抄録
The present study investigated the criteria used by Japanese college students in selecting a potential
employer. A total of 154 undergraduate students majoring in social science at a major private university
in a metropolitan area in Japan were asked to rate the importance of four criteria (including interest in
work contents, salary, size of the company, and adaptability to corporate culture) when selecting an
employer. The policy-capturing method and dominance analyses were used to predict the importance of
each criterion, and the results were compared with the ratings obtained using direct questioning. The
following major findings were obtained: (1) students valued interest in work contents most highly, while
the size of the company was of relatively low importance, regardless of the method used; (2) for salary
and students’ adaptability to corporate culture, results obtained using direct questioning were different
from those obtained using the policy-capturing method; (3) students prioritized criteria differently
according to differences in individual traits such as self-efficacy; and (4) adaptability to corporate culture
most strongly affected students’ confidence in joining companies. Based on these results, we discussed
appropriate recruitment and selection practices.
