge or understanding that may be
represented by questions or topics.” It is clear that information needs are related to
individuals‟ mind and recognition. Information needs have relation with information
seeking, a person may search information because he tends to satisfy information
needs, and the action of information–seeking may due to the dissatisfaction of needs.
In this case, information needs may trigger information seeking behaviour to satisfy
seeker‟s dissatisfaction.
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2.2.3 Models of Information seeking behaviour
It is worth to notice that there are some models of information behaviour have been
presented by researchers over last few decades.
•Wilson‟s (1981) model of information seeking behaviour.
As Figure2.1 shows below, the model reveals how information needs arise and
barriers can encounter during the process of information seeking. Several points here
need to be clarified. Firstly, information needs are our secondary needs, not a
primary needs, and information needs are context-related, it is related to environment,
social role and people‟s physiological states, affective states and cognitive states. In
other words, information needs in different work role or personal experiences will be
different (such as different activities or responsibilities). Secondly, information-
seeking barriers that seekers encounter are also context-related. Finally, Wilson
agreed viewpoint of Ellis (1989), as Ellis defined that, information seeking behaviour
encompasses “staring, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, extracting,
verifying and ending.” (pp. 171)
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Firgure2.1. Wilson‟s model of information seeking behaviour.
•Dervin‟s (1983) Sense-Making theory
According to Dervin (1983), Sense-Making theory is not only a model of information
seeking behaviour, it more likely “a set of assumptions, a theoretic perspective, a
methodological approach, a set of research methods, and a practice‟ designed to cope
with information perceived as, „…a human tool designed for making sense of a
reality assumed to be both chaotic and orderly”. (pp. 7) In fact, there are three
important aspects of Sense-Making framework, namely “situation”, “gap” and
“outcome”. (pp.30) it can be seen from Figure 2.2, situation clarifies time and space,
the context and background of information seeking. Outcome is a result of
information seeking. Gap refers to difference between information seeking results
and desired situation, and it can also be a connection between situation and outcome.
This model is more problem-orientated.
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Figure 2.2. Dervin‟s (1983) Sense-Making theory.
•Ellis‟s (1989) model of information behaviour
This model presented several features regarding information seeking behaviour, they
are “starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, extracting, verifying
and ending”. (p.39) Author reveals process of information behaviour, seekers start to
search information by following footnotes or citation, then using browsing strategy
to locate information, evaluating information by checking up-to-date, relevant and
accurate information, finally, getting results and ending search. Besides, he also
considered starting, chaining, extracting, verifying and ending as micro-analysis of
search behaviour, and browsing, monitoring and differentiating as more macro-
analysis behaviours.
•Kuhlthau‟s (1991) model of information-seeking behaviour stages
This model rests on Ellis‟s information behaviour model (Figure 2.3), and regarded
feelings, thoughts, actions and tasks as factors that influence seeking process. Six
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stages are involved in Kuhlthau‟s model, namely “initiation selection”, “exploration”,
“formulation”, “collection” and “presentation”. (pp.29) Initiation is associated with
feelings and thoughts, and it defines the needs for information; Investigation refers to
seek information rely on information needs; Formulation focus on more specific field
of searching; Collection means collect relevant information to searching, and finally
presenting consequence, ending information seeking behaviour.
Figure 2.3. Kuhlthau‟s (1991) model of information-seeking behaviour stages.
•Wilson‟s (1996) model of information seeking behaviour
According to Figure 2.4, it is note that this model is based on the 1981‟s model, and
some more aspects were considered, including “decision-making”, “psychology”,
“innovation”,” health communication” and “consumer research”. (pp. 551) The
process of information-seeking behaviour has defined as follows: context of
information need; activating mechanism, which in relation to stress/coping theory;
intervening variables indicates psychological, demographic, role-related, and
26
environmental and source characteristics; the risk/reward theory and information
seeking behaviour, which contains passive attention passive search, active search and
ongoing search.
Figure 2.4. Wilson‟s (1996) model of information seeking behaviour.
2.3 Relevant concepts of Information Behaviours.
According to Liu (2009: 21) “Information behaviour is a broader concept, which
including both active and passive information seeking, information searching and
information use.”This section will interpret some terms related to information
behaviour, such as Information Seeking, Information Source, Information Strategies
and Information-seeking Barriers.
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2.3.1 Information Behaviours
In the light of literature, the term “Information behaviour” regards as “…the totality
of human behaviour in relation to sources and channels of information, including
both active and passive information seeking, and information use.” (Wilson, 2000,
pp.49) It indicated there are two types of information seeking: active and passive. Of
particular relevance to this study is the work of Case (2002), he revealed that
information behaviour contains three aspects: information seeking, unintentional
(passive) behaviour and purposive behaviours. As far as I am concerned, information
behaviour is more likely the way people seeking information, such as face to face
talking as active information seeking, as well as watching advertisements on TV as
passive information seeking. Betas (2001:1) supported this viewpoint, “Information
behaviour is the currently preferred term used to describe the many ways in which
human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek
and utilize information.” Further evidence can also be found in the report by Case
(2002:5), “Information behaviour encompasses information seeking as well as the
totality of other unintentional or passive behaviours (such as glimpsing or
encountering information), as well as purposive behaviours that do not involve
seeking, such as actively avoiding information.” All in all, information behaviour is
not only about how people seeking needed information, but also how people use
information.
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2.3.2 Information seeking
Seeking information is a fundamental and indispensable part in people‟s daily life,
and it is vital to survival. As mentioned above, according to Ellis (1989), information
seeking is related to six patterns: “starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating
monitoring, and extracting.” (pp. 171) As analyzed above, information seeking is one
part of information behaviour, and it is also a result that triggered by information
needs. It can be seen in the study by Case, (2002:5) he indicated “Information
seeking is a conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap that
you have.” Information-seeking provides people a way to answer people‟s
information needs, and it is a process for seekers to learn and solve problems.
Moreover, Information seeking is always purposive. This can be supported by Wilson
(2000:49), he stated “Information seeking behaviour is the purposive seeking for
information as a consequence of a need to satisfy same goal.” Similarly,
Marchionini‟s (1995:5) research concluded “information seeking is a process in
which humans purposefully engage in order to change their state of knowledge.” To
conclude, according to statements by Case, (2005) Wilson (2000) and Marchionini
(1998), information seeking is a purposive process which not only can satisfy
information need, but also help seekers to learn how to solve problems.
29
It is notable that there is a term “information retrieval”, which is quite similar to
“information seeking”. In fact, information retrieval is more related to human
behaviour, it means seekers know clearly about what information they want to find.
On the other hand, compare with information retrieval, information seeking is more
problem oriented, that is to say, it is more related to how people learn to solve
problems. This argument can be supported by Marchonini (1998).
Furthermore, according to Large et cl. (2001), they divided information seeking into
three types: “known-item searches, factual searches and subject searches”. (pp. 35)
In effect, known-item searches refer to locate information that seekers already known,
for example, seeking information about certain author of a book. Factual searches
means seekers intend to seek information to confirm specific fact, such as the name
of the Chinese capital. Compare with first two types, subject searches is less
straightforward, and it is open ended because seekers have little or no idea about the
results of seeking.
As a result of development of information technology, information systems are
considered by more and more researchers when they investigated information
seeking behaviours. According to Wilson (2000: 1), “Information searching
behaviour is the micro level of behaviour employed by the searched in interacting
with information systems of all kinds.” Nowadays, information seeking is not only
about satisfying information needs, but also relate to information seeking skills,
30
strategies and information use. In the recent electronic environment, information
systems affect information seeking behaviour significantly, because information need
is context-related.
2.3.3 Information source
According to a large amount of literature, information source is described as objects
that provide information. Chen and Hernon (1982) asserted Information Source is an
“Information providers”. (pp. 2), and they also divided information provider into
three categories. Firstly, interpersonal information provider, it means information
from personal experiences, such as friends, relatives or colleagues; Institutional
information provider is the second type of information source, it includes all kinds of
professional information from people who work in academic departments, such as
doctors, teachers, lawyers and so on. Lastly, media is concerned as information
provider, it refers to published books, TV, radio or video.
Furthermore, Marchionini (1995) regarded Information sources in more narrowed
context. He stated information sources are databases in the electronic environment.
“The search system is a source that represents knowledge and provides tools and
rules for accessing and using that knowledge. Here, a search system includes, for
example, people, books, libraries, and maps, as well as a variety of electronic
information system” (pp. 38) In addition, Kwasitsu (2003) analyzed the importance
31
of information sources among engineers, and concluded that people and Internet are
the two most important source of information, as well as personal file and memory.
Some literature draws attention on evaluating information source. According to
Kwasitsu (2003), there are some characteristics that influence selection of
information sources. “accessibility”, “availability”, “technical quality” (pp. 468-469).
This idea can be supported by Wilson (1996), as he reported, “access, credibility and
channel of communication” (pp. 561-562) are three major information source
characteristics. Access means information source should be accessible that seekers
can access sources easily. Credulity refers to high-quality and reliable information
resources. Channel of communication is a characteristic that influence information
sources indirectly. “…the communication channel through which the information is
received is sufficiently closely tied to source to be considered here”. (pp. 562)
However, according to the study of information seeking behaviour of securities
analysts, Baldwin and Rice (1997) concluded that personal characteristics have
insignificant influence on information sources and communication channels. In a
word, it is crucial for seekers to choose right sources or source according to their
information needs, “the most accomplished search strategy realized in the wrong
place will reveal little of interest”. (Large et al, 2001, pp. 33)
32
All in all, there are various types of information sources in different context, they
offer seekers a channel to search information, and they can support information
seeking. The quality of information sources has impact on information seeking
behaviour and results.
2.3.4 Information Seeking Strategies
Information seeking strategy is a way for seekers to use information sources to
address problems and achieve their goals. For instance, looking for books; asking
friends; relatives or colleagues; consulting experts; seeking information on
information retrieval systems and so on. According to Marchinonini‟s (1995: 72)
study, information seeking strategies are “sets of ordered tactics that consciously
selected, applied, and monitored to solve an information problem”. Strategy in
relation to information seeking process and information seeking tasks, it is aim to
reach information seekers‟ goals. Furthermore, he indicated that there are two types
of information seeking strategies, that is analytical strategies and browsing strategies.
“Analytical strategies tend to be more goals driven, whereas browsing strategies
proceed according to cues that arise in the data as the search progresses.” (pp. 73) In
fact, analytical strategies are likely to be well-planned, formal and goal driven.
Boolean retrieval, string search and online search systems are contained in analytical
strategies. Analytical strategies are systematic and deterministic. On the other hand,
browsing strategies are continuous and data driven that depend on the information
33
environment, there are many forms of browsing strategies, such as scanning an index,
observing and navigating a website. “…browsing is an approach to information
seeking that is informal and opportunistic and depends heavily on the information
environment”. (pp. 100) This viewpoint can also be found in his earlier study, “The
execution (run) of an individual‟s information-seeking system for a particular
information problem is considered an Information-Seeking Strategy.” (Marchionini,
1989: 56)
Some literature also pays attention to more specific area: occupational information
seeking. Webber and Zhu (2007) investigated Chinese adults‟ information needs
about employment, and considered that going to job centre, career service or
employment agency; looking for advertisement; asking for friends, colleagues or
family and browsing Internet are information seeking strategies. Similarly, according
to Millar and Shevlin (2001), they regarded asking career consultants and searching
on Internet as information seeking strategies when seekers looking for job vacancies.
2.3.5 Information Seeking Barriers
Information seeking barriers is an issue that most scholars tend to research in the last
few decades. In order to make information seeking process more effectively, people
should understand how to address information-seeking problems. Harris and
Dewdney (1994) offered useful insights into the reasons why the information seeking
34
barriers exist, they summarized that people have barriers to access information due to
they do not know what their information needs are; they do not know where and how
they can find and locate information; lack of skills of communication and self-
confidence; information scatter; and they received inaccurate or inappropriate
information are also result in information seeking barriers. Julien (1999) and Saxton
et al (2007) supported Harris and Dewdney‟s by using their viewpoint as framework
to investigate barriers for adolescents and school libraries, and they concluded
barriers adolescents may encounter barriers when they looking for vacancies. For
example, they do not know which information is needed; they do not know where to
search needed information; lack of awareness of existence of information sources;
information required may simply not exist.
Furthermore, according to analysis by Chen and Hernon (1982:19), they claimed
“Dervin has classed these barriers into five groups: societal, institutional, physical,
psychological and intellectual.” Saxton et al. (2007) also provide further evidence,
they stated “While we often think of information barriers in terms of physical limits
to access (e.g., a lack of information resources or the means to retrieve them),
information seeking can be hampered in multiple ways.” (pp. 201) To sum up,
barriers to information seeking can be seen during the whole process, and every
individual has different barriers in terms of both physical and psychological aspects.
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According to Wilson‟s model of information seeking behaviour, it interpreted
barriers in deeper degree, he stated that barriers during seeking process are also
context-related, and he divided barriers into three aspects: “personal barriers, social
or role-related barriers and environmental barriers”. (Wilson, 1996, pp. 556) From
the perspective of personal level, barriers can result from demographic variables
(such as age or gender); lack of knowledge; issues about economy (such as direct
economic costs or value of time); physiological characteristic. For social barriers,
interpersonal issues may encounter when information source is a person.
Environmental barriers are always in relation to time, geography and national culture.
It is fairly obvious that during the process of information seeking, seekers can
encounter various barriers. These barriers can affect choices of information sources
and information seeking strategies.
2.4 Theoretical studies in relation to Job-relation Information and
Job-related Information Seeking Behaviour
As analyzed above, the researches of concepts and terms which relevant to
Information and Information-seeking behaviour have a long history, and there are a
huge number of studies contributed to this area. In the following section, attention
will be paid on narrower field, which are Job-related Information and Job searching
process.
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2.4.1 Job-related information
Job-related information plays a vital role in our daily lives. According to Marecella
and Baxter (1994), they described information about career as survival information,
and seeking job information is a common and important activity in people‟s daily life.
Job information is not only contain information about job vacancies, job sectors and
job location, but also includes various types of information in the labour market. Job-
related information is required by both employed and unemployed people who tend
to seek job information. (Blau and Robins, 2011) Further, as Liu (2009) stated that
job information is the third most needed information among all the overseas students
in UK.
Many researches were carried on career information. For example, according to
Julien (1999), adolescents may meet some barriers when they seeking information to
make career decision. Millar and Shevlin (2003) analyzed pupils‟ job-related
information seeking behaviour based on TPB (Theory of planned behaviour).
Moreover, Webber and Zhu (2003) investigated employment information need and
information seeking process in the United Kingdom. All of these researches pointed
out that job-related information play a vital role in our lives, and many more scholars
draw their attention on it. The demands of job-related information are many more
than before.
37
2.4.2 Job searching process and strategies
As Millar and Shevlin (2003) summarized occupational information is essential to
career choice process. In the light of literature, many researchers also paid attentions
on investigating job search process. Blau and Robins (2011: 637) pointed out that job
search process need to consider several points, namely “the choice of search methods,
the choice of how many firms to contact, the rate at which offers are received, and
the acceptance or rejection of an offer.” These points interpreted indirectly how
people seeking job information.
During the process of job seeking, there are two ways that seekers can use as the job
search method: formal and informal. As Reid (1972: 493) said, formal way refers to
service centres, such as career services and career consultants, informal ways include
asking friends and relatives for help. Moreover, he summarized “informal methods of
job finding are less efficient than formal methods.” Another study on graduates‟ job
searching process by McKeown and Lindorff (2010) suggested graduates always
have higher expectation than reality about their career, they need to invest more time
on job seeking.
Further, different job search strategies also can be seen between female and male. As
Heaven (1995) concluded that woman has more external strategies and they are more
self-effort when seeking job. He also pointed out females pay more attention on
activities, such as work experiences, while males focus more on application.
38
It is apparent that different job search process reflects different information seeking
behaviours, and the difference in occupational information seeking behaviours can
lead to different career decision making.
2.5 Conclusion
To sum up, as analyzed previously, Information, as a board and abstract concept,
implies both explicit and implicit objects. Information is decided on different
background and context, which is always received, processed, disclosed, transmitted,
created and used by users. It plays a dispensable role as a root of information science.
Moreover, Information needs is a reason why people start to seek information, it
related to physiological, affective and cognitive aspect, which is mind related and
context-related. Information needs can also be divided into four levels: the visceral
need, the conscious need, the formalized need and the compromised need.
Information seeking behaviour is triggered from information needs. Indeed,
information seeking is a purposive activity for people to fulfil dissatisfaction and
achieve goals. More importantly, it provides a way to solve problems and learning.
Another essential term is Information Source, which is also known as information
provider. According to previous literature, information source provides interpersonal
information, institutional information and professional information, such as friends,
relatives or databases. Accessibility, credibility and communication of channels are
39
three standards to evaluate information sources. In addition, different usages of
information sources lead to various information seeking strategies. There are two
types of strategies were identified, namely analytical and browsing. The effectively
use of information seeking strategies can, to some extent, avoid information seeking
barriers. In fact, seekers may encounter five different levels of barriers during their
seeking process: societal, institutional, physical, psychological and intellectual. It is
worth to conclude that Information source, Information seeking strategies and
Information seeking barriers have some relations. That is to say, they affect each
other, and they consist of Information Behaviour.
It is also valuable to investigate Job-related information, as previous literature
described it as survival information. Some scholars offered researches in this specific
scope. It can be concluded that different choices of job search processes result in
different information seeking behaviours, which could affect seekers‟ career decision
making. Furthermore, previous studies not only provided theoretical concepts, but
also offered some ideas about how to organize research. For instance, providing the
way to choose and design methodologies.
40
Chapter 3 Methodology
According to Clough and Nutbrown (2002: 29), “A methodology shows how
research questions are articulated with questions asked in the field. Its effect is a
claim about significance.” In fact, methodology is a way to approach research
objectives and research questions. Clough and Nutbrown (2002) also considered that
a comprehensive research is aiming to explore issues, rather than prove viewpoints,
and research should be persuasive, purposive, positional and political. In order to
achieve to adequate research, methodology is indispensable. In this chapter, a series
of methodologies will be discussed and analyzed to explain the reasons to choose
these methodologies in this study,
3.1 Analysis of three existing studies
According to Liu (2009: 30), “Secondary research is the analysis of data collected by
other researches, which make related studies in the field. Secondary research is the
use of the existing data, which may include both quantitative and qualitative data, to
investigate and explore particular research issues.” The chapter 2 interpreted
literature review of this study, and three existing studies will be analyzed in the latter
section. The literature review and secondary research are two similar but different
concepts. Indeed, literature review is a summary of previous studies in particular
filed, it focuses on general background, however, secondary research pays more
41
attention on analyze data and figure from previous researches, it can be evidence
when compare the data and statistic of previous researches with this study.
Mcneil and Chapman (1985) regarded secondary data as “Data from earlier
sociological research”, and they divided secondary data into categories: Statistic,
Critical review, Document, and Print and visual media. There are some similar
studies have been done in specific areas of Job-related information and Job-related
information seeking behaviours. These existing studies investigated the process of
job search in terms of three aspects: information sources/channels, Information
seeking behaviour and Information seeking barriers.
Numerous benefits can be seen by secondary research from different perspectives,
“cost and time; high quality data; opportunity for longitudinal analysis; subgroup
analysis; opportunity for cross-cultural analysis; more time for data analysis;
reanalysis may offer new interpretations; and the wider obligations of social
researcher.” (Bryman, 2001, pp. 202-205) That is to say, from the perspective of cost
and time, a great deal of data is available from Data Archive system and back copies
are available from most of academic libraries, this provide access to good quality
data rather than conducting a data collection exercise yourself, it is time saved and
economical; The quality of secondary data is always extremely high, in other words,
the sampling procedures are rigorous, the sample are often cover various levels and
regions, and data are produced by highly experienced scholars, therefore, secondary
42
data is highly reliable and valuable; Secondary research offers a way for researchers
to have an analysis in different groups; Secondary research enables researchers free
from collecting fresh data, which means you have more time to analyze data more
precisely, finally, reanalyze data could offer a further insight and maximize the use of
data.
It is admit that there are some limitations of secondary research. Although there are
not many limitations, researchers still paid attention on the drawbacks of secondary
research. As Bryman (2001) stated, limitations of existing data can be summarized as
“Lack of familiarity with data; Complexity of the data; No control over data quality;
and absence of key variables”. (pp. 200-201) It is nature that you are unfamiliar with
secondary data that collected by others, so familiarization is a necessary part during
the process of analyzing secondary data. Moreover, secondary analysts lack of
control over data quality, and it is not possible that data sets can meet all the
secondary analysts‟ needs, so that the reliability of secondary data need to be
considered. In addition, one or more key variables may be overlooked due to data is
collected by others for their own aims. It means analysts need to pay attention to
investigating secondary data sets.
In this report, the analysis of three existing studies can be a background and basis of
this study. It provides a way to compare and contrast data or statistic between
previous researches and the primary data of this research, finding differences and
43
changes during the last few decades. For instance, the research question “Compared
to 10 years ago, are there any changes in using different information channels?” can
be addressed by comparing secondary data to fresh data from the questionnaire.
After full consideration of both benefits and drawbacks of secondary research, in
order to avoid limitations of analysis of existing studies and achieve a more
persuasive study, primary research will conduct as well.
3.2 Primary Research
Compare with secondary search, primary search draws attention on a collection of
fresh data sets. According to analysis of secondary research, primary research can be
a complementary method to secondary research, it is “timely, focused, and involves
no unnecessary data collection, which could be a wasted effort”. (Nargundkar, 2007:
14) In this research, both quantitative approach and qualitative approach will be
involved.
3.2.1 Quantities approach
According to Bryman (1998: 11), he identified that quantitative research as “The
survey‟s capacity for generating quantifiable data on large numbers of people who
are known to be representative of a wider population by many practitioners as a
44
means of capturing many of the ingredients of a science”. This concept implies that
quantitative research is an approach enables researchers to collect numerical data to
analyze the relationship between theory and project, it is a deductive approach, and
questionnaire is an example of quantitative approach.
There are some main steps to implement quantitative research, namely “Theory;
Hypothesis; Research design; Devise measures of concepts; Select research site (s);
Select research subjects/respondents; Administer research instruments/collect data;
process data; analyze data; findings/conclusions; and write up findings/conclusions”.
(Bryman, 2000, pp. 63) The hypothesis is deduced from theory, and next, selecting a
way to design research. During this step, researchers need to pay attention to the
external validity of findings. It is worth to notice that reliability and validity are two
important aspects need to consider. Then, determining the selection of research site(s)
and research subject before starting to collect data, the finally part is analyzing data
to generate conclusion. In a word, this is a process that moving from theory to
conclusion, and also a basis of designing questionnaire of this research.
3.2.2 Qualitative approach
Compare with quantitative approach, the qualitative approach places more emphasis
on words and human behaviours rather than numerical data collection. “The best-
known of these methods is participant observation, which entails the sustained
immersion of the researcher among these whom he or she seeks to study with a view
45
to generating a rounded, in-depth account of the group, organization, or whatever”.
(Bryman, 1998: 45) The qualitative approach offers researchers an opportunity to
express their commitments, values or norms from different perspectives, and also
provides a way for researchers to describe detailed social settings they investigate. In
this research, interviews will be conducted as qualitative approach.
Several main steps also can be seen during the process of implement qualitative
research. Firstly, looking for general research questions, this step enables researchers
getting to know relevant general questions about the topic. Then, selecting relevant
site(s) and subjects to determine where and what research is conducted. The
following steps are collecting data, interpreting data and writing conclusions.
3.2.3 Combining quantitative research and qualitative approach
As mentioned above, quantitative approach and qualitative approach are two main
methods accomplish this research project. Quantitative approach and qualitative
approach focus on different aspects and perspectives. Compare with qualitative
research, which is inductive and interpreted, qualitative research is more attempting
to be deductive and objective. Quantitative research is a proved process of theory,
nature science, and in particular positivism, whereas qualitative research is a
producer of theory, interpretivism and constructionsim.
46
Some more differences are identified by scholars. As Williaman (2001: 253) stated,
quantitative analysis uses the syntax of mathematical operation to investigate the
properties of data”. Quantitative research is more relevant to number, especially hard
and reliable data, and it is the point of view of researchers. “Qualitative researchers
are seen as using words in the presentation of analyzes of society”. (Bryman, 2004:
284) it is a point of view of participants, which can provide rich and deep data to
researchers. All in all, quantitative research pays more attention to overall fact and
figures, while qualitative research focuses more on human behaviour and tacit view.
It seems that quantitative research and qualitative research are conflict with each
other, but they are actually complementing each other, this viewpoint can be
supported by scholars. As Wilson indicated, “quantitative research methods were
adopted that were inappropriate to the study of human behaviour”. (in Liu, 2009: 33)
In contrast, qualitative research intends to explore issues about human behaviour and
viewpoints. Further, because of the nature of quantitative approach and qualitative
approach, it is wise that we combine quantitative research and qualitative research
together to support each other. Hammersley (1996), Bryman (2004) and Mcneill and
Chapman (2005) proposed a multi-strategy to integrate quantitative research and
qualitative research.
47
There are some benefits of combining two approaches, because of quantitative and
qualitative methods could facilitate each other. Multi-strategy research provides a
way to test conclusions and results of research, what, in other words, quantitative
research always lacks of analysis in deeper level, which could be complemented by
qualitative research. Moreover, objective data and figures from quantitative research
could complement subjective views from qualitative research. Bryman (2004) also
considered that the findings of quantitative research could address the general issues
in qualitative research, whereas qualitative research could explain problems that meet
in quantitative research, for example, follow-up interview is a complement of
previous questionnaire in this research. Flick (2007: 93) said “Qualitative findings
may facilitate the interpretation of relationships between variables in quantitative
data sets.” In addition, according to the conclusion that be provided by Flick (2007:
93), “the relationship between micro-levels and macro-levels in a substantial area can
be clarified by combining qualitative and quantitative research, which can be
appropriate in different stages of the research process”. It is obvious that quantitative
research and qualitative research can be a complement to each other, because they
are different but not conflicting.
After a well preoccupation, multi-strategy research will be applied in this research,
and both quantitative and qualitative researches will be conducted. Questionnaires
are designed and distributed first to collect quantitative data sets, and then follow-up
48
interviews are organized to approach qualitative data. This will be explained fully in
the next chapter.
49
Chapter 4 Implementation of research methods
According to chapter 3, the reasons to choose methodologies that use in this project
was already stated. It is important to notice that conducting successful research is not
only regarding the correct choosing of methods, but also regarding how to
complement the methods and use data. This chapter will present and describe the
process that conducting methods in details.
4.1 Implementation of Secondary Research
As Walliman (2001: 230-231) reported “libraries and archives, museums and
collections, government departments, the Internet, and the field” are essential
channels to access reliable and accurate resources of secondary research. The main
secondary data sets in this study are from Internet University‟s databases, they are
highly trustworthy. In addition, according to Bryman (2004: 196), one kind of
secondary data is “the secondary analysis of data that have been collected by other
researchers”. There are three existing studies were chosen, and data and statistics in
these three studies are considered as secondary data sets. These secondary researches
provide relevant data sets from three different aspects: Information Sources/channels,
Information-seeking behaviour, and Information seeking barriers, the data sets are
highly relevant and representative. In fact, the secondary data can be considered as a
complement for primary research data and evidence to address research question, it
50
will be analyzed and compared with the primary research data sets of this study.
4.2 Questionnaire Design and Distribution
The target of this research is postgraduate students in Sheffield, and this narrower
scope could lead to a more feasible study. Ethical Research Form was approved by
Information School at the University of Sheffield. Considering ethical issues, all of
the information from participants would be protected, and the data from survey will
be saved in a personal computer with passwords. The privacy, religion and safety of
every participant will be protected fully. The responses of the questionnaire would be
kept confidential. Further, before participants doing the formal questionnaire, all the
details of questionnaires would be clarified and informed to the prospective
participants entirely, including the topic, research aim, research content, and how
much time is needed to finish questionnaire. I sent a statement to every participant
via email.
The process of design and distribute the questionnaire is divided into three steps in
this research. According to Czaja and Blair (2005), they categorized the development
and completion of a survey into five stages: “Survey design and preliminary planning;
Pretesting; Final survey and planning; Data collection; and Data coding, data-file
construction, analysis, and final report”. (pp. 11)
51
In this research project, the design of questionnaire sample used the first three stages,
which are survey design and preliminary planning, pretesting and final survey and
planning. As Czaja and Blair (2005) pointed out that, in the first stage, the research
questions and problems should be clarified and specified. Researchers should
consider the type of questions in survey during the phase of designing, such as how
many open-ended questions or closed-ended questions that involved in
questionnaires. Moreover, researchers need to pay attention to the feasibility of
research within available time and resources, that is to say, the estimation of total
cost and time to finish questionnaire is needed. More importantly, an initial
questionnaire should be produced in this stage, and the initial questionnaire is
prepared to be tested in the next stage. The initial questionnaire was finished within 2
weeks, and there are 24 questions, including 4 open-ended questions and 20 closed–
ended questions. The estimated time to finish questionnaire was 8 minutes. Then, this
initial questionnaire was tested in the pretesting stage.
In the step 2 of the whole survey process, the initial questionnaire has been tested.
“This step entails preparing the sampling frame, record-keeping forms, and survey
questions, and then testing these items to see how well the process is working”.
(Czaja and Blair, 2005, pp. 20) The initial questionnaire samples were sent to five
participants who come from different countries, the aim of this was to check time
consumes and whether the questions are easy or difficult to understand, whether all
the questions make sense. The initial questionnaire sample was sent to supervisor via
52
email as well for correction and modification.
Afterward, the initial questionnaire has been corrected, and the final questionnaire
has been developed after confirming all the questions are appropriate. According to
Czaja and Blair (2005), they stated that “During this stage, final changes should be
made in the sampling plan, the questionnaire, interview-training procedures and
materials, data-coding plans for analyzing the data”. (pp. 24) Depend on the results
from pretesting phase, the numbers of questions were reduced from 24 to 20 to make
sure all the questions are closely relevant to research questions and research
problems. Besides, needed time to finish the questionnaire was control around 6
minutes. 2 open questions were changed to multiple-choice questions to make they
are more specific. Depend on suggestions from the supervisor, the presentation and
structure of the questionnaire was modified to facilitate better understanding. In this
case, after consideration of sample size, sampling methods, and research area, a
survey planning has been determined as well.
Lastly, the final questionnaire (Appendix 1) was decided to distribute in two ways. In
order to facilitate access to questionnaire, and enables more students to access the
questionnaire even from far distance, the questionnaire was published via a survey
website named “Surveymonkey”, this website provides a web link to access
questionnaire. In this case, invitation letters were sent via university‟s email to invite
all postgraduate students in the University of Sheffield. The email clarified clearly
53
the aim of this research, the needed time, explanation of ethical issues, and a web
address link which can access questionnaire online was attached in the email. What is
more, 30 invitation letters with web site link were sent to friends and schoolmates,
who are postgraduate students. In a word, the questionnaire was distributed via
university‟s email and invitation letters to friends and classmates. The target
respondents were sampling randomly. All the data will be presented and analyzed in
the next chapter.
4.3 Interview Method
There are four follow-up interviews in this study, and four interviewees are already
filled a questionnaire. Four interviewees were asked to sign a consent form, which
means they agree to do the interviews voluntarily. There are 8 questions were asked,
and each of the question took around 3 minutes, so total time consume was
controlled within 30 minutes. According to Liu (2009), he summarized the design of
question should avoid “long questions, double-barrelled question, questions
involving jargon, leading questions and biased question”. (pp. 40) After full
consideration, the interview questions were designed and piloted. In addition,
qualitative data will be analyzed in two ways according to suggestions from Bryman
(2004) and Strauss and Corbin (1998), namely analytic induction and grounded
theory. “analytic induction is an approach to analysis of data in which the researcher
seeks universal explanations of phenomena by pursuing the collection of data until
54
no cases that are inconsistent with a hypothetical explanation of a phenomenon are
found”. (Bryman, 2004, pp. 400) Besides, Strauss and Corbin (1998) stated “theory
that was derived from data, systematically gathered and analyzed through the
research process”. (pp. 401)
4.4 Conclusion
Both quantitative approach and qualitative approach are applied in this study, and
sheer volume of data has been collected. Both questionnaires and interviews used
random sampling method. A questionnaire survey was completed through three
stages: survey design and preliminary stage; pretesting; and final survey design and
planning stage. Besides, the questionnaire was distributed online in two ways:
invitation emails were sent via university‟s email; and 30 invitations to friends and
classmates. Four follow-up interviews were carried out next, and participants are
who already finished questionnaires. Interviews can be a complement for
questionnaire, that is to say, some more useful details can be interpreted via
interviews. Both questionnaire and interviews were designed, pretested and modified
before distribution. In addition, a great number of secondary data from three existing
studies were consulted, and it can be evidence when compare with the primary data
of this study. Although this research project was well planned and designed, there are
some limitations cannot be avoided and ignored. These limitations will be interpreted
in the latter chapter.
55
Chapter 5 Secondary research results
As mentioned in chapter 3, secondary research and literature review are two similar
but different concepts, literature review was interpreted in chapter 2 by focusing on
more general terms, and it can be a background of the study. This chapter will
present the results of secondary research, which will analyze the data and statistics
from three existing studies, and it can be evidence when compare results of previous
researches and this study.
In fact, the investigation of information-seeking behaviour has a long history, which
can be found nearly a century ago. Most of these studies investigated Information,
Information seeking and Information-seeking Behaviour by targeting different
specific groups of people. According to the theme of this study, three previous
studies are relatively important in the “career information-seeking behaviour” field.
More importantly, three studies provide some facts and statistics for this study in
different sides. The following sections will present and discuss some data from
previous studies in three different aspects: Information needs and channels; career
information-seeking behaviour; and career information-seeking barriers.
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5.1 Previous Study 1
“Employment information needs of Chinese young adults in Sheffield”
This study was conducted by Webber and Zhu, (2007) they investigated Chinese
young adults‟ occupational information needs, information channels, and their career
information seeking behaviour in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured
questionnaires and follow-up interviews were combined in the research, and 78
responses were received. This report analyzed information-seeking behaviours of
Chinese adults over the last 6 months, it categorized information channels as
“Internet; Friends‟ or others‟ recommendation; Magazine/newspaper/TV/radio; Local
community services; Others”. (pp. 228) The participants were asked which
information channels had been used; whether information channels are useful; which
their favourite information channel is; whether information channels meet their
information need; benefits and drawbacks of channels for information seeking.
According to the survey results, a majority (89%) of respondents said it is important
to access career information, and the Internet was the most popular channels for
participates to identify job vacancies. 95% respondents prefer to use the Internet, 57%
used job centre, and 38% used newspapers, magazines and journals. Further, 33% of
the respondents found job through local job centre, 24% of participants found job by
magazines, in other words, largest number of people indicated that magazine met
their information need, and only 12% thought that occupational information needs
were met by local job centre, although most of people found job though it. Moreover,
57
it is interesting that the favourite channel was not the one which information seekers
intend to recommend to others. For example, the most popular information channels
is Internet, but only 20% respondents recommended to friends, otherwise, 30%
respondents prefer to use magazine as information source, and 90% of them
recommended to others. For the aspect of information seeking barriers, 55%
respondents said they had encountered barriers when looking for career information
and 80% of them thought it was helpful to provide career information for minority
groups. However, the reasons that seekers feel difficult to find information were not
explored.
Finally, several conclusions have been made as follows:
·Internet becomes the most important information sources, and other sources still
continue to be used, such as magazine, books and so on.
·The information channel that seekers used most does not mean most valuable.
·Training in effective use of Internet, informal contacts and news can increase
satisfaction of information seeking results.
·Increased sensitivity to cultural and social contexts and realities by agencies seeking
to help the unemployment would be valuable.
(pp. 282-283)
58
5.2 Previous Study 2
“How students search for vacation employment”.
Millar and Bailey (2003) carried out research to investigate job search methods that
students used when they looking for summer vacation employment, and the
effectiveness of different methods. Quantitative research has been conducted in this
study, and data has been collected from the students at Coventry University, 1918
students took part in the survey. The survey results indicated that, there are two types
of way for students to seek career information, namely formal and informal.
According to figures, there were slightly more students used informal job search
methods to seek vacancies, which means 53% of respondents prefer to use informal
search methods. What is more, the figure pointed out former employers is the most
popular informal ways for students to find jobs, and then, family/friends and
advertisement followed, which represented 36.4% and 32.6% respectively. On the
other hand, 46.3% of respondents were likely to use formal employers to seek
vacation employment, and there were only 18.6% of respondents used job centre to
seek career information. It is worth to notice that this is different with survey results
from Webber and Zhu (2009) which indicated the job centre was one of the most
used channels to find out occupational information.
Moreover, the results showed gender difference leads to different seeking behaviours.
As statistics pointed out, compare with male students, 76.5% male students could
seek full-time job successfully, it seems female students are harder to obtain work
59
than female. The same situation was appeared when students sought part-time work.
It can be concluded as follows:
· “a female student was less likely to obtain a job when she sought part-time and/or
full-time work;”
· “a student with dependants is more likely to get work if he or she searches solely
for part-tie or full-time work rather than searching for both;”
·“two of the statistically significant search techniques were common on all of the
models and proved to be most successful. These were going to the Job centre and
responding to newspaper advertisements.” (Millier and Bailey, 1997: 713)
5.3 Previous Study 3
“Barriers to Adolescents’ Information Seeking for Career Decision Making”
This research (Julien, 1999) analyzed information seeking behaviours of adolescents
in Canada, and investigated how information seeking influenced their career decision
making. The survey was conducted through 400 questionnaires and 30 semi
structured interviews. According to the report, most of the adolescents encountered
barriers during their seeking process. There were three major barriers that seekers
met during the process of seeking information. 59.7% of respondents indicated that
they did not know how to find needed information for their career decision making.
39.7% of respondents pointed out they could not find out needed information very
60
soon, and they had to go to many different places to get results. 13.2% even thought
needed information did not exist. Moreover, lack of specific and necessary
information could result in information seeking barriers. Further, 37.9% of
adolescents said they are unconfident about their job searching skills, and one fifth of
them did not know how to seek different types of employments. According to
interview data, barriers could be categorized into external and internal. 23% of
interviewees indicated time constraints is major information seeking barrier, and 13%
of them said dissatisfaction of using school or public libraries hinder their
information seeking. 17% female participants noted that difficulties to use school‟s
career service could also be an information seeking barrier.
Some more barriers that respondents encountered can be seen from their comments
“being daunted by the volume of information needed, lacking confidence or trust in
help providers, institutional problems, and emotional barriers”. (Julien, 1999: 43)
These barriers also provided some suggestions to information service providers, such
as libraries, career service and guidance counsellors.
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5.4 Conclusion
According to the three existing researches, it seems can be concluded that, the most
commonly used information channels are the Internet, Job centre,
Magazines/Newspaper, Friends/relatives. It is notable that Internet is the most
favourite channels to seek career information, and the magazine was a channel that
largest number of respondents recommended to others. In addition, in the light of
three studies, the vast majority of respondents pointed out they encountered barriers
during the information seeking process. Precisely, barriers can be summarized as
follows: seekers did not know where to find out needed information; seekers had to
go many places to get results; some seekers thought needed information were not
exist; institutional problems; and emotional barriers. Further, Studies are also
indicated that female were less likely to secure jobs successfully than male.
The data and analysis of three reports can provide some clues and evidence for this
study, and the statistic and data will be compared and discussed further with this
study‟s primary data in latter chapters.
62
Chapter 6 Primary research results and analysis
6.1 Questionnaire results
6.1.1 Response Rate
As mentioned above, there were two major ways applied in this research. The
questionnaire was published online via “Surveymonkey” website that enables
participants to access. Invitation letters with web link to access questionnaire were
sent through the university‟s email to relevant groups (postgraduate students). In
addition, 30 invitation letters of online questionnaire were sent for friends and
classmates, who are postgraduate students, all questionnaires from friends and
classmates were completed and received.
Totally, 145 responses were received via online questionnaire, 30 responses from
friends and classmates, and the rest of them from other postgraduate students in
Sheffield. There were 19 responses partially responded, so 126 questionnaires were
valid, and a valid response rate is 87%. The response rate was higher than the
expectation. Although the respondent scale only represented a small number of
postgraduate students in Sheffield, the figure and data could also interpret and
analyze their career information seeking behaviour to some extent, and this may be
the most feasible way to collect data.
63
6.1.2 Profile of Participants’ General Information
There were 126 postgraduate students took part in this research, 71 of the
respondents are female, which accounted for 56.3%, while 55 (43.7%) are male. A
majority of students were full-time students. Indeed, 87.3% (110 respondents) were
taking full-time course, and just 12.7% (16 respondents) were part-time students.
More precisely, there were 49 male students taking full-time course, while only 6
male were studying part-time course. For these female students, 61 of them were
taking full-time course, 10 female were part-time students. Details about gender and
study period can be found in Table 1 as follows.
Table 1
Gender and Course Period of the Participant (N=126).
Male Female Total No. Total %
Full-time students 49 61 110 87.3
Part-time students 6 10 16 12.7
Total No. 55 71 126 100%
Total % 43.7 56.3 100%
Participants were asked about their nationality, according to data, all of them come
from various countries, and the number of Chinese respondents and British
respondents was quite similar. Precisely, 44 students (34.9% of respondents) come
from China, and 43 respondents (34.1%) are English. Then followed by Indian (9
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respondents), Taiwan (5 respondents) and German (4 respondents). It is obvious that
Chinese was one of the largest groups in this research. As Webber and Liu (2007)
reported that “The Chinese ethnic group was the fastest growing in UK between
2001 and 2003, with an increase in Chinese population from 3400 to 4900 in that
period in South Yorkshire”. (pp. 224) This viewpoint can be reflected and proved
here.
Furthermore, according to the question about participants‟ first language, data can be
found below in Figure 6.1. As can be seen from data, the largest amount of
respondents (45.5%) said Chinese as their first language, and Chinese is most
commonly used languages may due to Chinese students accounted for the largest
amount of participants. 45 students (44.6%) chose English as their first language may
result from British were the second largest groups among all the participants. This
can be concluded that, generally, participants prefer to use their official language as
their first language.
65
Figure 6.1. First Language of the Respondents.
In order to know, whether different course contents will affect students‟ information
seeking behaviour, the participant was asked what subjects they were studying, the
details are showed as follow.
Table 2
Different Course Contents of the Participants (N=126).
Rank Subjects No. %
1 Social Science 50 39.7
2 Business 21 16.7
3 Medicine, Bimolecular and Biomedical science
and Dentistry
20 15.9
4 Engineering 13 10.3
5 Science 11 8.7
6 Architecture, Landscape and Town Planning 6 4.8
7 Arts and Humanities 5 4.0
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As can be seen from Table 2, a majority of students were studying social science,
which represented 39.7% (50 respondents). About 16.7% (21) of the students studied
business subject. Almost the same number of students from medicine, bimolecular
and biomedical science and dentistry departments. Only 6 (2.8%) and 5 (4.0%)
respondents were studying architecture/landscape/town planning and art/humanities
respectively. The difference in course content may reflect different occupational
information needs and information seeking behaviour, and this will be analyzed in
latter sections.
It is also worth to notice that the largest number of students (42.9%) indicated they
do not have any plan to continue study after graduating, and they intend to look for
jobs, this career information need can be a trigger of career information seeking
behaviour, which agree with Wilson (1998)‟ findings that information needs is a
purpose or reason why people start to seek information.
6.1.3 Profile of Employment Information Needs
In order to identify postgraduate students‟ occupational information needs in
Sheffield, several questions were asked in this survey, these questions are listed as
follows.
· Where do you want to find job in near future?
· Do you prefer to choose job in your hometown or outside hometown?
67
· What types of job are you looking for?
· Which sectors are you looking for?
All of the four questions above are multiple choices, which enable respondents to
choose one or more options, and this may explore their information needs most. An
open-ended option was provided to specify other occupational information needs.
As can be seen from questionnaire data, a majority of respondents (60.3%, 70 in
number) claimed they were looking for jobs or they will look for jobs in the United
Kingdom, 43.7% of the respondents (55) prefer to work in the rest of the world, only
21.4% of students (27) chose the job location in Europe (excluding UK). In addition,
as Chinese and British were two largest groups among all the participants, it is
valuable to further analyze data about the Chinese and British.
Figure 6 2. Comparison of Desirable Job Location between Chinese and British.
Chinese
Chinese
Chinese
British
British
British
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
UK Europe(excluding UK) Rest of world
Chinese
British
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It is obvious from Figure 6.2 that UK is the most popular places for both English and
Chinese respondents to look for jobs, whereas fewest Chinese and British prefer to
work in Europe (excluding UK). There are 24 (52.2%) Chinese chose job location in
the UK. Similarly, most of the British chose UK as their desirable job location, which
represents 86.4% (28 respondents). These results suggests that most of British want
to work in the hometown, this can be supported in the question next, when
participants were asked whether they wish to choose work in your hometown or
outside hometown, the largest number of British chose working in the hometown
(56.8% of respondents). Moreover, the data and figures about participants‟ various
career information needs could reflect their different information seeking behaviour,
such as different choices of language that participants use during their career
information seeking process. This will be compared in the latter section.
Respondents were asked what types of job they are looking for. As questionnaire data
shows, a great number of students (86.2% of respondents, 106 in number) reported
graduate vacancies for finalists and graduates were their first choices. They were also
asked to specify which job sector they are looking for. Some details can be seen as
follow.
69
Figure 6.3. Desirable Job Sectors of the Participants.
Figure 6.3 listed top 11 job sectors that respondents chose in the survey. As can be
seen from Figure 3 above, except “All Other Responses”, 26.6% of the respondents
(29 in number) said occupational information about General Management sector was
the most popular information that they intended to look for, Information Service
comes second (24.8% of the participants), Administration and Finance listed third
and fourth, which accounted for 23.9 % (26 respondents) and 22% (24 respondents)
respectively.
70
Besides, an open-ended option was provided in this question for participants to
specify other desirable sectors. According to answers, there were 32 responses from
other options, after calculation, 14 respondents (43.8%) stated that Health Care is
their desirable sector to work, few of the responses were “Academic”, “Library
work”, “Governmental positions”, “Social work” and so on. Also apparent in the
question data was that all of the 14 respondents who chose Health Care as satisfying
job were studying Psychotherapy, Public Health, Molecular Medicine or Oral
Pathology. Likewise, for these 29 respondents who chose General Management
sector, a majority of them (70%) were studying management relevant subject, such as
information Management, Management, Information System Management or
Electronic and Library Management. Also, 73.7% (20) of the respondents who chose
Information Service as the desirable sector came from Information School and
Computer Science.
As mentioned in the literature review earlier, according to the model of information
seeking behaviour from Wilson (1981), he indicated that information needs is
context-related, it is affected by environment, social role and people‟s physiological
states, affective states and cognitive states. In this case, it is not difficult to conclude
that the occupational information needs for participants were influenced by subjects
and course content. That is to say, participants from different subjects may equip
with different affective states and cognitive states, which lead to their different
requires of information during their seeking process.
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6.1.4 Profile of Information Seeking Behaviour
6.1.4.1 Information Resource
Appendix 2 summarized 13 types of information sources that participants used, and
how frequency did they use during the process of seeking job-related information. In
this question, a list of information sources was offered for participants to choose, and
participant should indicate how frequency they used these sources as well:
“Frequently”, “Quite a lot”, “Just occasionally”, Never” or “Intent to use it in the
future”. Open-ended options was provided in the last row
The data and statistics from Appendix 2 showed that the Internet is the most
commonly used information sources, 71.7% of respondents (91 in number) used it as
information channel frequently, and the proportion was much higher than Family and
friends, which was second the most popular sources. (represented only 13%) In
addition, most of the students used services that were provided by university just
occasionally, 85% of respondents (105 in number) went to University job centre and
university career service several times. It is also worth to notice that most of students
(66.1% of respondents) have never used mobile phone to seek job-related
information, and 50.8% of respondents (63 in number) have never used journals to
get job-related information.
72
The result is different from the previous study by Webber and Zhu (2007). As
referred in secondary research, Webber and Zhu (2007) stated that newspapers and
journals listed third the most popular information sources for young adults to seek
employment information in Sheffield. A similar research results can be seen from Liu
(2009)‟s study, he claimed that journals was listed top five most used information
source in Sheffield. However, the targeted participants for Webber and Zhu (2007)‟s
research were all young adults in Sheffield, and Liu (2009) focused on all types of
information, these two researches were carried out in broader scope, the data and
figure are more likely to represent the situation in that time.
Moreover, 13% of the respondents (16) reported they intended to use employment
agency to seek job-related information in the future, 12.1% (15) said they may use
careers consultant for future job seeking, 13 students (10.7%) indicated they may
read career publications in the future to look for job-related information. This trend
indicates some potential information channels that students may use to look for
vacancies in the future.
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Table 3
Rank of Top Five the Most Used Information Sources.
Subtotal= used frequently+ quite a lot +occasionally
Rank Information Source No. %
1 Internet 122 96.1
2 Family and friends 107 86.9
3 Advertisement 97 79.5
4 Newspaper 90 72.5
5 University career
service
87 70.2
It is apparent that the top five of the most used information sources were the Internet,
Family and friends, Advertisement, Newspaper, University career service, which
represented 96.1%, 86.9%, 79.5%, 72.5% and 70.2% respectively. Further, according
to answers from open-ended option, there were four comments made by respondents,
and three of them mentioned “website” was their most used information channels.
Here, this study considers website into Internet category. The results of this study
represents differently from other existing studies. (see Table 4 below)
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Table 4
Comparison of information sources used in this survey and other 4 similar studies in
Sheffield.
Study Mallier
and
Bailey
(1997)
IER (1999) Webber
and Zhu
(2007)
Liu
(2009)
Findings of
this study
Respondents 1515
university
students
5522
graduates
74 young
adults
57
overseas
students
126
postgraduate
students
Internet - 37% 95% 100% 96.1%
Family and
friends
36.4% - 27% 94.7% 86.9%
Advertisement 32.6% - - - 79.5%
Newspaper - 32% 38% 82.5% 72.5%
University
career service
- 55% - - 70.2%
-: This information source was not used in this survey.
The comparison of information sources in Table 4 illustrates changes in choosing
information channels to seek needed information over the last 10 years. There are
four previous studies have been done in the similar filed. The three of them from
Secondary Research, and the one from IER (1999) which is quite representative and
can provide more figure and data for comparison. It can been seen from Table 4 that,
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the Internet is the most popular channels for seekers to search information except
report by IER (1999), and there was no data in Mallier and Bailey‟s (1997) research,
the reason for this may due to the less developed information technology which leads
to low popularity of Internet 10 years ago. In this case, university career service, as
an alternative option to look for occupational information, was more popular than the
Internet in 1999, 55% of graduates used university career service, while the Internet
represented 37% in 1995. (see Table 4, column 3) The data also shows that family
and friends (86.9%) ranked second most used channels in this study, this is
considerably higher ranking than in Liu‟s (2009) research, as mentioned above, his
research targeted all levels of overseas students and all types of information, whereas
this study did not, and factors associated with this difference may account for higher
popularity of newspapers at that time. All in all, the Internet is the most popular
information sources in recent days, and the use of Internet was increased
dramatically when compare with 10 years ago, but not big changes were made in
recent 5 years. Also more participants considered family and friends as useful source
to seek career information from 2007 till now.
Participants were asked whether they think information sources that they used were
helpful. According to Table 5, there appeared to be a correlation between the
popularity of the information sources and perceived helpfulness of the information
sources to some extent. Indeed, 85.4% of respondents (87) said family and friends is
the channel that very useful and quite helpful, 70.2% of them (80) thought
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employment agency is the second most helpful information channels, then comes
university career service (65.5% of respondents), Internet (65.3%) and career
consultant (64.1%). As mentioned above (Table 3), the top five most used
information sources are: the Internet, family and friends, advertisement, newspaper
and university career service, it is reasonable to conclude that the helpfulness of
information sources that respondents considered possible lead to the most used
information sources, because Internet, family and friends and university career
service were three information sources that respondents regarded as most helpful,
and these three channels were also showed in top five most used information
channels.
Participants were asked whether they would recommend information sources to
others, the summaries can be seen in Table 5 below.
Table 5
Comparison between Perceived Helpfulness of Information Channels and
Information Channel Recommended to Others.
Helpfulness Recommended
Rank Information source No. % Information source No. %
1 Family and friends 87 85.4 Internet 70 55.1
2 Employment agency 80 70.2 University career service 26 22.4
3 University career service 77 65.5 University job centre 22 19.5
4 Internet 75 65.3 Family and friends 22 19
77
5 Career consultant 73 64.1 Advertisement 13 11.3
The Table 5 above shows the top five information channels that respondents thought
were most useful, namely the Internet, family and friends, employment agency,
university career service and career consultant, and it also indicated the top five
information sources that students recommended to others: the Internet, University
career service, University job centre, Family and friends and Advertisement. It is
interesting to find that the most useful channel that respondents claimed was not
always the one which was chosen to recommend to others, this point was agree with
Webber and Zhu‟s (2007), which was summarized in Secondary Research results. As
can be seen from Table 5 and Appendix 3, Family and friends, as the most useful
channels (87 respondents claimed), only 22 students would recommend to others,
and Internet is the most recommended channels, and 65.3% respondents thought it
useful, which only listed fourth. In contrast, job centre and advertisement were two
channels which listed top five most recommended information resources, but there
was no single respondent would recommend to others.
In addition, there was only one other option from respondent, “My undergraduate
institution has a programme that matches students up with alumni in particular
sectors for networking purposes”.
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In order to address research question (Chapter 1.2), this study compares choice and
use of information sources between different genders. The details are summarized as
follows.
Table 6
Comparison of Choice and Perceived Use of Information Sources between Different
Genders.
Rank Male (Total number =55) Female (Total number=71)
Usefulness of Information
Sources
% Usefulness of Information
Sources
%
1 Employment agency 65.5 Advertisement 67.6
2 University career service 64.3 Employment agency 65.7
3 Family and friends 62.9 Career consultant 64.1
4 Career publication 62.9 University career service 56.2
5 Career consultant 59.3 Career publication 54.7
Table 6 above lists top five information sources that respondents thought most useful
and the differences between male and female can be seen from data. The most useful
information channel for male students was employment agency, whereas
advertisement was the most popular ones in female. 62.9% of male respondents said
family and friends was an important channel to seek occupational information, while
not too many female agreed with this. It seems that male students were more likely to
consult friends and relatives to seek information rather than female.
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6.1.4.2 Information seeking strategies
Wise use of information seeking strategies can always improve the quality of
information seeking results. The participants were asked which strategies they used
most to search job vacancies. Four options were provided for respondents to choose,
which are choosing locations of job, choosing sectors of job, choosing titles of job,
and using key words searching. This is a multi-optional question, so one or more
answers can be chosen at one time.
As Figure 6.4 is shown below, choosing sectors of job is the most commonly used
strategies for students‟ information seeking, 59.8% of respondents (76 in number)
chose this strategy. There is no big difference among rest of the strategies, 42.5% (54)
used title searching, 36.3% (46) intended to choose location of job to seek
information, and just 35.4% (45) typed key words when sought job vacancies.
.
Figure 6.4. Occupational information seeking strategies
42.5%
35.4%
59.8%
36.2%
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6.1.4.3 Choice of information seeking language
It is worth to mention here when respondents were asked which language they use
most frequently when seeking job-related information. A majority of respondents
(76.2%, 96 in number) claimed that English was their information seeking language.
This may in relation to their information needs, as the largest number of respondents
chose UK as their desirable work location (see Figure 6.2), both English respondents
and Chinese participants tried to look for jobs in English, as English is the official
language in UK.
6.1.4.4 Information Seeking Barriers
Table 7
Job-related Information Seeking Barriers.
Rank Barriers encountered during seeking No. %
1 It is difficult to seek valid information. 57 45.2
2 It is difficult to deal with the large amount of information
available.
43 34.1
3 It is difficult to relate information found to my subject. 38 30.1
4 It is difficult to know where to look for job vacancies. 38 20.1
5 Not enough job vacancies available online. 29 23
6 It is difficult to categorize my information need. 25 19.8
7 Others 9 7
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The finding in Table 7 indicates that, nearly 45.2% (57 in number) of the respondents
said it is difficult to find valid information, which means there were not too much
reliable information provided to them, 34.1% of students felt it is difficult to deal
with large amount information available, this may result from information overload.
38 respondents (30.1%) considered it is difficult to seek relevant occupational
information. The details of other barriers have been selected by respondents are listed
in Table 7 above. Moreover, there were 9 students made comments about their
information seeking barriers. One of the respondent said “I have no time to apply”,
and this barrier was also identified in Julien‟s (1999) study, as it stated that time
constraints is one of the major information seeking barriers for adolescents in Canada.
(evidence can be found in Secondary Research) Another comment indicated “there is
no one central resource - have to shift through lots of duplicates at different sites to
find the unique jobs”. This also can be supported by Julien (1999) as he pointed out
that seekers could not find out needed information very soon, and they had to go to
many different places to get results. Further, an archaeological student stated
“archaeological jobs don't fit into the standard categories”.
6.1.4.5 University‟s training on securing job vacancies.
There were only 23 students (18.3%) received university‟s career training during the
job seeking process, the training including CV and covering letter advisors, Interview
help, Structure and writing style on CV. Only one claimed it was not useful, and
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nearly 95.7% (22 in 23) claimed university‟s career training was quite useful,
6.1.4.6 Comments from the Participants
There was an open question that asked participants to state their opinions about how
to make it easier to find job-related information. 62 participants left views in this
question. After analyzing and summarising, basically, there were three aspects that
mentioned by respondents most frequently.
Firstly, more specific information should be provided in the search engines, or even a
central database. Relevant comments are as follows.
“a directory of all the different types of sights that list vacancies, such as public
sector, private sector, agency etc. I often find information overwhelming and not
particularly organized”.
“Having a single trusted website that provided information on all graduate jobs
available, not only at the time but also when graduate schemes started taking
applications. Information on sectors that are related to the job you are looking for
that you would be unaware of”.
“A better and more detailed categorization of domains for job vacancies on the job-
seeking websites”.
“Having one centralized database which containing all graduate jobs”.
“There is a lot of info available. Would be great if there was some way to filter it,
83
maybe have more ranges when searching so as to get relevant info”.
Secondly, universities can provide more job fairs for postgraduate students to secure
job. As one commenter said “The University should arrange good job fairs to get
them recruited in good companies”. Another respondent also stated “Job fairs
(conventions) hosted on campus”.
Finally, more specific job-related information can be arranged by companies or some
professionals.
“It would be useful at times if the employer tells you what they are really looking for
or even make a note that only people with certain qualifications should apply.
Sometimes the information they provide seems too much and too vague”.
“Publishing of information by independent professionals, in Germany there is one for
lawyers, called AZUR”.
“Each department should have a list about what kind key words are relevant to the
subject when seeking “.
“If job titles where more standardized”.
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6.2 Interview results
6.2.1 Interview response
There are four follow-up interviews (Appendix 4), four interviewees were took part
in. All of them were competed questionnaire and permit to attend the interview. Two
female interviewees are come from China, one of the male interviewee is British, and
another male is Indian. A main limitation of interview research is size of sample is
too small. However, the research data can also be a complement of primary research.
The design of interview was based on questionnaire results, which intend to further
discuss issues and analysis in questionnaire. The whole record of interview will not
be presented, but will be discussed in relation to primary data as follows.
6.2.2 Interview results
There are not too much data provided from the interview due to its small scale of
samples. Interviewees were asked whether the Internet is the most popular channels
to seek occupational information. Three participants said “yes”, and they explained
“Because there are all kinds of information, and it is easy to search the job
information, you can search the information anywhere and anytime by using the
WIFI and 3G”. “The job information is updated very fast on the internet”. “Every
company will post their vacancies on the internet”. Only one respondent said “No, I
don't‟ think so, employment agency is the most popular one, because it is more
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authored and professional”.
The participants were also asked, “Do you think you know exactly what kind of job
vacancy you are looking for?” Two of them thought they know exactly, but another
two said they were not sure about it. “Because my subject is so management, a bit
general, so I don‟t know the job type exactly, could be business area or
administrative area”. It seems that not all the students can identify their desirable job
very well.
In the interview, the interviewees were asked to identify which aspect they think is
the most important to make career decision. Only one thought salary is the most
important. Rest of them said “I really like. Some kind of job I am really interested in.
Do not just care about the salary or whether this job is a noble job”.
According to the comments (see Chapter 6.1.4.6) that be provided in the
questionnaire, some respondents considered it might be easier to access occupational
information by improving service of search engines and university. Based on the
questionnaire, interviewees were asked “Have you ever used search engines to look
for job-related information? Could you give me an example? What do you think
would make it easier to find job-related information?” All of the interviewees
indicated they used search engine to locate job-related information before, “You can
put what kind of job, which company you want to see into and there are plenty of
86
information about what you want to search would come out. I think it is convenient”.
“For me, I think firstly, knowing which company you want to search or in another
word what kind of job you really want. Then search the information or the website of
that company directly. This kind of searching would filter much information u do not
really need”.
Finally, interviewees were asked “Do you think university provides enough career
services? What else they can do to improve it?” Two of the students said they have
never used university career service before, but they would use it in the future. One
of them pointed out “No, the career services just offer you how to write a CV, how to
perform yourself in an interview, and give you plenty of information about the
company vacancies. However, I think the university career services should offer
some opportunity to attend a real interview, or give us some simulated interview”. It
seems that there are some improvements that university career department can do to
upgrade their service.
87
Chapter 7 Conclusion and Recommendations
7.1 Conclusion
This study is carried out among a wide range of postgraduate students in Sheffield,
who come from various countries. The aim and objectives of this research project is
to investigate the postgraduates‟ different career information needs and career
information seeking behaviour relating to gender and course content, and try to
identify their information seeking barriers. The results of this study could provide
useful opinions for public organizations to improve their service. There are two main
methods have been conducted in the research: secondary research and primary
research. Both quantitative and qualitative data has been collected. This report places
more emphasis on the quantitative data sets, secondary research data and qualitative
data sets were used as comparison and complement to quantitative research.
According to the primary research data sets, Chinese postgraduates and British
postgraduates were the two largest groups among the respondents. From the
perspective of occupational information needs, the data shows job information about
general management was the most popular information, and the UK was the most
desirable job location for a majority of students, this may has impact on respondents‟
choice of seeking language, as English was the most commonly used language
during the seeking process. Further, it is fairly obvious that, generally, respondents‟
88
course content or subject determined their choice of occupational information-
seeking, most of the respondents looked for job information related to their course
content. It seems that most of the postgraduates can identify their information needs.
The data and figure about postgraduates‟ information seeking behaviour also
indicated that, currently, the most commonly used channels to seeking job-related
information are: the Internet, Family and friends, Advertisement, Newspaper, and
University career service. It is worth to notice that, comparing with other four similar
previous studies from secondary research, the use of the Internet was increased
dramatically over the last 10 years, and it became the most popular information
sources in recent 5 years. Besides, the top five the most useful information sources to
seek occupational information were: Family and friends, Employment agency,
University career service, Internet, and Career consultant. It seems that there are
some connections between the popularity and perceived helpfulness of the
information sources. According to the list of top five most recommended information
sources that be identified by respondents, Internet, University career service,
University job centre, Family and friends, and Advertisement were listed top five,
and it is interesting to find that the most useful channel that respondent claimed was
not always the one which was chosen to recommend to others. In addition,
considering of gender difference in choosing career information channels, the results
points out male student were more likely to consult friends and relative than female,
while more female students prefer to seek job information via advertisements.
89
Lastly, choosing sectors of job is the most popular ways for postgraduates to seek job
information, and a majority of them found it is difficult to deal with the large amount
of information available. University career department is a useful way to look for
job-related information, although not too many students have used it before.
7.1.1 Limitations
To view this study, there are some limitations cannot be overlooked. Firstly, the
sample size is too small to represent overall situation, especially interview. Secondly,
the source and time is limited. The advantage of this study is the results have been
compared and discussed with some previous researches. In this case, the results are
considered fully.
7.2 Recommendation
According to results and respondents‟ opinion from questionnaire and interview,
some recommendations can be provided as follows.
For university career department, firstly, more job fairs should be organized for
postgraduates to seek job. Secondly, more services should be provided, not only the
information about job vacancies, but also job seeking skills and job application skills.
As data from questionnaire shows, many more postgraduates intend to use university
career service in the future, if university career department could improve service, it
will facilitate postgraduates‟ job seeking to a large extent.
90
For search engines, unreliable information should be filtered out. As respondents
stated, it is difficult to deal with too much information available, so it might be better
if search engines can filter them out, such as establish directory of companies, or
have more ranges to choose when searching so as to get more relevant and specific
information.
For companies who post positions, they should make sure the information about job
vacancies is more standardized. The correct and detailed description of jobs can
facilitate seekers filter out the information that they do not want.
For further study, the research should be carried out in a wider range, and the sample
size of research should be expanded.
Word count: 16159
91
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Appendix
Appendix 1
Questionnaire
An investigation into career information seeking behaviours of postgraduates in
Sheffield
Section 1 Personal Information
1. Nationality:
2. Gender:
□Male □Female
3. Subject you are studying:
4. You are a:
□Full-time student □Part-time student
5. How long have you studied in UK?
□6 months or less □6-12 months □1-2 years □2-4 years □4 years more
6. Your first language is:
□English □Chinese □German □Arabic □Hindi □Japanese
□Other (please specify)
7. Do you have any plan to continue study after graduating?
□Yes □No □Not sure
98
Section 2 Your employment information needs
1. Where do you want to find job in near further?
(Please tick all relevant items)
□UK □Europe (excluding UK) □Rest of world
2. Do you prefer to choose job in your hometown or outside hometown?
□Hometown □Outside hometown □Not sure
3. What types of job are you looking for?
(Please tick all relevant items)
□Graduate vacancies for finalists and graduates
□Part-time, term time vacancies (internship)
□Voluntary experience
□Self-employment
4. Which sectors you are looking for?
(Please tick all relevant items)
□Administration □Advertising, Marketing and PR □Arts, Design and Crafts
□Engineering □Hospitality and Events Management □Finance
□Information Service □Education Teaching and Lecturing □Sales, Retail and
Buying
□Legal Services □Human Resource and employment
□Translation/Interpretation
□General Management □IT Statistics □Publishing, Media
□Natural Resources and Environment □Health Care
99
□Leisure, Sport and Tourism □Logistics and Transport
□Manufacturing and Processing □Insurance, Pensions and Actuarial work
□Construction and Property Management □Law Enforcement and Public
Protection
Other (please specify)
Section 3 Your information seeking behaviour
1. Following is a list of information resources. Please tick (√) items to show how
often you use them to search for job-related information. (Or expect to use them
in the future if you haven‟t already started searching for employment
information.).
frequently Quite
a lot
Just
occasionally
Never Intend
to use
it in
the
future
Internet
University job
centre
University
career service
Employment
agency
100
Careers
consultant
Local
community
services
Advertisement
Family and
friends
Newspapers
Books
Journals
Mobile phone
Career
publications
Other(please
specify)
2. Which language do you use most frequently when seeking job-related
information?
□English
□Your first language
□Other (please specify)
3. Have you used any university‟s training on securing job vacancies? (Such as CV
101
advisors)
□Yes (please go to question 4 and 5)
□No (please go to question 6)
4. If yes, please indicate specific training topic:
5. Do you think it is useful?
□Yes □No
6. Which of following strategies do you use most when you search job vacancies?
(Please tick all relevant items)
□Choosing location of job
□Choosing sectors of job
□Choosing title of job
□Using key words searching
Other (please specify)
7. Which if any of following difficulties do you encounter when seeking job-related
information?
(Please tick all relevant items)
□It is difficult to deal with the large amount of information available
□It is difficult to seek valid information
□It is difficult to relate information found to my subject
□It is difficult to categorize my information need
□It is difficult to know where to look for job vacancies.
□Not enough job vacancies available online.
102
Other (please specify)
8. Which of following information resources do you think is useful? Please also tick
(√) the end box if you would recommend it to others).
Not at
all
useful
Not
very
useful
Quite
useful
Very
useful
I would
recommend it
to others
Internet
University job
centre
University
career service
Employment
agency
Careers
consultant
Local
community
services
Advertisement
Family and
friends
Newspapers
Books
Journals
103
Mobile phone
Career
publications
Other(please
specify)
9. What do you think would make it easier to find job-related information?
104
Appendix 2
Information Sources (N=126)
frequently Quite a
lot
Just
occasionally
Never Intend to
use it in
the future
Information
Source
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
1 Internet 91 71.7 19 15 12 9.4 1 0.8 4 3.1
2 University job
centre
11 2.9 15 12.2 48 39 37 30.1 12 9.8
3 University
career service
5 4 25 20.2 57 46 25 20.2 12 9.7
4 Employment
agency
5 4.1 19 15.4 42 34.1 41 33.3 16 13
5 Careers
consultant
6 4.8 15 12.1 42 33.9 46 37.1 15 12.1
6 Local
community
services
1 0.8 12 9.8 40 32.5 58 47.2 12 9.8
7 Advertisement 13 10.7 43 35.2 41 33.6 22 18 3 2.5
8 Family and
friends
16 13 42 34.1 49 39.8 13 10.6 3 2.4
9 Newspapers 6 4.8 38 30.6 46 37.1 30 24.2 4 3.2
10 Books 4 4 10 8.1 27 21.8 75 60.5 7 5.6
105
11 Journals 4 3.2 18 14.5 30 24.2 63 50.8 9 7.3
12 Mobile phone 5 4 12 9.7 21 16.9 82 66.1 4 3.2
13 Career
publications
12 9.9 31 25.6 32 26.4 33 27.3 13 1.7
106
Appendix 3
Helpfulness of Information Sources. (N=126)
Very
useful
Quite
useful
Not very
useful
Not at all
useful
I would
recommend
to others
Information
Source
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
1 Internet 63 49.6 20 15.7 3 2.4 8 6.3 70 55.1
2 University job
centre
14 12.3 41 36 21 18.6 7 6.2 22 19.5
3 University
career service
33 28.4 42 37.9 22 19 5 4.3 26 22.4
4 Employment
agency
23 20.2 57 50 26 22.8 5 4.4 12 10.5
5 Careers
consultant
23 20.2 50 43.9 31 27.2 7 7 7 6.1
6 Local
community
services
14 12.3 41 36 46 40.4 13 11.4 4 3.5
7 Advertisement 17 14.8 50 43.5 32 27.8 10 8.7 13 11.3
8 Family and
friends
37 31.9 50 43.5 14 12.1 7 6 22 19
14 Newspaper 14 12.2 50 43.5 43 37.4 6 5.2 11 9.6
10 Books 4 3.5 23 22.1 57 50.4 27 23.9 2 1.8
107
11 Journals 8 6.9 28 24.1 55 47.4 24 20.7 4 3.4
12 Mobile phone 5 4.4 23 20.4 54 47.8 31 27.4 2 1.8
13 Career
publications
23 21.3 46 42.6 30 27.8 9 8.3 11 10.2
108
Appendix 4
Interview
1. What subject you are studying?
2. What is your first language?
3. Do you think Internet is the most popular information channel to seek job-related
information nowadays? Why?
4. Do you think you know exactly what kind of job vacancy you are looking for?
5. What kind of job-related information do you need most currently? Information
about job vacancies, job seeking skills, or job application skills?
6. What aspect do you think is the most important when you make career decision?
7. Have you ever used search engines to look for job-related information? Could
you give me an example? What do you think would make it easier to find job-
related information?
109
8. Do you know about university career service? Do you think university provides
enough career services? What else they can do to improve it?
