The effect of graduate education on the job performance of civilian departments of defense employees

摘要

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of graduate education on the job performance of Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employees. The data used in this thesis were drawn from the Department of Defense Civilian Personnel Data File, which was provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center. The raw data were restricted to employees who possess at least a Bachelor's degree and are paid under General Schedule (GS) or General Management (GM) pay systems. Four performance measures were developed to investigate the effect of graduate education on job performance: salary level, promotion, retention, and performance rating. Four multivariate models were constructed for these performance measures. Ordinary least square (OLS) techniques were used to estimate the salary model. Logistic regression was used to estimate the promotion, retention, and performance rating models. The results found that the effect of having a Master's degree was positive in the salary, promotion, and performance ratings models. The effect of a Master's was negative in the retention model. All these findings were consistent with basic human capital investment theory. The thesis recommends that future research develop alternative job performance indicators and focus on specific occupations and functional areas.