Perceived overqualification, felt organizational obligation, and extra-role behavior during the COVID-19 crisis: The moderating role of self-sacrificial leadership

TY - JOUR

T1 - Perceived overqualification, felt organizational obligation, and extra-role behavior during the COVID-19 crisis

T2 - The moderating role of self-sacrificial leadership

AU - Wu, Chia Huei

AU - Weisman, Hannah

AU - Sung, Li Kuo

AU - Erdogan, Berrin

AU - Bauer, Talya N.

N1 - Funding Information: The Dean’s Research Fund (2020) funded this research, Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 International Association of Applied Psychology.

PY - 2022/7

Y1 - 2022/7

N2 - Past research has found that employees who view themselves as overqualified for their jobs tend to hold negative job attitudes and be unwilling to go beyond the call of duty. In challenging situations such as during the COVID-19 crisis, when having “all hands-on deck” may be important to an organization's survival, mitigating the negative tendencies of these employees becomes important. Adopting a sensemaking perspective on crisis management, we examine whether supervisors' self-sacrificial leadership can mitigate these negative tendencies. First, we propose that employee perceived overqualification is associated with lower levels of felt obligation to the organization and thereby lower levels of extra-role behaviors (i.e., helping and proactivity). We next propose that supervisors' self-sacrificial leadership during the COVID-19 crisis can evoke, especially when COVID-19 more strongly impacts the organization, a sense of collectivism toward the organization, which mitigates the negative association of perceived overqualification with felt obligation and thus extra-role behaviors. We tested our theorizing in samples from the UK (n = 121, pilot study) and US (n = 382, main study) in studies with a multi-wave, time-lagged design. Findings from both studies provide support for our theorizing. We discuss implications for research and practice concerning perceived overqualification during a crisis.

AB - Past research has found that employees who view themselves as overqualified for their jobs tend to hold negative job attitudes and be unwilling to go beyond the call of duty. In challenging situations such as during the COVID-19 crisis, when having “all hands-on deck” may be important to an organization's survival, mitigating the negative tendencies of these employees becomes important. Adopting a sensemaking perspective on crisis management, we examine whether supervisors' self-sacrificial leadership can mitigate these negative tendencies. First, we propose that employee perceived overqualification is associated with lower levels of felt obligation to the organization and thereby lower levels of extra-role behaviors (i.e., helping and proactivity). We next propose that supervisors' self-sacrificial leadership during the COVID-19 crisis can evoke, especially when COVID-19 more strongly impacts the organization, a sense of collectivism toward the organization, which mitigates the negative association of perceived overqualification with felt obligation and thus extra-role behaviors. We tested our theorizing in samples from the UK (n = 121, pilot study) and US (n = 382, main study) in studies with a multi-wave, time-lagged design. Findings from both studies provide support for our theorizing. We discuss implications for research and practice concerning perceived overqualification during a crisis.

KW - COVID-19

KW - crisis

KW - extra-role behavior

KW - perceived overqualification

KW - self-sacrificial leadership

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85125459590

U2 - 10.1111/apps.12371

DO - 10.1111/apps.12371

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85125459590

SN - 0269-994X

VL - 71

SP - 983

EP - 1013

JO - APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

JF - APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

IS - 3

ER -