Is the “Skills Gap” Really about Attitudes?

E.g., Berg Ivar , Education and Jobs: The Great Training Robbery (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1971).

See Work in America (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1975).

National Commission for Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (Washington, D.C.: National Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983); Workforce 2000 (Washington, D.C.: The Hudson Institute, for the U.S. Department of Labor, 1985).

A good overall guide to student performance over time is the National Education Goals Panel's Report Card for Education, which shows that academic achievement has changed relatively little over the last few decades and has made some important gains in the 1980s—reductions in dropout rates and improved performance of minorities in particular. It may be reasonable to say that this performance is not good enough, but that is not akin to arguing that it has deteriorated. National Education Goals Panel, Report Card for Education, (Washington, D.C.: National Education Goals Panel, 1991). Bracey presents data suggesting that student performance may, in fact, be better than in the past. Bracey Gerald W. , “Why Can't They Be Like We Were,” Phi Delta Kappan, 73/2 (1991): 104–117.

For example, Bishop finds that higher competencies in math, verbal, and science abilities, as measured by the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude test, actually received a negative reward from the labor market in terms of wages for high school graduates. Perhaps these higher competencies were not needed in the jobs held by the typical graduate. Bishop John , “Department of Labor Testing: Seizing an Opportunity to Increase the Competitiveness of American Industry and to Raise the Earnings of American Workers,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Testing Service, May 1991. For a review of the relationship between student achievement and job performance, see Cappelli Peter , “How Should We Assess College Student Performance? Lessons for Industry,” Change (October/November 1992).

See Howell David R. Wolff Edward N. , “Trends in the Growth and Distribution of Skills in the U.S. Workplace, 1960–1985,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 44/3 (1991): 486–502; Howell David R. Wolfe Edward N. , “Skill Cliques in the U.S. Labor Force, 1960–1985,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (1991); Mishel Lawrence Teixera Ruy , “The Myth of the Coming Labor Shortage,” Economic Policy Institute, Washington, D.C., 1991.

Barton Paul E. , Skills Employers Need: Time To Measure Them? (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 1990).

Committee for Economic Development, Investing in Our Children Committee for Economic Development, Washington, D.C., 1984.

Both Towers Perrin and NAM data were made available to the National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce. National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce. National Establishment Survey: First Findings (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 1995).

Other surveys targeted to more specific employees reach the same conclusion. Levin Rumberger's survey of 3,000 small businesses found that interest and enthusiasm were much more important than either technical training or basic academic skills in learning to use computers. Levin Henry M. Rumberger Russell W. , “Educational Requirements for Computer Use in Small Businesses,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 8 (1988): 423–434. Bishop reports that a National Foundation of Independent Business survey of small employers discovered them ranking “reading, writing, and reasoning ability” fifth out of a set of six applicant attributes they looked for in hiring. Bishop John , “Incentives for Learning: Why American High School Students Compare So Poorly to Their Counterparts Overseas,” in Investing in People: A Strategy to Address America's Workforce Crisis, Background Papers, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 1–84.

Monson Hesley Chernick use laboratory experiments to show that the relationship between personality and behavior increases as the constraints provided by the situation are reduced. Monson T. C. Hesley J. W. Chernick L. , “Specifying When Personality Traits Can and Cannot Predict Behavior: An Alternative to Abandoning the Attempt to Predict Single Act Criteria,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43 (1982): 385–399.

Cappelli Peter O'Shaughnessy K.C. , “What's Behind the Skills Gap?” Industrial Relations Research Association's 45th Annual Meeting Proceedings, Madison, WI, 1994, pp. 296–303.

For example, Mathews Whang Fawcett argue that job attitudes and job-related behaviors may explain why some people have difficulty finding jobs, and they find systematic differences in the job attitudes and behaviors of employed subjects as compared to subjects who were unemployed. Mathews R. M. Whang P. L. Fawcett S. B. , “Behavioral Assessment of Job Related Skills,” Journal of Employment Counseling, 18 (1981): 3–11. Super and Overstreet found that later career success among vocational students was predicted by the maturity of their life interests. Super D. E. Overstreet P. , Vocational Maturity of Ninth Grade Boys (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 1960). Johnson Messe Crano found that attitudes toward work, as measured by a survey instrument, predicted job performance. Johnson C. P. Messe L. A. Crano W. D. , “Predicting Job Performance of Low-Income Workers: The Work Opinion Questionnaire,” Personnel Psychology, 37 (1984): 291–299. Love O'Hara found that supervisory ratings of subordinates' work maturity predicted a range of job performance outcomes; “responsibility and self-initiative” were the aspects of work maturity most closely associated with performance, and “initiative” was the aspect of performance that had the strongest relationship with work maturity. Love Kevin G. O'Hara Kirk , “Relating Job Performance of Youth Trainees Under a Job Training Partnership Act Program (JPTA): Criteria Validation of a Behavior-Based Measure of Work Maturity,” Personnel Psychology, 40 (1987): 323. Studies like these that compare perceptions of one characteristic with perceptions of some other characteristic are subject to an upward bias in the size of the relationship, however, as respondents seek consistency in their perceptions.

See Bell Staw for a recent argument in support of the former view; Betz and Colleagues for the latter. Bell Nancy E. Staw Barry M. , “People as Sculptors Versus Sculpture: The Roles of Personality and Personal Control in Organizations,” in Arthur Michael B. Hall Douglas T. Lawrence Barbara S. , eds., Handbook of Career Theory (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 232–251; Betz Nancy E. Fitzgerald Louise F. Hill Raymond E. , “Trait-Factor Theories: Traditional Cornerstone of Career Theory,” in Arthur Michael B. Hall Douglas T. Lawrence Barbara S. , eds., Handbook of Career Theory (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 7–26.

The most important effort to examine the genetic bases for social behavior are the recent studies of identical twins, comparing pairs who were separated and raised in different families to pairs who were raised in the same family. Arvey find that 30 percent of the variance in job satisfaction in such a study can be attributed to genetic factors. Arvey Richard D. Bouchard Thomas J. Jr. Segal Nancy L. Abraham Lauren M. , “Job Satisfaction: Environmental and Genetic Components,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 74/2 (1989): 187–192.

For a review, see Van Maanen John Schein Edgar H. , “Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization,” in Staw Barry M. Cummings Larry L. , eds., Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1979).

See Staw Barry M. Bell N.E. Claussen J.A. , “The Dispositional Approach to Job Attitudes: A Lifelong Longitudinal Test,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 31 (1986): 56–77.

See, e.g., Schmidt N. Gooding R.Z. Noe R.A. Kirsch M. , “Meta-Analysis of Validity Studies Published Between 1962 and 1982 and the Investigation of Study Characteristics,” Personnel Psychology, 37 (1984): 407–422; Reilly R.R. Chao G.T. , “Validity and Fairness of Some Alternative Employee Selection Procedures,” Personnel Psychology, 35 (1982): 1–62.

Grimsley Jarrett found strong relationships between personality and job performance and argue that their results were better because their data were obtained in the context of employment—as opposed to the majority of studies, in which data are obtained under laboratory and research conditions and, presumably, are less valid. Grimsley G. Jarrett H.F. , “The Relation of Past Managerial Achievement to Test Measures Obtained in the Employment Situation: Methodology and Results—II,” Personnel Psychology, 28 (1975): 215–231. Bentz also reports exceptionally high validity rates for the personality-based assessment systems used at Sears Roebuck and Company. Bentz V. J. , “The Sears Experience in the Investigation, Description, and Prediction of Executive Behavior,” in Myers J.A. , ed., Predicting Managerial Success (Ann Arbor, MI: Foundation for Research on Human Behavior, 1968). Andrisani Nestel found that workers who have “internal control” achieve more than do workers who have personalities oriented toward external control. Andrisani P.J. Nestel G. , “Internal-External Control as Contributor to and Outcome of Work Experience,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 61 (1976): 156–165. The Miner Sentence Completion Scale measures personality traits thought to determine the motivation of respondents to manage, and has been found to be one of the most successful predictors of managerial success—e.g., Miner J.B. Smith N.R. , “Decline and Stabilization of the Motivation to Manage Over a 20-Year Period,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 67 (1982): 297–305. It measures traits such as the desire to engage in competition, be assertive, impose one's wishes on others, and stand out from the group. Ghiselli as well as Hunter and Hunter found in their surveys of the selection literature that the relationships between personality and performance varied widely across occupations—from being among the best predictors for many occupations such as managers and sales to below average for industrial jobs. Ghiselli E. E. , “The Validity of Aptitude Tests in Personnel Selection,” Personnel Psychology, 26 (1973): 461–477; Hunter J.E. Hunter R.F. , “Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance,” Psychological Bulletin, 96 (1984): 72–98.

Barrick Mury Mount Michael K. , “The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis,” Personnel Psychology, 49/1 (1991): 1–26.

The statistical relationships are not necessarily large, however, never above .13. And other dimensions of personality sometimes cited by management as important for job performance—such as compliance, social conformity, and perseverance (labeled “Agreeableness” in the taxonomy used by Barrick Mount [ibid.])—did not predict performance nearly as well.

Seligman Martin P. , Helplessness: On Development, Depression, and Death (New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1975); Seligman Martin P. , Learned Optimism (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1992).

Staw Barry M. Sutton Robert I. Pelled Lisa H. , “Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at the Workplace,” Organizational Science, 5 (1994): 51–71.

E.g., Harter S. , “Effectance Motivation Reconsidered: Toward a Developmental Model,” Human Development, 21 (1981): 34–64; Pitman T.S. Emery J. Boggiano A.K. , “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Orientations: Reward-Induced Changes in Preferences for Complexity,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42 (1982): 789–797.

McClelland David C. Boyatzis R.E. , “Leadership Motive Pattern and Long-Term Success in Management,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 67 (1982): 737–743.

Spangler Donald , “A Meta-Analysis of Need for Achievement Studies,” Psychological Bulletin (in press).

McClelland David C. , The Achieving Society (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand Co., 1961).

A recent U.S. Department of Education report concludes that poor student performance is primarily the result of a lack of effort—motivation—and that low expectations are one of the main casues of low student motivation. See Tomlinson Tommy , Issues in Education—Hard Work and High Expectations: Motivating Students to Learn (Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Instruction, U.S. Department of Education, 1992).

The basic principles for raising motivation are associated with learning theory. See Cascio for a guide to these principles applied in the context of employment. Cascio Wayne F. , Applied Psychology in Personnel Management (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1987).

See, for example, Latham Gary P. Frayne Colette A. , “Self-Management Training for Increased Job Attendance: A Follow-up and a Replication,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 74/3 (1989): 411–416.

Elliott Elaine S. Dweck Carol S. , “Goals: An Approach to Motivation and Achievement,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54/1 (1988): 5–12.

Deci Edward L. Connell James P. Ryan Richard M. , “Self-Determination in a Work Organization,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 74/4 (1989): 580–590.

Ryan R. M. Minis V. Koestner R. , “Relation of Reward Contingency and Interpersonal Context to Intrinsic Motivation: A Review and Test Using Cognitive Evaluation Theory,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45 (1983): 736–750; Deci E.L. Schwartz A.L. Sheinman L. Ryan R.M. , “An Instrument to Assess Adult's Orientation Toward Control Versus Autonomy with Children: Reflections on Intrinsic Motivation and Perceived Competence,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 73 (1981): 642–650.

Staw Barry M. Ross Jerry , “Commitment in an Experimenting Society: An Experiment on the Attribution of Leadership from Administrative Scenarios,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 65 (1980): 249–260.

Sandelands Lloyd E. Brockner Joel Glynn Mary Ann , “If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again: Effects of Persistence-Performance Contingencies, Ego Involvement, and Self-Esteem on Task Persistence,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 73/2 (1988): 208–216.

See Smith C.A. Organ D.W. Near J.P. , “Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature and Antecedents,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 68 (1983): 653–663.

Commitment to the organization is a related concept that captures an individual's interest in remaining with the organization, accepting its goals, and working on its behalf. Reduced turnover and high levels of effort are some of the benefits of organizational commitment, along with a willingness to comply with the rules of an organization. See Mowday R. T. Porter L.W. Steers R.M. , Employee-Organization Linkages (New York, NY: Academic Press, 1982).

Rushton has reviewed research that suggests that there is a relationship between prosocial behavior and personality, and high levels of prosocial behavior are associated with greater empathy and universal standards of justice that are internalized. Rushton J.P. , “The Altruistic Personality: Evidence from Laboratory, Naturalistic, and Self-Report Perspectives,” in Staub E. Bar-Tal D. Karylowski J. Reykowski J. , eds., Development and Maintenance of Prosocial Behavior: International Perspectives on Positive Morality (New York, NY: Plenum Books, 1984), pp. 271–290. Need for achievement is also associated with commitment and related behaviors. Mowday et al., op. cit.; Puffer Shelia M. , “Prosocial Behavior, Noncompliant Behavior, and Work Performance Among Commission Salespeople,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 72/4 (1987): 615–621. Tang Li-Ping Baumeister found that workers who endorsed the values associated with the work ethic spent more of their free time voluntarily performing organization-related work (citizenship) [ Tang Thomas Li-Ping Baumeister Roy F. , “Effects of Personal Values, Perceived Values, Perceived Surveillance, and Task Labels on Task Preference: The Ideology of Turning Play into Work,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 69/1 (1984): 99–105], a result also found for commitment [Mowday et al., op. cit.].

For a review, see Arthur Brief P. Motowidlo Stephan J. , “Prosocial Organizational Behaviors,” Academy of Management Review, 11/4 (1986): 710–725.

E.g., Bateman T.S. Organ D.W. , “Job Satisfaction and the Good Soldier: The Relationship Between Affect and Employee “Citizenship,”' Academy of Management Journal, 26 (1983): 587–595; George Jennifer M. , “State or Trait: Effects of Positive Mood on Prosocial Behavior at Work,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 76/2 (1991): 299–307.

Clark M.S. , “Noncomparability of Benefits Given and Received: A Cue to the Existence of Friendship,” Social Psychology Quarterly, 44 (1981): 375–381.

See, respectively, Eisenberger Robert Falsolo Peter Davis-LaMastro Valerie , “Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Diligence, Commitment, and Innovation,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 75/1 (1990): 51–59; and Caldwell David F. Chatman Jennifer A. O'Reilly Charles A. , “Building Organizational Commitment: A Multifirm Study,” Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63 (1990): 245–261.

See Brief Motowidlo , op. cit.

See Allen Natalie J. Meyer John P. , “Organizational Socialization Tactics: A Longitudinal Analysis of Links to Newcomers' Commitment and Role Orientation,” Academy of Management Journal, 33/4 (1990): 847–858; and Caldwell , op. cit.

E.g., Bray D.W. Campbell R.J. Grant D.L. , The Formative Years in Business (New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1974).

E.g., Solomon Daniel Watson Marylin S. Delucchi Kevin L. Schaps Eric L. , “Enhancing Children's Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom,” American Educational Research Journal, 24/5 (1988): 527–554; Battistick Victor Solomon David Watson Marylin Solomon Judith , “Effects of an Elementary School Program and Evidence of Prosocial Behavior in Children's Cognition, Social Problem-Solving Skills, and Strategies,” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 10/2 (1989): 147–169.

Berg may have set off this entire line of thinking by questioning whether schools provide any job-related skills in the usual sense [ Berg Ivar , op. cit.]; Thurow made a similar argument to Bowles and Gintis that schools were really teaching train-ability and discipline more than any job-related skills [ Thurow Lester , Generating Inequality: Mechanisms of Distribution in the U.S. Economy (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1975; Bowles Samuel Gintis Herbert , Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1976)]; Collins gave the argument a slightly different emphasis by focusing more on the social skills acquired in school, such as civility [ Collins R. , The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification (New York, NY: Academic Press, 1979)].

In addition, they argue that what schools reward and what jobs require are similar, but the poor correspondence between grades and job performance suggests otherwise (see Cappelli [op. cit., 1992] for a review). Grades in high school and college clearly are associated with access to higher-paying occupations, however. Bowles Gintis's summary of the literature as of 1976 suggested that cognitive ability is a poor predictor of job success, but more recent studies in psychology suggest that it is in fact among the best predictors of job performance (see Hunter Hunter , op. cit., and Schmidt , op cit., for a literature review). See also Barrick Mount , op. cit.

See “An Initiative from Educators: Bringing Values Back to Class,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 17, 1991, special series, p. 1. Arguments about having schools teach values have a long history in the United States [see Nelson Jack L. , “The Uncomfortable Relationship Between Moral Education and Citizenship Instruction,” in Wilson Richard W. Schochet Gordon J. , eds., Moral Development and Politics (New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1980), pp. 256–285], and objections range from philosophical notions about government-induced paternalism [see Beardsley Elizabeth Lane , “Moral Development as an Objective of Government,” in Wilson Richard W. Schochet Gordon J. , eds., Moral Development and Politics (New York, NY: Praeger, 1980), pp. 41–52] to practical concerns about which set of values should be taught.

Goodman Paul S. Salipante Paul Paransky Harold , “Hiring, Training, and Retaining the Hard-Core Unemployed: A Selected Review,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 58/1 (1973): 23–33.

O'Leary Virginia E. , “The Hawthorne Effect in Reverse: Trainer Orientation for the Hard-Core Unemployed Woman,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 56/6 (1972): 491–494.

Friedlander Frank Greenberg Stuart , “Effect of Job Attitudes, Training, and Organizational Climate on Performance of the Hard-Core Unemployed,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 55/4 (1971): 287–295. One program that has been successful at improving the basic work-related attitudes and behaviors of even the hard-core unemployed is the Job Corps. But the factors contributing to the Job Corps' success suggest how difficult it is to change these attitudes and behaviors. It is a full-time residency program that creates a total institution—much like military boot camp—with typical stays of six months or more. The program tries to take participants as completely as possible out of their old environment and create a new one with strict rules and discipline governing issues such as personal conduct.

Goodman , op. cit.

For a review, see Feldman Roy E. , “The Promotion of Moral Development in Prisons and Schools,” in Wilson Richard W. Schochet Gordon J. , eds., Moral Development and Politics (New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1980), pp. 286–328.

For examples, see Berg Eric N. , “Argument Grows that Teaching of Values Should Rank with Lessons,” New York Times, January 1, 1992, p. 32; and Gauld Joseph W. , “Character Development: A School's Primary Task,” Wall Street Journal, April 11, 1992, p. 4. To teach values through the mechanisms of a situationalist model, schools need to create “strong situations” that socialize students into accepting certain attitudes. This is an easier task for private schools where explicit use can be made of religion, external cultures, community norms, and rewards and punishments (especially expelling those who “buck” the culture) as means of reinforcing these attitudes. Public schools have fewer of these mechanisms to use, and this may explain why such programs are at present disproportionate in private schools.

See Seligman (1992), op. cit., p. 157.

Langland Connie , “A Bold New Goal for Schools,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 26, 1992, p. Fl.

Commission on the Skills of the Workforce, America's Choice: High Wages or Low Skills? National Center on Education and the Economy, Rochester, NY, 1990.