Is the “Skills Gap” Really about Attitudes?

Contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of complaints about the poor quality of school graduates who enter the workforce are not about a lack of academic skills but instead focus on deficiencies of appropriate work attitudes and behaviors. In fact, attitudes and behaviors have a significant impact on workforce quality and can be developed both in schools and on the job.

[1]  C. Dweck,et al.  Goals: an approach to motivation and achievement. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  J. Hunter,et al.  Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance , 1984 .

[3]  G. Latham,et al.  Self-management training for increasing job attendance: A follow-up and a replication. , 1988 .

[4]  Robert I. Sutton,et al.  Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at the Workplace , 1994 .

[5]  T. S. Bateman,et al.  Job Satisfaction and the Good Soldier: The Relationship Between Affect and Employee “Citizenship” , 1983 .

[6]  K. Delucchi,et al.  Enhancing Children’s Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom , 1988 .

[7]  R. Eisenberger,et al.  Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Diligence, Commitment, and Innovation , 1990 .

[8]  R. Ryan,et al.  Relation of reward contingency and interpersonal context to intrinsic motivation: A review and test using cognitive evaluation theory. , 1983 .

[9]  T. C. Monson,et al.  Specifying when personality traits can and cannot predict behavior: An alternative to abandoning the attempt to predict single-act criteria. , 1982 .

[10]  John P. Meyer,et al.  Organizational socialization tactics : A longitudinal analysis of links to newcomers' commitment and role orientation , 1990 .

[11]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Commitment in an experimenting society: A study of the attribution of leadership from administrative scenarios. , 1980 .

[12]  Joel Brockner,et al.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again: Effects of persistence-performance contingencies, ego involvement, and self-esteem on task persistence. , 1988 .

[13]  F. Friedlander,et al.  Effect of job attitudes, training, and organization climate on performance of the hard-core unemployed. , 1971 .

[14]  Colette A. Frayne,et al.  Self-management training for increasing job attendance: A follow-up and a replication. , 1988 .

[15]  Michael P. Kirsch,et al.  METAANALYSES OF VALIDITY STUDIES PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1964 AND 1982 AND THE INVESTIGATION OF STUDY CHARACTERISTICS , 1984 .

[16]  D. Mcclelland,et al.  Leadership motive pattern and long-term success in management. , 1982 .

[17]  Murray R. Barrick,et al.  THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYSIS , 1991 .

[18]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  Hiring, training, and retaining the hard-core unemployed: A selected review. , 1973 .

[19]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination in a work organization. , 1989 .

[20]  S. Harter Effectance Motivation Reconsidered. Toward a Developmental Model , 1978 .

[21]  M. Clark,et al.  Noncomparability of benefits given and received: A cue to the existence of friendship. , 1981 .

[22]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  An Instrument to Assess Adults' Orientations toward Control versus Autonomy with Children: Reflections on Intrinsic Motivation and Perceived Competence. , 1981 .

[23]  V. O'leary The Hawthorne effect in reverse: trainee orientation for the hard-core unemployed woman. , 1972, The Journal of applied psychology.

[24]  S. J. Motowidlo,et al.  Prosocial Organizational Behaviors , 1986 .

[25]  J. P. Near,et al.  ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: ITS NATURE AND ANTECEDENTS , 1983 .

[26]  R. Mathews,et al.  Behavioral Assessment of Job-Related Skills. , 1981 .

[27]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  The dispositional approach to job attitudes: A lifetime longitudinal test. , 1986 .

[28]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  People as sculptors versus sculpture: The roles of personality and personal control in organizations. , 1989 .

[29]  Thomas J. Bouchard,et al.  Job Satisfaction: Environmental and Genetic Components , 1989 .

[30]  J. P. Rushton,et al.  The Altruistic Personality , 1984 .

[31]  Wayne F. Cascio,et al.  Applied psychology in personnel management , 1978 .