Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

How perceived overqualification relates to work alienation and emotional exhaustion: The moderating role of LMX

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The current study investigated the interaction effect of perceived overqualification and LMX on employee emotional exhaustion, and examined the mediating role of work alienation from the perspective of relative deprivation theory. Using a sample of 297 employees in 12 companies collected in China, we found that perceived overqualification was more positively related to work alienation and emotional exhaustion when LMX was high than when LMX was low. The results of the mediated moderation analysis revealed that work alienation mediated the interaction of perceived overqualification and LMX on emotional exhaustion.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfes, K., Shantz, A., & van Baalen, S. (2016). Reducing perceptions of overqualification and its impact on job satisfaction: The dual roles of interpersonal relationships at work. Human Resource Management Journal, 26, 84–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banai, M., Reisel, W. D., & Probst, T. M. (2004). A managerial and personal control model: Predictions of work alienation and organizational commitment in Hungary. Journal of International Management, 10, 375–392.

  • Bolino, M. C., & Feldman, D. C. (2000). The antecedents and consequences of underemployment among expatriates. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 889–911.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1, 185–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burris, B. H. (1983). The human effects of underemployment. Social Problems, 31, 96–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiaburu, D. S., Thundiyil, T., & Wang, J. X. (2014). Alienation and its correlates: A meta-analysis. European Management Journal, 32, 24–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corning, A. F. (2000). Assessing perceived social inequity: A relative deprivation framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 463–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crosby, F. J. (1984). Relative deprivation in organizational settings. Research in Organizational Behavior, 6, 51–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Efraty, D., Sirgy, J. M., & Claiborne, C. B. (1991). The effects of personal alienation of organizational identification: A quality-of-work-life model. Journal of Business and Psychology, 6, 57–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erdogan, B., Bauer, T. N., Peiró, J. M., & Truxillo, D. M. (2011). Overqualified employees: Making the best of a potentially bad situation for individuals and organizations. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 4, 215–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, G. R., Adams, G., Kolodinsky, R. W., Hochwarter, W. A., & Ammeter, A. P. (2002). Perceptions of organizational politics: Theory and research directions: In F. Dansereau & F. J. Yammarino (Eds.), Research in multilevel issues (pp. 179-254). Oxford, UK: Elsevier science/JAI Press.

  • Graen, G. B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 6, 219–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gurr, T. R. (1970). Why men rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harari, M. B., Manapragada, A., & Viswesvaran, C. (2017). Who thinks they’re a big fish in a small pond and why does it matter? A meta-analysis of perceived overqualification. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 102, 28–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, J., Erdogan, B., Bauer, T. N., Jiang, K. F., Liu, S., & Li, Y. (2015). There are lots of big fish in this pond: The role of peer overqualification on task significance, perceived fit, and performance for overqualified employees. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 1228–1238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, G. J., & Johnson, W. R. (1996). Perceived overqualification and psychological well-being. Journal of Social Psychology, 136, 435–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lian, H., Ferris, D. L., & Brown, D. J. (2012). Does taking the good with the bad make things worse? How abusive supervision and leader-member exchange interact to impact need satisfaction and organizational deviance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 117, 41–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, S. Q., & Wang, M. (2012). Perceived overqualification: A review and recommendations for research and practice. Research in Occupational Stress and Well-Being, 10, 1–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, S. Q., Luksyte, A., Zhou, L., Shi, J. Q., & Wang, M. (2015). Overqualification and counterproductive work behaviors: Examining a moderated mediation model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 250–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luksyte, A., & Spitzmueller, C. (2016). When are overqualified employees creative? It depends on contextual factors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37, 635–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). Maslach burnout inventory. Manual (3rd ed.). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard, D. C., & Feldman, D. C. (2011). Underemployment: Psychological, economic, and social challenges. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard, D. C., & Parfyonova, N. M. (2013). Perceived overqualification and withdrawal behaviours: Examining the roles of job attitudes and work values. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86, 435–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard, D. C., Joseph, T. A., & Maynard, A. M. (2006). Underemployment, job attitudes, and turnover intentions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 509–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, D., Judd, C. M., & Yzerbyt, V. Y. (2005). When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 852–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair, N., & Vohra, N. (2009). Developing a new measure of work alienation. Journal of Workplace Rights, 14, 293–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Navarro, M. L. A., Mas, M. B., & Jimenez, A. M. L. (2010). Working conditions, burnout and stress symptoms in university professors: Validating a structural model of mediating effect of perceived personal competence. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 13, 284–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scandura, T. A., & Graen, G. B. (1984). Moderating effects of initial LMX status on the effects of a leadership intervention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 428–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, B. (2001). Fits about fit. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50, 141–152.

  • Shantza, A., Alfes, K., & Truss, C. (2014). Alienation from work: Marxist ideologies and twenty-first-century practice. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25, 2529–2550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siegrist, J., Siegrist, K., & Weber, I. (1986). Sociological concepts in the etiology of chronic disease: The case of ischemic heart disease. Social Science & Medicine, 22, 247–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaisey, S. (2006). Education and its discontents: Overqualification in America, 1972-2002. Social Forces, 85, 835–864.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, F., Wang, Z., & Zhang, L. H. (2012). The “boundary predicament” in the process of employee’s career development: It is due to the mechanism or employees? Management World, 11, 89–109,155.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Project ID: 71502141) and the Project of Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education in China (Project ID: 16YJA630069).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business Administration, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China

    Huiping Yu & Wenjing Hu

  2. School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, No. 555, Liutai Road, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

    Fu Yang & Ting Wang

  3. School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jianmin Sun

Authors
  1. Huiping Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fu Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ting Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jianmin Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Wenjing Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Huiping Yu collected data and wrote the first draft. Fu Yang designed the theoretical framework of the study and revised the manuscript based on Reviewers’ comments. Ting Wang revised the manuscript based on Reviewers’ comments. Jianmin Sun and Wenjing Hu provided valuable suggestions for the first draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fu Yang.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yu, H., Yang, F., Wang, T. et al. How perceived overqualification relates to work alienation and emotional exhaustion: The moderating role of LMX. Curr Psychol 40, 6067–6075 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00538-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00538-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation