Perceived Overqualification as a Determinant of Proactive Behavior and Career Success: The Need for Achievement as a Moderator

Recent studies show the importance of overqualification for the career success of professionals. Drawing on relative deprivation and person-environment fit theory and with a  focus on career success perspective, we examined the effect of perceived overqualification on career success via proactive behaviour and relative deprivation, and how the need for achievement moderates the relationship between perceived overqualification and proactive behaviour and relative deprivation. The study collected data in three waves using time lagged design from the top universities of Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan. In the first set of surveys, 456 questionnaires were returned, yielding an 85.23 percent response rate. Three hundred eighty-two questionnaires were returned in the second round of surveys, yielding an 83.77 percent response rate. In the third round of surveys, 318 questionnaires were received, accounting for 83.25 percent of the total. so a total of 318 questionnaires were selected for analysis. The study found that perceived overqualification was found to have a positive relationship with career success. Proactive behaviour and relative deprivation mediate between overqualification and career success. Moreover, the findings suggest that a high need for achievement strengthens the positive relationship between perceived overqualifications and proactive behaviour, whereas a high need for achievement weakens the relation between perceived overqualification and relative deprivation. These findings show that employees high on need for achievement will show more proactive behaviour with overqualification and low relative deprivation. The findings suggest many theoretical as well as practical implications for managers to reduce overqualification perceptions of employees in an organizational context. The managerial implications are also discussed in the end.