Human capital in the skies : over-qualification, job satisfaction and turnover intentions amongst Icelandic flight attendants

• Main Author: Heiðrún Ingrid Hlíðberg 1991-
• Other Authors: Háskólinn í Reykjavík
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Viðskiptafræði; Ferðaþjónusta; Tourism; Flugliðar; Business administration; Flight attendants; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/29135

The tourism industry is responsible for creating nearly half of all new jobs in Iceland over the past six years. These jobs are in large part of service nature and do not require university education. At the same time, more individuals than ever are graduating from universities and entering the labour force. Considering these developments, it is compelling to explore who is filling these jobs and this research focuses on doing so for the flight attendant occupation in Iceland. This research aims to evaluate the level of education amongst Icelandic flight attendants and the extent of potential over-qualification within this group. A questionnaire was used in order to gather the necessary data. The results were thoroughly analysed with the intention of establishing links between levels of education and attitudes towards the job, satisfaction levels as well as turnover intentions. The results are quite striking, revealing that nearly three in four flight attendants have attained tertiary education, which is not a requirement for the job in question. The underlying reasons for this choice of occupation are intricate and vary between which fields of study individuals come from. Wages have the highest weight in the decision for all groups but other factors such as working hours and travelling are important as well. A pronounced difference exists between individuals who report under-utilization of skills in terms of job satisfaction, attitudes and turnover intentions. If this large-scale over-qualification is truly a trend in the Icelandic labour market and not only a short term phenomenon it can have far-reaching ramifications for economic prosperity in Iceland in decades to come.