Too good for your job? Disentangling the relationships between objective overqualification, perceived overqualification, and job dissatisfaction

• Published in: Journal of vocational behavior 2019-12, Vol.115, p.103323, Article 103323
• Main Authors: Arvan, Maryana L., Pindek, Shani, Andel, Stephanie A., Spector, Paul E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Employees; Employment; Job requirements; Job satisfaction; Overqualification; Perceptions; Person-environment fit theory
• ISSN: 0001-8791; 1095-9084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103323

In the present study, we investigated the relationships between objective overqualification, perceived overqualification, and job satisfaction based on the tenets of P-E fit theory, a commonly-used theoretical framework in the overqualification literature. Specifically, we tested whether employee perceptions of overqualification mediate the relationship between objective overqualification and job dissatisfaction. Results across two studies indicated that objective overqualification and job satisfaction independently predicted perceived overqualification, which contradicts the prevailing view in the literature of unidirectional effects between overqualification and strain outcomes. Study 1 used a cross-sectional survey of recent college graduates to test the overall mediation model. Although the model was supported, the relationship between objective overqualification and job satisfaction was not significant, raising the question of whether the hypothesized predictive relationship between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction is reversed. Study 2 tested directionality in the relationship between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction using a three-wave longitudinal panel design in a sample of full-time university staff employees. Results indicated that job dissatisfaction predicts subsequent perceived overqualification rather than the reverse. •Perceived OQ is prevalent in research, but objective OQ is critical in practice.•Objective OQ and job satisfaction independently predict perceived OQ.•Perceived OQ is likely not a good proxy for objective OQ.•Job satisfaction is a likely a predictor, not an outcome, of perceived OQ.