Why and When Overqualified Employees Do (Not) Help Coworkers? A Resource-Based Perspective

Abstract

Previous studies have theorized overqualification as a state of underutilization of qualifications, suggesting that overqualification creates deleterious consequences for employees’ extra-role performance. However, the existing literature has largely ignored the potential positive aspects of overqualification that it may serve as an indicator of possessing superior capabilities. This paper takes the negative and the positive aspects of overqualification into account simultaneously. Building upon a resource-based perspective, this paper suggests that overqualification generates paradoxical effects on overqualified employees’ helping behavior through two opposing pathways: A resource exchange pathway (i.e., workplace status) and a resource preservation pathway (i.e., interpersonal disengagement). Based on a multi-wave and multi-source study, we found that overqualification exhibited a positive indirect effect on helping via workplace status and a negative indirect effect on helping via interpersonal disengagement. Furthermore, the positive effect of overqualification on workplace status was stronger for overqualified employees holding highly task-interdependent jobs. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.