A study in the professionalization of civilian contract managers in the Department of Defense: The relationship between educational attainment and job proficiency

This study examined the relationship between three education measures and reported job proficiency amongst civilian contract managers within the Department of Defense (DoD). Congress created a framework for workforce development through the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) of 1990. The DoD's framework established criteria for entry into the contract management workforce. This criteria mandated baccalaureate degree attainment, contract training, and contracting experience within three progressive levels of professional certification for DoD contract managers. The DoD also conducted a 2008 competency study to determine what skills were important in contract management. The study collected Likert Scale survey responses from 9,504 civilian contract managers and their supervisors.;This study used data from the 2008 DoD competency study to test the relationship between the DAWIA criteria and reported proficiency scores in 62 contract management competency elements. Using factor analysis, the competency elements were reduced to five competency factors from the perspective of the contract managers and four competency factors from the perspective of their supervisors. Human capital theory suggests that progressive educational attainment and repeated task performance improve job proficiency; accordingly, the conceptual framework of this study links the three key education measures drawn from the DAWIA criteria - (1) college program of study by degree attainment level, (2) years of contracting experience, and (3) certification level - to reported proficiency scores against competencies identified in the competency model. This study controlled for race, sex, and the area of specialization, e.g., major weapons systems, construction, base operations support, that characterized the contract managers' present assignments at the time of the 2008 study.