Educational Achievements as a Determinant of an Individual’s Formal Power

Abstract

The scope of this study is to define how educational achievements of individuals in Slovenia define their “formal power” in the organizations where they work. The study is based on theoretical definitions of the concepts of formal power and education. A total of 509 people from Slovenia over 30 years of age participated in the study. We recognized a certain influence of educational achievement on the formal position in the organizational hierarchy. The main predictor of an individual’s formal power in an organization is the individual’s last achieved level of formal education. The average grade for the final achieved level of formal education and the initiative regarding the search for additional education has much less of an impact on power than the highest level of education obtained. One of the most important practical implications is that education is one of the basic predispositions to having formal power but not necessarily always and not in every case.