Individual Assignment on Education and Job Performance

Introduction

Education refers to the scholastic knowledge, scholastic degrees, and/or the number of academic years a person has achieved from all levels of educational institutions: secondary school, university, as well as graduate school.

Performance Rating Definition

Performance rating is defined as the job evaluation on employees’ task, citizenship, as well as counterproductive performance. Task refers to a set of predetermined duties related to a particular job and emphasizes objective criteria such as efficiency and productivity. Citizenship performance refers to organizational engagement outside employees’ task performance that helps to enhance the overall productivity of the organization. Counterproductive performance refers to employees' actions, such as theft, that hurt the company's interest. The proposed hypothesis is that job performance is positively related to education; for example, obtaining a higher education level yields better job performance.

Study and Empirical Evidence: Education and Job Performance

The article College Education and Police Job Performance: A Ten-Year Study conducted data related to the above-mentioned two variables from the police department. Due to the unclear connection between the two variables, the authors did not make any hypothesis (Truxillo, Bennett, & Collins, 1998).

Truxillo, Bennett, and Collins (1998) categorized education as the education degrees attained as well as the number of school years obtained by police officers. Data were obtained by surveying 84 police officers. The education degrees were coded as binary variables with no for 1 and yes for 2. The sample means for college degree and university degree were 1.24 and 1.18, respectively. Years of school were measured on a five-point scale and had a sample mean of 3. In addition, Truxillo, Bennett, and Collins (1998) assumed education was a predicting factor of police officers’ performance.

The study focused on the supervisory rating aspect of job performance on the same 84 policy personnel. In particular, supervisory rating on participants’ job knowledge along with four other elements were measured using a five-point scale. The sample mean of job knowledge was 4.43.

The result of the study showed there was a statistically significant correlation between education and supervisory ratings of participants’ knowledge. Obtaining a two-year degree (r=0.24, p < 0.05) was linked to higher performance ratings. Findings from the study support the hypothesis, which proves that higher job performance is associated with higher education.

Relationship Explanation

Two factors, cognitive ability and conscientiousness, contribute to the positive relationship in the study result.

First, cognitive ability can be improved through higher education and it has a positive relationship with performance. Schools stimulate innovative thinking and encourage students to brainstorm by encouraging student debates and student clubs. Empirical evidence supports the fact that higher education is associated with higher cognitive ability. Furthermore, a study conducted in the 1990s concluded that cognitive ability was strongly related to performance (r=0.51) (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

Second, education links to conscientiousness and conscientiousness results in higher job performance. In order to achieve academic success, students have to plan homework and assignments in advance and finish them on time. Researchers discovered that higher conscientiousness leads to higher education. Moreover, conscientiousness was positively related (r=0.24) to job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991).

Therefore, higher education leads to higher job performance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the relationship between education and job performance is complex and multifaceted, involving cognitive and personality factors. The empirical evidence supports the idea that education is a significant predictor of job performance, suggesting that investment in education could lead to improved productivity and efficiency within organizations.

References

Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1-26.

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274.

Truxillo, D. M., Bennett, S. R., & Collins, M. A. (1998). College education and police job performance: A ten-year study. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 13(1), 1-14.