Credentialism ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ credentialism: “Credentialism” is the process in which prospective job applicants build resumes to signal that they satisfy requirements(screening) by employers for degrees and certificates as indicators of diligence and work ethics, despite the fact that these credentials often seem to have little or nothing to do with the job vacancies the applicants wish to fill. A Michael Spence won a share of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 in part for his analyses of the roles of credentials in screening and signaling as mechanisms firms and employees confront as a consequence of asymmetric information and other imperfections in the quality of information available. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Some critics of modern employment practices think that college degrees are artificial barriers to entry into many occupations. They believe that incompetent practitioners of many professions are protected from competition by people who might be extremely able but who lack the formal education required, either legally or by standard practice, to secure a job. IBM would not have hired Bill Gates (of Microsoft) nor Steve Jobs nor Steve Wozniak (the founders of Apple) as computer engineers; none had a college degree. Today, GE would not hire its founder, Thomas Edison, as a scientist; he lacked even a grade school education. Abe Lincoln could not practice law in most states today; he apprenticed as an attorney but never attended college. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and most of your professors lack the credentials (education courses) now required to teach high school courses in the United States. According to these critics, there are many people who could successfully do jobs not currently open to them because they lack the necessary degrees. Moreover, acquiring the degrees would waste their time, because degree programs allegedly fail to teach virtually anything required by many jobs. Do you think a management trainee in a department store should be compelled to have a degree? Many chain stores have such requirements. Degrees are no guarantee of competence, nor does the lack of formal education mean that someone is incompetent.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Author: Ralph Byrns
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