How SES Background Relates to Employee Overqualification, Information Seeking and Knowledge Hiding

Abstract

The influence of one’s socioeconomic status (SES) background on employee outcomes is increasingly recognized. Drawing on sociological and psychological research on SES and relative deprivation theory (RDT), we examine when and why SES background influence perceptions of overqualification and downstream behavioral reactions in the workplace. In a time-lagged, multisource field study involving 400 employees and 400 coworkers, we find that employees with higher SES backgrounds experience higher level of perceived overqualification, thus increasing both knowledge hiding and information seeking behaviors. Furthermore, relational mobility moderates the indirect effects, such that the positive effect on knowledge hiding is weakened and the positive effect on information seeking is strengthened when relational mobility is high versus when it is low. Our theory and findings highlight that SES background can have long-term impact on workplace behaviors and offer a more comprehensive view of how people’s behaviors to manage perceived overqualification may be strategic instead of plainly reactionary.