Overqualification and Its Impacts on Employee Well-being and Engagement

Previous research on perceived overqualification has reported negative consequences of perceived overqualification on employees' well-being and engagement at work. The underlying reasons, however, have not been explored. The purpose of this project is to understand why perceived overqualification can undermine employees¿ well-being and engagement at work. To achieve this goal, a longitudinal survey study over 3 months is proposed. In each month, employees will be invited to report their levels of perceived overqualification, individual attributes (such as personality), and their work attitudes, subjective well-being, and work engagement, and their supervisors will be invited to rate employees' performance. Data from these longitudinal surveys will enable us to examine the association of employees' perceived overqualification with employees' work attitudes, subjective well-being, and work behavior. A longitudinal design is proposed because it helps to discover the potential time-lag effect of perceived overqualification on employees' well-being and engagement at work. Findings from this project will offer implications for how to prevent negative consequences of perceived overqualification on employees' well-being and engagement at work.