The Over-Educated, Under-Utilized Worker: Why Doesn't Human Capital Development Bring Desired Outcomes?

Abstract

This comparative study of human capital development policy and organizational and HR practices examines employees' perceptions of competence utilization (and underutilization) and its possible causes. More specifically, the study addresses the following specific questions: Are human capital resources underutilized in work organizations? If this is the case, what is the extent of underutilization? What are the factors that affect utilization? Using data set drawn from a survey of managers and subordinates in public organizations in Saudi Arabia and Oman (N=540), findings expose a significant, and largely ignored, problem in the development and management of contemporary organizations: "human capital resource underutilization", indicating that skills and abilities of public administrators, although relatively and increasingly abundant, are invariably underutilized. The results show that competence utilization is closely related to certain organizational practices, namely power-influence sharing in decision making, area of expertise-job content matching, qualification-job requirements matching, and the use of work-teams, and use of competence, not only seniority as a basis for advancement and involvement opportunities. Without addressing the utilization and empowerment deficit, additional skill development might prove ineffective and largely irrelevant to performance improvements and overall effectiveness of governance system.

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“…The first one is a resource base of knowledge and skill and the second one is the ability to utilize as well as improvise this resource for fulfilling public service mandates. Utilization of human capital can be defined as 'the degree of match or congruence between an individual's skills and the opportunity to use these skills in that individual's work role' [21]. An important element in the understanding of the utilization of human capital is that in many institutions of the developing world, it is not the lack of skills and capabilities that becomes the problem, but the absence of the appropriate mechanisms to utilize them.…”

“…An important element in the understanding of the utilization of human capital is that in many institutions of the developing world, it is not the lack of skills and capabilities that becomes the problem, but the absence of the appropriate mechanisms to utilize them. Yahya [21] argued that without effective utilization schemes, investment in human resource…”