Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2013, Page 159

Hefur val á skóla og námsárangur áhrif á íslenskum vinnumarkaöi?
gefur einungis innsýn í það hvernig mann-
auðsstjórar meta nemendur frá þessum
tveimur skólum. Loks verður það einnig
að teljast jákvætt að há meðaleinkunn
skilar nemendum ávinningi þar sem þeir
eru metnir hæfari til starfa og líklegri til að
fá atvinnuviðtal og verða ráðnir.
Abstract
Do you reap what you sow?
A resume research was conducted using a
2 (private school/ public school) x 2 (high/
low grade point average) design to find
out if the choice of school and student
scholastic achievement affected hiring
decisions and initial wages offered for a
hypothetical job. In order to represent the
Icelandic job market as well as possible,
the population of interest was the human
resource managers of the biggest compa-
nies in Iceland. 143 participated, 49% men
and 51% wornen. The response rate was
49.3%.
A quantitative method in the form of
a survey was used. Four versions of a re-
sume were prepared. The applicant had
graduated from a private school (Reykja-
vik University) or a public school (Uni-
versity of Iceland) with a high (8.5) or low
(6.5) grade point average. All other infor-
mation in the resumes was identical. The
human resource managers were asked to
put themselves in the shoes of a human re-
source manager for a hypothetical compa-
ny. An ad for a project manager was pre-
pared. It contained a job description and
the requirements the applicants had to ful-
fill. The human resource managers were
asked to evaluate the applicant based on
his resume.
A questionnaire was designed. It con-
sisted of 14 questions which were intend-
ed to evaluate whether choice of school
and grade point average have an effect on
the decision to hire and initial wages of-
fered. The four questionnaires were sent
randomly to the e-mail addresses of the
human resource managers. They were
sent to the human resource managers (or
their equivalents) in 290 companies. Three
reminders were sent out. Finally the par-
ticipants who had not answered were
called on the phone and asked to fill out
the questionnaire.
The human resource managers did not
rate the graduate from the private school
as more competent than the graduate from
the public school. Neither were they more
likely to offer the graduate a job interview
or hire him. They were, on the other hand,
willing to offer the graduate from the
public school 9.8% higher wages. The hu-
man resource managers rated the gradu-
ate with the higher grade point average as
more competent than the one with a lower
grade point average and were more likely