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To disentangle the impact of each type of overqualification, the author created four profiles of overqualified workers based on the metaphor of the big fish in a small pond: “the fish that fits the pond,” “the unaware big fish in a small pond,” “the fish fitting the pond, but feeling cramped” and “the aware big fish in a small pond.”

Using a Canadian representative survey, the author examined the distinctive effect of objective and subjective overqualification on job satisfaction among recent graduate workers. The subjective measure is based on the individual's perception of the match of his/her education level, training and experience with the requirements of his/her job; and the objective measure assesses the match between the individual's educational attainment and the skill level associated with his/her occupational group.

The results show that only the “the fish fitting the pond, but feeling cramped” and “the aware big fish in a small pond” profiles of overqualified workers lead to a lower probability of being satisfied with their job compared to “fish that fits the pond.”

The current study is original because the findings reveal that being objectively overqualified without feeling cramped has no consequence on workers' job satisfaction, while feeling cramped without being objectively overqualified leads to lower job satisfaction. Recruiters should therefore avoid to focus on overeducation since it has no impact on their job satisfaction. They should pay more attention to the feeling of being cramped when they look for the best candidates. Even if the candidate's diploma corresponds to that required by the position, this feeling reduces their chances to be satisfied with the job.

In this chapter, we aim to make the following contributions to the perceived overqualification literature. First, we provide an opportunity-based fairness conceptualization of perceived overqualification, and differentiate it from other justice constructs. Second, we present a multilevel model of perceived overqualification, which enumerates the antecedents and consequences, and explicates the mediators and moderators of the effect of perceived overqualification. Third, we emphasize the importance of considering methodological issues in future research on overqualification. Finally, we offer specific suggestions in studying applicant overqualification and recruiter perceptions.

Although employee overqualification is a common occurrence in the workplace, most research has focused on overqualification at the individual level rather than at the team level. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study aimed to uncover how leaders' perception of team overqualification influenced their cognition and follow-up behavior.

We performed two studies to test our model. In Study 1, we conducted an experiment to examine the causal relationship between leaders' perception of team overqualification and leadership self-efficacy. In Study 2, a two-wave field study was conducted to test the overall model based on a sample obtained from a steel company in China.

We found that leaders' perception of team overqualification reduced leadership self-efficacy, which in turn hindered leaders' empowering behavior. In addition, leaders' social face consciousness strengthened the negative relationship between leaders' perception of team overqualification and leadership self-efficacy, such that the relationship was more negative when leaders' social face consciousness was high rather than low.

Our study contributes to the literature on employee overqualification and its effects on leaders through investigation at the team level to show how leaders respond to overqualified teams.

Drawing on the equity theory and self-categorization theory, the authors examine the congruence effect of perceived self-overqualification and perceived coworker-overqualification on team–member exchange (TMX) quality, which in turn influences employees' organizational identification.

The data were collected from 392 employees in 78 teams at 2 time points, and polynomial regressions was used to test the hypothesized associations.

The more consistent perceived self-overqualification is with perceived coworker-overqualification, the higher quality of TMX. Moreover, TMX mediates the relationship between this congruence on organizational identification, which indicates that the congruence of perceived overqualification is related to higher-quality TMX, and then makes overqualified employees produce higher levels of organizational identification.

The findings of the research contributes to theory building of perceived overqualification through distinguishing perceived overqualification as an individual characteristic from the perception of overqualification that occurs in teams. Besides, by analyzing employees' experiences of overqualification in the context of their colleague-group, this study demonstrates the importance of considering overqualified individuals' social context (e.g. the composition of teams) in exploring the consequences of perceived overqualification. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to test the direct effect of the perceived overqualification on the burnout syndrome and the indirect effect through the workers’ autonomous and controlled motivation.

The hypotheses were tested with a sample of 3,256 contact center operators from one Portuguese company and data were analyzed using the software package Mplus to conduct structural equation models.

The results revealed that workers’ perceived overqualification is positively related to burnout and that both autonomous and controlled motivation partially mediates this relationship.

The cross-sectional design should be regarded as a limitation. Moreover, each variable was only assessed with self-reported measures, the sample comprised call center employees from only one company and one country (Portugal), and the workers were all employed in commercial services of telecommunications, energy, banking or insurance companies, which may constrain the generalization of these results.

Workers’ perceived overqualification should be avoided to prevent their burnout. Furthermore, an increase in workers’ skills and competencies, enhanced decision latitude, and the task variety and quality should be crucial for employees to develop more autonomous motivation to work in a contact center and the promotion of their well-being at work. More precisely, as overqualification concerns the employees’ perceptions of surplus education, experience and knowledge, from a practical perspective, enhancing the decision latitude, task variety and quality of these individuals’ work may contribute to decreasing individuals’ perception of overqualification and, therefore, contribute to increasing workers’ autonomous motivations and well-being.

This study provides evidence concerning the mediating role of both workers’ autonomous and controlled motivation to explain the relationship between perceived overqualification and burnout.

Organizations send their employees for international assignments so as to develop their international working experiences, their global knowledge and skills. These employees are then expected to return to their home countries (hereof known as repatriates) to share their newly gained knowledge or skills with their colleagues. This practice would benefit the organization's performance to some extent. Nonetheless, past literature had pointed out that many of such repatriates tend to leave their respective organizations as a result of not being able to fully utilize their newly acquired knowledge and skills, which led them to perceive that they were overqualified. This occurrence could lead to a loss of valuable knowledge for their organization. Aiming to address this issue at hand, the current study focuses on examining of the antecedents that could influence these repatriates' knowledge sharing behaviour.

This paper uses a research framework which was developed from three aspects of interest–perceived overqualification, affective commitment and the moderating effect of repatriation support practices on knowledge sharing behaviour of repatriates. Structural model analysis was carried out to assess 152 useable data which were collected from returning corporate repatriates in Malaysia. The SmartPLS 3.0 software was applied.

Repatriates with highly perceived overqualifications tend to exhibit low affective commitment. The impact of their perceived overqualification on knowledge sharing behaviour was fully mediated by their affective commitment. Repatriation support practice was found to strengthen the positive relationship between affective commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour.

The use of the relative deprivation theory showed that the outcome derived from this study could serve as an insight for organizations to understand how those repatriates' perception of overqualification influences their level of affective commitment, and subsequently, the extent to which they share knowledge upon returning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived overqualification and job crafting, which has the ability to drive satisfaction, loyalty and performance; drawing on the broaden-and-build theory, the study tests the positive psychological capital (PsyCap) moderation role in this relationship.

Data were obtained from 320 white-collar employees in Northern Cyprus. Data on perceived overqualification and positive PsyCap were gathered in the first survey, and job crafting was measured as a follow up. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression.

Perceived overqualification has a significantly negative effect on all dimensions of job crafting. However, considering PsyCap as a moderator, the study demonstrates that the negative impact of perceived overqualification on job crafting lessens when positive PsyCap is high rather than low.

Self-reported surveys are used and results were collected from only Northern Cyprus.

The study has important practical implications for managing and reaping benefits from employees who perceive themselves as overqualified. Specifically, organizations need to implement efficient activities that increase positive PsyCap among these employees (e.g. inspirational videos and other learning), which can thereby boost their job-crafting behavior and result in better organizational performance.

This research is the first to investigate positive PsyCap among employees who feel overqualified. The findings further point to what can be done to encourage job-crafting behavior by using positive PsyCap to increase passion and motivation among overqualified employees.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how employers define overqualification and mismatched qualification and whether they are willing to hire applicants whose educational and work experience credentials do not match job requirements.

This paper draws from qualitative interview data from 24 hiring managers across a wide range of US public sector and private industries. Data were analyzed and coded to identify themes related to managers’ perceptions of overqualification, matched, and mismatched qualification, and how these were related to selection decisions. A typology is proposed for categorizing applicant qualification levels and their potential human resource outcomes such as hiring decisions.

Hiring managers report that they are willing to interview and hire individuals whose education or experience exceed a job’s requirements as well as applicants with less than required education, but only if they possess sufficient compensatory experience.

Findings may not apply to industries where minimum educational levels are essential or to small organizations with few opportunities for career advancement.

Given current unemployment and underemployment levels, the findings can inform the job search strategies of job seekers. Overqualified applicants should not refrain from applying to job openings, particularly in organizations with opportunities for advancement and where education is considered an asset. Additionally, applicants should reveal their motivations for pursing positions that are intentional mismatches.

In contrast to previous studies conducted during periods of lower unemployment and underemployment, these data include managers’ perceptions of overqualification in a recession and post-recession job market context and thus are especially relevant to today’s employment context. The proposed typology distinguishes between categorizations of qualified, overqualified, and underqualified, and helps refine studies aimed at selection decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of job search on perceived overqualification by applying the theory of planned behavior and including financial need and openness to experience as moderators.

Three questionnaires were given at weeks 1, 8 and 12 to 436 practice firm participants. A total of 119 completed all three questionnaires. The authors used partial least squares to analyze the data.

Job search self-efficacy was positively related to job search intentions and to outcome expectations. Job search intentions were positively related to job search intensity. Financial need acted as a moderator of the relationship between job search intensity and perceived overqualification such that for those with high-financial need higher levels of job search intensity resulted in higher perceived overqualification.

The authors found little support for the theory of planned behavior in the model. The authors found strong support for the role of job search self-efficacy and job search intentions. The use of a three-wave design resulted in a relatively low sample size and the use of the practice firm reduces the generalizability of the findings.

The results suggest that increasing job search self-efficacy and job search intentions while managing the anticipations of job seekers is likely to yield better job search outcomes.

This study investigates the role of job search on perceived overqualification. Findings suggest that malleable attitudes during job search such as job search self-efficacy, job search intentions, and anticipations are likely to impact perceived overqualification.

Drawing from cognitive and emotional perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to theorize and test a dual-pathway model in which moral disengagement and anger toward organization act as two explanatory mechanisms of the association between perceived overqualification and employee cyberloafing. The authors further proposed that the strengths of these two mediating mechanisms depend on employee moral identity.

The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the hypotheses by analyzing a sample of 294 employees working in 71 departments in China.

Results revealed that moral disengagement and anger toward organization mediated the positive link between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing beyond the influence of social exchange. Furthermore, moral identity attenuated the association between the mediators (i.e. moral disengagement and anger) and cyberloafing and the indirect relationship between perceived overqualification and cyberloafing.

Extant studies have examined the effects of perceived overqualification on employee behaviors in terms of task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, proactive behavior, as well as withdrawal behavior. The study expands this line of research by empirically investigating whether and how perceived overqualification influences cyberloafing.