The Impact of Higher Education on Employees Performance in the UAE Public Sector - Case Study Example

BUS 4936: Integrative Industry Project Assignment 4 – Abstract, Discussion, Findings, Recommendations, Conclusion Title: The Impact of Higher Education on Employees Performance in the UAE Public Sector. Student: ID: Submission date: Presented to: Abstract Education has for long been perceived as the panacea for nearly all problems facing the humanity. Even though the idea of training indicates the concept of learning a particular course so as to prepare a person for a certain profession or skill, education as mentioned by Mawer (2014), is a wider concept, wherein people are prepared for life with broad values, skills and knowledge. According to Gratz (2009), it is not possible to teach individuals everything, but they must be provided with methods, skills, and habits that can facilitate them to educate themselves continuously by means of liberal education. As it will be evidenced in this study, higher education is a key precedence in the UAE efforts of realising vision 2021. Basically, development of the human capital as perceived by scholars is a key tool for establishing a knowledge-based economy. The human capital theory states that the earnings and productivity of a person improve with additional education (Almendarez, 2011). In view of this, UAE Ministry of Education introduced techniques for advanced education, which are consistent with the best learning practices so as to improve innovation and productivity. This study key objective is establishing the impact of higher level of education on employee’s performance in the UAE public sector. Therefore, the study focuses on the Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) so as to determine whether employee performance is changed by high level of education. This study will include information from both primary and secondary data collection. For this reason, the ADSB‘s employees from different departments were considered as the sample for this research. The data was collected through questionnaire papers, which were randomly distributed in different ADSB departments as well as positions with the intention of getting different viewpoints. The results from the study confirmed that there is a connection between education as well as the performance of employees. Majority of the respondents felt that education equips them with the relevant knowledge and skills required to carry out their professional businesses as needed in their work contracts and schedules. Therefore, it was concluded that higher education positively impacts employee performance at the public sector, and consequently, facilitates the organisation to achieve the needed goals and objectives. Discussion & Findings The majority of the respondents strongly agreed that employees who have higher education level, usually come with new ideas, are competent in solving problems, and can work independently and give high performance. Without a doubt, education level and intelligence are significantly as well as positively correlated. This is in view of the fact that people with high fluid intelligence are inclined to complete their higher education while education develops the minds of the student as well as stimulates the development of the crystallized intelligence. As evidenced by Kuncel, Hezlett, and Ones (2004), people who have attained higher education always score higher in the IQ tests as compared to those without. This proves why respondents agreed that employees with higher education level background are more reliable. Undeniably, ADSB’s employees with higher education had greater analytical knowledge as compared to those without. For this reason, it is agreed that employee performance is promoted by higher education since the employee is offered more procedural and declarative knowledge that facilitates them to finish their tasks effectively. In the ADSB accounting department, it was noted that higher education in accounting facilitates employees to get the need expertise to perform effectively in the accounting profession. Therefore, it can be argued that equipping students with knowledge in the institutions of higher education allow for the development of deeper competence. In consequence, it facilitates them to go up the occupational as well as organizational career ladders more swiftly. By integrating such findings, it is without a doubt that higher education is positively associated with employee performance. This study finding proves the existence of a relationship between employee job performance and higher education, especially for persons with high-complexity jobs such as engineers. The study established that high complexity jobs such as engineers require higher education so as to have strong persistence and motivation to perform effectively. On the other hand, low complexity jobs such as office clerks do not much knowledge to perform their job effectively; therefore, higher education has an insignificant impact on low complexity jobs. Therefore, the study findings show that higher education accelerates employee performance on high complex jobs. Besides that, even though education promotes job performance in scores of jobs as proved in this study, its impact are more evident at managerial level (Rose, 2005). Therefore, higher education is important for managers seeking more responsibilities; for instance, improved cognitive ability is crucial on certain managerial tasks such as the development of the market strategy (Ng & Feldman, 2009). This study proves that the relationship between job performance as well as the education level is much stronger for high complexity and managerial jobs as compared to non-managerial and low complexity jobs. Recommendations & Conclusion There is a need for further research to determine whether work experience has an effect on the relationship between higher education and employee performance. Besides that, there is a need for more research to examine the factors that compel people to prefer more work experience rather than more education and vice versa. Besides that, there is a need for further research on factors that impact preferences of organisations (with regard to promotion and hiring decisions) in terms of higher education over working experience. In conclusion, this study has presented evidence that there exist a positive relationship between higher education and employee performance. As indicated in the study, highly educated employees perform more productively and are more likely to realise the organisation’s goals and objectives. Besides that, it has been argued that employees with higher education are more confident with regard to their skills. Without a doubt, a company with a well-educated staff as evidence by ADSD can capitalise easily on the growth opportunities in the international markets. Therefore, high levels of education positively impact job performance as evidenced in the Abu Dhabi ship building company. There is a positive relationship between high levels of education with jobs of high complexity such as engineering. References Almendarez, L. (2011, October 11). Human Capital Theory: Implications for Educational Development. Retrieved from The University of the West Indies: http://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/belize/conference/papers2010/almendarez.html Gratz, D. B. (2009). The Peril and Promise of Performance Pay: Making Education Compensation Work. Massachusetts: R&L Education. Kuncel, N., Hezlett, S., & Ones, D. (2004). Academic performance, career potential, creativity, and job performance: Can one construct predict them all? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 148–161. Mawer, G. (2014). Language and Literacy in Workplace Education: Learning at Work. New York: Routledge. Ng, T. W., & Feldman, D. C. (2009). How broadly does education contribute to job performance? Personnel Psychology, 62, 89–134. Rose, M. (2005). Do rising levels of qualification alter work ethic, work orientation and organizational commitment for the worse? Evidence from the UK, 1985–2001. Journal of Education and Work, 18, 131–164. Read More