| For-profit colleges and universities can trace their roots back to the 18th century. This sector is defined as one that operates in the interest of private gain; profiting from the financial aid monies received on behalf of their students. Recent evidence shows that students fair reasonably well at for-profit colleges and universities (e.g., higher retention and graduation rates). In contrast, a newer body of research seems to suggest that students who graduate from a for-profit institution earn less than their nonprofit peers. In order to provide more context to lower wage earnings of for-profit graduates, I conducted phenomenological research to make sense of the perceptions that human resource professionals may have about the for-profit sector. The primary question guiding this study was: How do HR professionals make sense of how they place value on the type of institution a prospective employee graduated from in the screening and hiring process? The theoretical framework for this study was grounded in implicit social cognition theories of mere exposure and implicit bias; suggesting a framework for understanding when a human resource professional may say that the type of institution a prospective employee graduated from does not weigh in their decision, yet show a preference towards nonprofits when making their actual selections. The findings from this study suggest that high value is placed upon the type of institution a prospective employee graduated from when a) the position is at a higher level in the company and b) as it pertains to colleges and universities with broadly understood reputations and brand-name appeal. The research also revealed that even though education type does not always matter to the coresearchers in the study, they believed it to matter to others (e.g, hiring managers). This study adds texture to the research on for-profit graduate wage earnings from the lens of human resource professionals who are making screening and hiring decisions, providing context to prospective and current students of for-profit colleges as well as for-profit institutions, themselves and lawmakers. It also contributes to the body of literature regarding theories of implicit social cognition applied to the area of human resources. |
