An empirical investigation of the proposition that ‘school is work’: a comparison of personality–performance correlations in school and work settings

Abstract

An empirical test of Munson and Rubenstein's (1992) assertion that 'school is work' compared a sample of students in a high school with a sample of workers in a manufacturing plant in the same metropolitan area. Data from both samples included scores on six personality traits—Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness, Emotional Stability, Optimism, and Work Drive—and setting‐appropriate indicators of performance—cumulative grade point average (GPA) for students and supervisors' summed performance ratings for workers. In both samples, all of these personality traits showed significant correlations with performance, ranging from +.18 to +.46, with a median in both populations of +.24. The high school population contained a substantial fraction of students in the low and below‐average categories on traits that predict performance in both settings, and the score distributions of four traits showed no change from 9th through 12th grades. While Optimism scores rose slightly through high school, average scores on Work Drive —the single best predictor of performance in manufacturing settings—actually declined from 9th through 12th grades in the population studied here. These findings support the psychological equivalence of school and work, raise questions about the potential employability of high school students, and point toward areas for future research.