The purpose in the study was to investigate the relationships between undergraduate students' job expectations using the Merchandising Expectations Inventory (Howell, 1972) and selected personal characteristics, work experience and future professional plans. In addition, students' perceptions of job expectations were compared with recent graduates' perceptions of their first fashion merchandising position.
Data were collected by mailed questionnaires composed of three parts: background information, Merchandising Expectations Inventory (MEI) and Adjective Check List (Gough, 1971). Responses were received from 91 subjects (29 freshmen, 33 seniors and 29 graduates) who had been randomly selected from a list of Clothing majors who had a fashion merchandising emphasis.
Frequency distribution, percentages and mean scores were used to describe the sample. Hypotheses were tested using t-tests, analysis of variance, Scheffe's multiple comparison and correlation coefficients.
In general, seniors scored significantly higher than freshmen on six of the eight MEI clusters and subjects with related work experience scored higher on two MEI clusters than those with non-related work experience. Thus, seniors and students with related work experience held more realistic job expectations than freshmen or students with non-related work experience. Subjects who planned to hold a fashion merchandising position for five years after graduation did not score significantly higher than subjects with no plans.
Graduates scored higher than freshmen on six of the eight MEI clusters and higher than seniors on four of the eight MEI clusters. A limited number of significant correlations existed between the MEI cluster scores and the five personal characteristic scores (aggression, dominance, autonomy, self confidence and change). Thus, other personal characteristics may be more important in examining fashion merchandising positions.