Overeducation and the influence of job attributes: A study conducted in the city of Kochi | Razeena Rasheed & P.R. Wilson

The goal of every enterprise is to utilize the employee potential in a most profitable manner as it constitutes a major part of the intangible value created. The imbalance in the supply and demand of the educated people has resulted in a high proportion of overqualified employees in Kerala. And hence a major chunk of the graduates including professional graduates are forced to accept a job which is far below their educational qualification. Recruiting highly qualified employees can be considered as cost effective as they can generate better managerial effectiveness, operational efficiency, and innovation there by further providing more value and benefit for its customers. But for this ,their frustration and discontentment has to be minimized and should remain motivated. The present study attempts to explore the consequences of overqualification on employees in Kerala and the impact of different job attributes on their satisfaction. The findings show that even though explicitly the employees are being compensated by the external attributes of the job internally they are dissatisfied due to the low intrinsic satisfaction.