When Do Over-qualified Employees Misbehave?

When Do Over-qualified Employees Misbehave? Perceived Over-qualification to Counterproductive Work Behaviors Relationship in the Context of Workgroup Justice and Task Interdependence

• Associate Professor of Management Smriti Anand

Abstract:

Drawing upon equity theory and integrating with two contrasting perspectives on over-qualification, we propose a curvilinear relationship between perceived over-qualification (POQ) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) with the highest level of CWBs occurring at the intermediate level of POQ. Further, we extend over-qualification research to employees’ social and structural context of workgroup membership and propose that the perceptions of workgroup justice climate and workgroup task interdependence moderate the curvilinear relationship between POQ and CWBs. Results of multi-level analyses of data from 209 employees nested in 39 workgroups showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between POQ and CWBs. Moreover, moderation analyses revealed that workgroup justice climate and workgroup task interdependence independently influence the relationship between POQ and CWBs. Supplemental analysis further supported our prediction that low vs. high levels of perceived over-qualification differentially affect the two motives explained by contrasting perspectives.

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