Impact of Perceived Employability on Academic Engagement and Perceived Stress in Life: A Study of Management Undergraduates of State Universities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of perceived employability on academic engagement and perceived stress in life of management undergraduates in state universities in Sri Lanka. The relationship between perceived employability and academic engagement is well-established in Western literature. However, only a few studies have examined the relationship between perceived employability and academic engagement as well as the impact of perceived employability on perceived stress in life. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to fill that that void in literature present in the Sri Lankan setting. This is a quantitative survey done as a cross-sectional study. The data were collected using an online survey by distributing the survey questionnaire via social media. Accordingly, primary data were collected using the questionnaire developed using well accepted standard measures, from a sample of 352 respondents. The impact of perceived employability on academic engagement and perceived stress in life was tested using two separate simple regression analyses. The results indicated a significant positive impact of perceived employability on academic engagement and a significant negative impact of perceived employability on perceived stress in the life of management undergraduates of state universities in Sri Lanka. This is one of the limited studies done in this area and compared to previous studies done using current employees in the labor market, this study becomes unique as it used undergraduates who are yet to enter the labor market.