1. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Overqualification and it’s
outcomes: the moderating role of
organizational learning
by ZHENG, Boyang
www.sinauonline.com

2. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Outline
1 Literature review
2 Hypothesis and Method
3 Result
4 Discussion
5 Conclusion
Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance

3. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Overqualification (or underemployment) is the state
of being skilled or educated beyond what is
necessary for a job
• A special issue of Demands-Abilities Fit
• A common phenomenon in industrialized countries
• Operational definition
– Through Job analysis and assessment（Green &
McIntosh, 2007）
– Overeducation（Hung, 2008)
– Perceived Overqualification（Johnson & Johnson, 1996,
2002）
Overqualification

4. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• General concerns of the company
– More cost on staff salaries
– a stepping stone for overqualified candidates (turnover)
– Can not maximize the potential of employees
– ……
• Literatures showed
– Negative effect on Job Satisfaction（Johnson & Johnson,
2 000, 2002; Erdogan & Bauer, 2009; Fine & Nevo, 2008）
– Positively related to turnover intention（ Erdogan &
Bauer, 2009）
– Low affective commitment（Johnson & Johnson, 2002）
Outcomes of overqualification

5. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• With different measures of performance, a variety
results were found:
– Negative related（Bolino & Feldman, 2000）
– No significant relationship（Fine & Nevo, 2008）
– Positive related (Fine & Nevo, 2008; Erdogan & Bauer, 2009)
• Task performance (Objective performance) is positive
related to OQ
Outcomes of overqualification

6. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
THE QUESTION IS:
How to avoid negative consequence of OQ
while maintain or strengthen performance-
facilitate effect?
* Note: a managerial practice

7. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• A way of organizational development
• Sense changes in signals from its
environment and adapt accordingly
• Building learning organization:
competency upgrading
Experimenta
tion
Information
Collection
Analysis
Education &
Training
Information
Transfer
Components and Process of OL（Garvin et al, 2008）
Organizational Learning

8. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• OL can promote Organizational Performance
– Reduce resistance in organizational change（Alas et
al, 2009）
– Employee’s mastery to performance（Garcia-
Morales et al, 2007）
– Positively related to Job Satisfaction, Organizational
Commitment, Task performance（Rose et al, 2009）
Why use OL as moderator?

9. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Organizational
Learning
Job
Satisfaction
Affective
Commitment
Performance
(-)
(-)
(+)
Perceived
Overqualification
(-)H1
(-)H2
(+)H3
Hypothesis

10. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• 3 firms (N=199)
– 1）a subsidy of a communication corepation (N=26)
– 2）a foreign trade company (N=100)
– 3）a branch of ICBC (N=73)
• Description
– Valid: 176;
– Male: 29.5%; age from 21 to 50 (ave. 29.7±5.8);
– mainly junior college students and undergraduates;
– Work experience: 0 to 30 (ave. 7.1±6.1)
Sampling

11. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Perceived Overqualification : 10 items, 2 factors
(Johnson & Johnson, 1996)
• Concrete Learning Process and Practice: 29 items, 5
factors (Garvin et al., 2008）
• Job satisfaction: 3 items (Cammann et al., 1979)
• Affective Commitment: 8 items (Allen & Meyer, 1990)
• Performance (Self-rated): 15 items, 5 factors
(Suliman,2001)
• Note 1: Cronbach α varies from 0.733 to 0.926
Note 2: Construct Validity was verified (construct
maintained)
Measure

12. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Age, gender, work experience
• Dummy variables:
– Education（4 levels, 3 variables）
– Position（2 levels, 1 variables）
– Sample Source（3 levels, 2 variables）
Controlled Variables

13. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Result: Correlation

14. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Follow a 3-step procedure
– 1 add controlled variables
– 2 add Organizational Learning and Overqualification
– 3 add OL*OQ (the interact variable)
• If interaction occurs, the moderate effect occurs
Result: Regression

15. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Interaction is
significant,
need further
step to prove
H1
Result: Regression – Job Satisfaction

16. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Interaction is
not significant,
H2 is not
supported
Result: Regression – Affective Commitment

17. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Interaction is
significant,
need further
step to prove
H3
Result: Regression – Performance

18. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Further analysis of interaction: Here use a regression
coefficients comparison procedure instead of simple
slope analysis
• Procedure:
– 1. Dichotomize cases into 2 groups according to the average
of OL score
– 2. Conduct regression analysis for each group
– 3. Compare coefficients
Result: Comparative Regression

19. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Job Satisfaction: OL reduce the negative effect
of OQ on JS, H1 is supported
• Performance: OL also reduce the positive effect
of OQ on performance, the opposite of H3, H3 is
not supported.
Result: Comparative Regression

20. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Result
Organizational
Learning
Job
Satisfaction
Affective
Commitment
Performance
(-)
(-)
(NS)
Perceived
Overqualification
(-)
(NS)
(-)

21. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Why only H1 supported?
– OL practices give employees opportunities to learn
more to alleviate the perception of OQ
– OL practices directly effect on employees’ skills,
which is not directly related with psychological
attachments
– OL practices mean changes, changes need adaption
– D-A fit: a dynamic process
• Consequences of Overqualification
Discussion

22. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• How to apply? - A managerial practice need to
be weighed
– a more satisfied employee may less considers
turnover, thus save costs of recruitment and training
– The extra performance of overqualified employee
disappeared. May not be good to overall
performance.
Discussion

23. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Limitations
– Did not distinguish fit and under-qualification individuals
– Sampling: multi-source, not focus on industry
– Measurement of performance
– Common Method Bias
• Further Research
– Other managerial practices to tackle negative
consequences of OQ
– Formation of OQ (esp. psychological mechanism)
Limitations and Further Research

24. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
• Organizational Learning will weaken the negative effect
of overqualification on Job satisfaction, while it shows
no effect on weakening the negative effect on affective
commitment and weaken the positive effect on
performance.
• Organizational Learning can solve part of the problems
caused by Overqualification, but it need to be weighed
when applied.
Conclusion

25. Incorporating Knowledge and Learning for a Better Performance
Thank you!