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Effects of perceived overqualification on career distress and career planning: Mediating role of career identity and moderating role of leader humility
Author(s) -
Ma Chao,
Ganegoda Deshani B.,
Chen George Zhen Xiong,
Jiang Xinhui,
Dong Chunyan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.22009
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , humility , identity (music) , moderated mediation , perspective (graphical) , mediation , distress , sociology , clinical psychology , social science , physics , artificial intelligence , computer science , acoustics , philosophy , theology
In this study, we examined how perceived overqualification influences employees' career distress and career planning. Specifically, we drew on role identity theory to hypothesize that perceived overqualification is positively related to individuals' career identity. Based on internal self‐processing dynamics of role identity, we further hypothesized that career identity predicts reduced career distress and increased career planning. We expected career identity to mediate the effects of overqualification on career distress and career planning. Based on the symbolic interactionism perspective of identity, we hypothesized that this mediation is moderated by leader humility so that overqualified employees exhibit stronger career identities in the presence of a humble leader. We found support for our hypotheses in a multi‐wave time‐lagged study of 220 supervisor–subordinate dyads from 50 groups. Overall, our studies highlight that perceived overqualification can have positive effects on employees and organizations under appropriate management conditions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these results.