A Fuzzy Logic Approach to Career Orientation for Students: A Case Study in Human Resource Management45299

A Fuzzy Logic Approach to Career Orientation for Students: A Case Study in Human Resource Management Nghiem Thi Lich 1,* , Dinh Thi Ha 1 , Nguyen Thi Lien 1 1 Thuongmai University, Han

A Fuzzy Logic Approach to Career Orientation for Students: A Case Study in Human Resource

Management

Nghiem Thi Lich (1),(*) , Dinh Thi Ha (1) , Nguyen Thi Lien (1)

(1) Thuongmai University, Hanoi, Vietnam

* Correspondence: lichnt72@tmu.edu.vn

Abstract: Currently, organizations and individual people recognize the capacity of the workforce

considered a primary factor to gain their competitiveness and their reputation in the domestic and international markets Identifying students’ career orientation is very important to customize Human Resource Management based on these orientations It should be concerned because it effects on students, families, universities and the development of society The wrong career direction results in unfavorable life Although few fuzzy logic approaches had achieved promising results in personnel selection, this issue has still not solved completely and successfully yet by the existing methods They face a great deal of difficulties and challenges such as a subjective criteria selection, not based on Human management model, in some cases, it could reduce the accurate result

We present orientated-career issues, conduct a survey of students' ability to meet professional requirements for businesses based on ASK model and a learning outcome standard A novel approach is proposed to improve the performance of career orientation and test data based on the information of students in a Human Resource Management major at a university Study results suggest that the oriented-career performance has improved spectacularly compared to other methods

Keywords: ASK; fuzzy logic; career orientation

1 Introduction

In recent years, career orientation has become one of the interesting topics and has received much attention from researchers, businesses, universities, and students It is believed that career orientation is customized Human Resource Management (HRM) practices based on these orientations (Reza et al 2014) Nowadays, students are more exposed with various factors associated with their career decisions which need to be considered like interest in the course, situational factors, parental influence, school attended, gender, prestige attachment and passion (Natividad et al 2019) In addition, their preferred career selection, family, and teachers have a significant effect on the students as well as environmental factors such as friends, opportunity, their own characteristic, and capacity

Career orientation for students is a top concern because it not only is a vital importance for students, families, and school but also has a great meaning to society Choosing an appropriate career can help students to have a bright future and become a potential employee in enterprises It also helps universities enhance their curriculum and

reputation Otherwise, dissatisfaction, failure and unhappiness in the work-life may cause some psychological issues One of the most important reasons of being unhappy at work is the mismatch between characteristics of jobs that are chosen by the individuals and their own characteristics In the other words, it is wrong career choice itself And this condition shows how important vocational guidance is (Aydan et al 2015)

Recently, in Vietnam, there are numerous universities that have applied the learning outcome standards in order to measure the standard level of knowledge and skills after graduation However, with the achieved learning output standards at different levels, many students wonder what exactly they will do and where the position is in the future For example, some students have high grades and position in their major but they still have not the right jobs Although some students got high scores at their university, they do not find the right job or even unemployed That is why career orientation plays a vital role in choosing the career of youth (Natividad et al 2019), (Aydan et al 2015)

Normally, evaluation is to use in the selection or consultation process The right evaluation can make the right choice Although people evaluate by clear detailed points in many cases, it sometimes is not approximate, evaluating students’ achievement or teaching method for example It is difficult to evaluate by point Therefore, it is necessary to have another appropriate evaluation

Using fuzzy logic to build an evaluated system or recommendation system is attracted by many researchers This approach will cope with linguistic variables which are words that are less precise than numbers just like in human reasoning (Natividad et al 2019) However, this approach is still based on sensitive factors and the total score during students’ study, not based on a specific model In this paper, we used fuzzy logic and the ASK model to build a career orientation for students at the university, especially HRM major This model will help students to confidently join the labor market after graduating and meeting the learning outcome standards

2 Literature review

2.1 Career orientation

Career is one of the main important decisions for people, especially students It will determine their future plans affecting significantly their life Choosing an approximate job

is not easy because it is based on many factors Moreover, an organization tends to be used more technological products in order to save the labor and the cost It leads to reduce opportunities for linear career progression (Reza et al 2014) It makes the students to difficultly choose a career path at an early age (Waghmode et al.2015) Thus, students should have an in-depth and thoughtful view of this, especially understanding the importance of career orientation

Traditional careers refer to the advancement within a limited number of organizations, contemporary careers reflect a new deal in which the psychological contract between employer and employee does not necessarily include the promise of lifetime employment and steady career advancement (Seyed et al 2014) In the modern, career

orientation employees have to engage in a range of career self-management activities to create career options that allow them to realize their personal career targets which ensure their employability

2.2 ASK model

One of the typical models used in human resource management is the ASK model This related to individual competence in order to train and develop competence ASK means Attitude, Skills, and Knowledge which are presented professional standards for job titles in organizations ASK model is first introduced by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 that formed the foundation of what personnel does as trainers and learning professionals with three key capabilities A, S, K

Attitude is the first group that belongs to the emotional range It includes the worldview’s factors as receiving and responding to phenomena, determining value, and prioritizing values Qualities and behaviors reflect an individual’s attitude to work and, motivation as well as the qualities needed to perform a job well The qualities are also determined the right position at work

The second feature in the ASK model is Skill being the ability to perform tasks based on the knowledge According to Dave, skills are normally divided into four major levels such as mimicry (observation and stereotypical behavior), application (perform some actions by following instructions), manipulation (more accurate with each circumstance), creative use (becoming a natural reflex) (Dave 1975)

The final feature is Knowledge which belongs to the capacity of thinking, including data collection, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation These are the basic competencies that an individual needs to have at work The complex job will require high level of these capabilities

They will be specified based on the characteristics of each enterprise

Recently, the ASK model is considered the most popular model to evaluate personnel in the recruiting process and counseling process For students, the important thing after learning is to meet the requirements of the recruiter, meet the requirements of the job and take steps to develop a stable career Therefore, each student needs to self-assess the criterion in order to have an effective plan for

learning and developing themselves

2.3 Fuzzy set

Zadeh is the founder of a fuzzy set theory which can be viewed as an extension of the classical crisp sets It is to deals with problems in which a source of ambiguous, unclear and complex issues is involved in decision-making (Zadeh 1965)

In classical aggregation theory, the membership of elements in a set is evaluated in binary form under a clear condition - an element that the set has or not have it In contrast, the fuzzy set theory allows gradual evaluation of the membership relationship between an element and a set; This relationship is described by a relational function 0,1 Fuzzy sets are considered to be an extension of classical set theory, for a given universe, a dependency function can assume the role of a function that maps each element to a value of 0 or 1 as in

the classic concept

With the cosmic set X, there are n elements X={x1, x2,…,xn} A fuzzy set A in the universe X is a set of ordered pairsA x1,A(x1) , x2,A(x2), ,x n,A(x n) , whereAis the

membership function of the fuzzy set A

Formally,A: X  {0,1}: μ (x) = 1 if x ∈ A

0 if x ∉ A

It is called the function of the set A SoA(x )accepts only one of two values, including 1 and 0 If A has x thenA(x )=1, elseA(x )=0

Fuzzy sets are based on fuzzy logic, an extension of classical logic If the classical logic uses only two values 0 and 1 to represent: 1 is true, 0 is false, then in fuzzy logic the

value is in the range 0 and 1

The fuzzy set

∧

F is defined on a regular set X is a set whose each element is a pair of values ( ) /

F

x x

F

is mapped

F

: X [0,1]

For example, the function of the fuzzy set B={xR | x<< 6} which looks like Figure

1a, included sets

∧

F = {(1/1), (1/2), (0.8/4), (0.07/6)} Natural numbers 1 and 2 are inherited

3 Methodology

3.1 Survey results

In order to evaluate the learning output standards and career orientation for HRM students, we surveyed over 150 students studied at HRM major at Thuongmai university in order to compare to learning outcome standards and the job information of these students after graduation We divided into 17 criteria based on the learning outcome standards of HRM major All criteria are evaluated with a scale from 1 to 5 All the results are shown by the following figures

The job positions after graduation

(Source: aggregated from authors’ survey)

Figure 1 Job position of graduate students at the organizations

It is clear that the number of students working in the private economy sector accounted for largest proportion whereas that of the research institute, university, and other areas is the smallest percentage, 64% and 6% respectively In addition, foreign-invested economy is the second attraction area for HRM students after graduation with 16% The result showed that job position in the private economy is the most attractive to HRM students

Assess the necessity of A, S, K features

About the knowledge, Figure 2 illustrates the differences between the required knowledge level of these students and the level of students’ learning outcome standards It can be seen that the first feature is always significantly higher than the rest feature This is a big gap between two parts, especially with in-depth knowledge of management The requirement of real enterprises needs to is 4.1 whereas students only got 3.1 in learning outcome standards level

64%

Other areas

(Source: aggregated from authors’ survey)

Figure 2 The comparision between the required knowledge level of these students and the level of

students’ learning outcome standards

After collecting the data from a specific survey of over 150 HRM students, we summarized the information about their skills which are the required skills level of HRM students and the level of students’ learning outcome standards Interesting results are shown in Figure 3

3.8 4.1

3.6

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Ground Knowledge of management

In-depth knowledge of management

Auxiliary knowledge and development to other majors The required knowledge level of HRM students

The level of students' learning outcomes standards

3.7

4 3.8 3.9 4 3.8 3.9

4.1 3.9 4 3.9

2.9

3.2 3.2 3.2 3.3

3 3.3 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.3

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

The required Skills level of HRM students The level of students' learning outcomes standards

(Source: aggregated from authors’ survey)

Figure 3 The comparision between the required Skills level of HRM students and the level of

students’ learning outcome standards

Figure 3 shows that the learning outcome standards of HRM students are slightly lower than the requirement of the enterprise However, it is a good signal that graduates of human resources management have independent working skills that are quite good compared to actual requirements (3.4 versus 3.9)

About the Attitude, it seems to have a slight difference between the two parts, including the required attitude level and the learning outcome standards of attitude There gradually differs between two levels Therefore, this issue requires serious orientation for students at the university

(Source: aggregated from authors’ survey)

Figure 4 The comparision between the required Attitude level of HRM students and the level of

students’ learning outcome standards

Besides surveying the A, S, and K criteria, we also surveyed the employment needs

of businesses for job positions in personnel recruitment The results show that most businesses nowadays tend to recruit employees who can do general HR jobs Although they

do not need to be too specialized, they need to have a ground knowledge of human resources management, solving manpower issues in a flexible and diverse manner The results can be seen in Figure 5

3.3

3.9 4.1 4.2

3

3.4 3.5 3.6

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

independent working attitude

Studious, creative and progressive spirit

The required Attitude level of HRM students The level of students' learning outcomes standards

(Source: aggregated from authors’ survey)

Figure 5 The employment needs of businesses for job positions in personnel recruitment

In general, HRM students respond relatively well in knowledge, skills, and professional qualities when working in businesses and organizations surveyed However, when assessing the competencies according to the A, S, K of learning outcome standards, students need to be fostered to meet job requirements, which focus mainly on professional knowledge, foreign skills, and soft skills

When asked about solutions to improve students’ ability after graduation to meet employers' requirements, the answers are mainly related to the learning outcome standards developed with employers, having more supplementary soft skills courses, training on personal qualities, etc

3.2 Process and Frame work

Methodology

This paper will present a novel approach to improve the job competitiveness for students based on the ASK model and the combination between fuzzy logic and SAW method

Benefits of the proposed algorithm

Both enterprise and student will have the right position with selected qualified personnel This is key and vital importance to business organizations, institutions, families, and society, especially to enhance the competitive reputation in the domestic and international market because of having a strong employee base

For students: Choosing the right career with their abilities not only helps them to become potential employees Because they may do not think about other chance of looking

a new job

For universities: The students choose the job that can help universities to verify their curriculum in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning Therefore, they can update their curriculum to enhance their reputation

20%

34%

31%

13%

2%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Official staff General HR

staff

positions

For enterprises: A good recruitment process not only helps them to save time, investment costs for human resources but also enhances their competitiveness in the domestic and international markets Because they can reduce the burden of decision-makers having to sit down for hours to shortlist and less money to retrain novices

Data collection

In order to present the advantage of our proposal, we collected the students’ information from HRM faculty at Thuongmai University This information is used largely for the purposes of testing

The Process of Career Orientation

For effective career orientation, we proposed the combination of fuzzy logic and SAW method based on the ASK model In this system, the function is ordered by the following:

Select the main criteria and sub-criteria based on the ASK model based on HRM learning outcome standards

Enter the weight of each A, S, K feature

Define dependency fuzzy value of the level of achievement of each student for all

sub-criteria with three stages: fuzzification, fuzzy argument, defuzzification

Build the matrix from the weight list

Use the min-max operator on the weight matrix and evaluate the appropriate fuzzy values

Assess the level of achievement of each student based on the total weight

Best career hints for students based on a certain threshold

Algorithm

Input: The values of standard fuzzy sets E, V, G, S, U, the weight of main criteria, and the sub-criteria for each student

Output: The total weight of each student and the suitable job

Step 1 Input the values of the fuzzy sets E, V, G, S, U, the weight of main criteria (A,

S, K), and the sub-criteria for each student

Step 2 Enter fuzzy information according to each student's criteria

Step 3 For each student's sub-criteria, calculate the point value:

For each criterion with the standards, calculate the similarity of the fuzzy values by the following formula:

) 1 ( ) i F

* i F N,

* max(N

i F

* N )

i

F

Where N: is the set of value for standard, Fi: is the fuzzy set of each criterion Find the highest similarity by comparing analogues to standard This value is the weight of the criterion

Step 4: Calculate the scores based on the weight of all similar criteria of the ASK model according as follows:

) 2 (

∑∑

1 1

j n

j m

i

i W S T(F)

 



Where:

n is the main criteria, m is the sub-criteria based on ASK model

F is the fuzzy set of all criteria for each student

Si is the largest similar value of the ith of sub-criteria in each of the main criterion

Wj is the weighted value of each criterion group A, S, K

4 Empirical Analysis

4.1 Input/output and data processing

The program is built based on C programming language and Microsoft Visual Studio

2010 environment (MVS 2010) C is a high-level procedural programming language with many advantages such as flexibility, flexibility, strong and quite condensed styling Besides, MVS 2010 is a stable integrated environment and has a set of effective support tools They make it easy for users to build applications on one system, translate and run them on another system

The input data are the values corresponding to each student's criteria These are the fuzzy values in the segment [0,1] that are randomly generated and written to the file To process the data, they are read from the file and written to an array of structures Then, apply the SAW method to each student to calculate the corresponding total points These values are in paragraphs [0,8] and are the program output values They are written to the file for processing and statistics, as well as career placement for students

4.2 Some basic functions of the program

The program includes 3 modules: data, fuzzy_info and fuzzy_normal Where the data module is a module that declares and defines components and functions for generating random data files, the fuzzy_info module is a module that declares and defines information structure components and manipulation functions for students , fuzzy_normal module is a module that defines and defines standards and calculation functions on the standard Following are some of the main functions used in the program

Data creation function

void taotep (char * ten);