Abstract:
1. Introduction
Although every undergraduate must have a career plan, as proved by a
preliminary survey, the majority of undergraduates of the Faculty of
Management Studies (FMS), Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL)
do not have a career plan. Further, there is a contextual knowledge gap on
lack of engagement in career planning by management undergraduates in
Sri Lanka. Thus, the research aims to explore the reasons for the lack of
engagement in career planning by undergraduates of FMS, SUSL. Therefore,
the study adds new knowledge on reasons for lack of career planning
engagement and provides practical insights for universities, schools and
students.
2. Research Methodology
We used interpretivism philosophy. Accordingly, inductive approach was
used. We employed multiple case study design and used purposive
sampling method. we conducted twelve in-depth interviews with
undergraduates in third and final years in FMS of SUSL and analyzed data
using thematic analysis.
3. Findings and Discussion
We could explore that management undergraduates of SUSL do not actively
engage in career planning due to the issues and weaknesses of the
students, university related reasons, lack of guidance from schools, family-
oriented reasons, lack of industry exposure, barriers from macro
environment, and lack of support from friends.
4. Conclusion and Implications
The reasons for not engage in career planning by undergraduates of FMS,
SUSL are multiple and related to personal, university, school, family,
industry related, macro environment, and friends. The findings indicate
that improving engagement in career planning of FMS, SUSL
undergraduates should be a collaborative effort of multiple stakeholders
such as undergraduates, university, schools, industrial sector, family and
the government.
