Abstract
The issue of how overqualified employees engage in organizational citizenship behavior towards individual (OCBI) is gaining traction. Existing literatures have mostly explored the relationship between perceived overqualification and OCBI from cognitive and affective perspectives, ignoring the motivational perspective. However, motivation, as an importance mechanism, has a great impact on overqualified employees’ OCBI. Based on status-striving motivation, we focus on the positive aspect of perceived overqualification and investigates the mechanism of perceived overqualification on OCBI. Two studies, a scenario study (N = 110) and a time-lagged field study (N = 249), are used to test our hypotheses. Study 1 and 2 show that perceived overqualification positively affects OCBI through status-striving motivation. In addition, Study 2 finds that ambition not only moderates the direct relationship between perceived overqualification and status-striving motivation, but also the indirect effect of perceived overqualification on OCBI via status-striving motivation. However, the moderating role of task interdependence is not supported. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.
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Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Notes
There was no significant difference in demographics between the deleted sample and the retained sample.
There is no significant difference between respondents and non-respondents in demographic variables.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to all the participants in Study 2. An ethics approval was not required as per our institution’s guidelines and national regulations. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants in our study.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [72172157, 72132001]. “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (2722022DG007).
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Liu, W., Zhao, D., Shu, P. et al. All for striving status: how and when do overqualified employees engage in OCB towards individual. Curr Psychol 42, 31916–31929 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04209-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04209-1