MILKROUND PROFESSIONALISM IN PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT - MYTH OR REALITY

This article reports on a recent study of the graduate recruitment process known colloquially as the “milkround”. In particular, it uses a “critical case” approach to examine whether the recruitment practices and procedures advocated by social scientists within the personnel field are realised in practice. In short, it was hypothesised that the recruitment area where “scientific” techniques and procedures were most likely to be used was in the recruitment of graduates. If, as we found, there is a major discrepancy between theory and practice in the recruitment of graduates it is anticipated that this would be even greater in relation to other recruitment exercises. The research was conducted with the full co-operation of the careers centre at Manchester University and involved several interviews with recruiters and student applicants during the milkround. In addition, a number of visits to local large employers was made to examine, in greater depth the recruitment procedures and selection methods1. The article concludes with an attempt to explain the discrepancy between the prescriptions of professional policy and the practical reality of everyday recruitment in terms of the preoccupation with material and symbolic security that conditions the actions of personnel managers, as well as most other management practitioners, in competitively co-ordinated employment establishments. © 1990, MCB UP Limited