The role of education, occupational match on job satisfaction in the behavioral and social science workforce

• Date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21343
• Author: Joshua Hawley,Hyungjo Hur,Julie A. Maurer
• Published date: 01 September 2019

QUANTITATIVE STUDY

The role of education, occupational match on job

satisfaction in the behavioral and social science

workforce

Hyungjo Hur

1

| Julie A. Maurer

2

| Joshua Hawley

3

1

Department of Political Science, Eastern

Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois

2

College of Education and Human Ecology,

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

3

John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Correspondence

Julie A. Maurer, John Glenn College of Public

Affairs, The Ohio State University, 1810

College Road N, Columbus, OH 43210.

Email: maurer.99@osu.edu

While many studies that have been conducted in recent years

examining the education and workforce outcomes of STEM gradu-

ates, few have focused on the behavioral and social sciences (BSS).

Federal agencies, such as National Institutes of Health (NIH), are

implementing policies to foster multidisciplinary research in an

effort to find more effective solutions to complex problems. As a

result, there is growing interest in the career pathways of BSS sci-

entists. This study seeks to increase our understanding of how BSS

graduates, particularly women and underrepresented minorities,

transition to employment within their respective fields. The focus

of this research is the impact of horizontal mismatch, defined as

the misalignment between a worker's degree and occupational

fields, on job satisfaction and wage outcomes. This analysis of

returns to education when mismatch occurs, including a compari-

son among majors and various demographic groups, provides

insights into the labor market experiences of these scientists. Mis-

matched graduates were found to be much more vulnerable, earn-

ing less, and having lower job satisfaction, than their counterparts

employed in jobs that aligned with their field of study. Additional

job-related training was found to have a positive influence on these

outcomes. Also of interest in this study were variations in wage

penalties and job satisfaction between groups having different gen-

der and race diversity characteristics. These findings are useful to

human resource development (HRD) professionals, governmental

policymakers, and other stakeholders seeking strategies to improve

the workforce outcomes of BSS scientists.

KEYWORDS

behavioral and social science, education-job mismatch, job

satisfaction, wage

DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21343

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human Resource Development Quarterly. 2019;30:407–435. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrdq 407

1|INTRODUCTION

This study focuses on the alignment between education degree and occupation for individuals in the behavioral and

social sciences. We focus in on the impact of this alignment on job satisfaction. Research on human resource devel-

opment (HRD) and human resource management (HRM) has led to the hypothesis that individuals employed in occu-

pations for which they are trained are being more satisfied with their jobs. Moreover, job satisfaction is strongly

related to productivity. We term this alignment a “horizontal match.”

Horizontal mismatch is defined as existing when the subject of study for the terminal degree (e.g., sociology) is

different than the primary field of the occupation (e.g., clerk) (Sloane, 2003). This research aims to increase our

understanding of behavioral and social sciences (BSS) workers' employment outcomes within their respective fields,

and by workforce diversity group, with respect to job satisfaction and earnings. This study is concerned with the

impact of horizontal mismatch given the high degree of uncertainty regarding whether the outcomes associated with

it are more likely to be positive or negatively influenced (Béduwé & Giret, 2011; McGuinness, Pouliakas, & Redmond,

2018; Robst, 2007a; Verhaest, Sellami, & Van der Velden, 2017; Wolbers, 2003). Less is known about workforce out-

comes relating to horizontal mismatch than other forms of education-job misalignment, including vertical mismatch

(over or under employment), skills gaps, and skills obsolescence (Robst, 2007a; Robst & VanGilder, 2016; Verhaest

et al., 2017). Mismatch may occur at the firm level with the impacts measured in aggregate, or at the individual level

with effects on employee-related outcomes. We conducted logic regression and standard wage regression analyses

on National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) data to examine the return on investments in education when hori-

zontal mismatch occurs. These results, along with the findings of our investigation of the impacts of horizontal mis-

match on outcomes by various BSS degree fields and workforce diversity groups, provide valuable insights into the

labor market experiences of BSS graduates.

2|RESEARCH ON HORIZONTAL MISMATCH IN DIFFERENT DEGREE

FIELDS

Students' choice of major and college, and their success in the labor market after graduation, determine how well

they maximize their return on investment in education (Robst, 2007b). The match between field of study and field of

employment is one measure of a graduate's ability to use their acquired knowledge and skills in the labor market. It is

quite common for more recent graduates having less work experience to work in jobs that are not well aligned with

their field of study; especially, in the social and behavioral sciences (Yuen, 2010). One reason for this mismatch is the

labor market supply and demand dynamics. Gaps in the supply of graduates versus available jobs (demand) in certain

sectors result in an increased likelihood that workers will accept job offers that are not aligned well with their educa-

tion attainment level (Wolbers, 2003), resulting in their being over or under qualified for the position (Freeman &

Hirsch, 2008). Likewise, their skill level may not meet, or may exceed, what is required due to being obsolete result-

ing in crowding or bumping out (Sloane, Mavromaras, O'Leary, McGuinness, & O'Connell, 2010). While earlier studies

have found evidence of the variation of horizontal mismatch between different fields of study (Verhaest et al., 2017;

Wolbers, 2003), there is interest in knowing if the most recent data available confirm this. Therefore, we hypothesize

that the effects of horizontal mismatch for each workforce diversity (gender and race) group vary by different BSS

degree fields.

Hypothesis H1 Horizontal mismatch of each workforce diversity group differs by different BSS degree field.

Horizontal mismatch is usually a problem for the initial entry into employment, as new college graduates search

for jobs and accept or reject jobs based on many criteria, including wages, location, and occupational match. Horizon-

tal mismatch outcomes differ by major fields of study and depend on graduates' personal characteristics, as well as

408 HUR ET AL.