1. Introduction
Even before the word pandemic re-entered the literary canon, more than one-third of the workforce felt that they had education, skills, and experience that far exceeded the requirement of their roles; namely, they were overqualified [
1,
2]. The global recession and a lack of job opportunities mean that more people feel overqualified for their position in recent years. The post-epidemic era will likely see some careers stagnate [
3], and this phenomenon may have a tendency to spread. Overqualification has therefore attracted substantial academic and practitioner interest as a psychosocial risk factor in the workplace [
4].
Both individuals and organizations are adversely affected by overqualification. In general, employees who feel overqualified tend to be less positive about their workplace [
5], are more likely to be considering resignation [
6], have a high propensity to be unproductive [
7], and tend to be less healthy than others in the workforce [
8]. However, there have been empirical studies that have shown the opposite is true and that perceived overqualification (POQ) can also lead to some good results, such as extra-role behavior [
9], interpersonal altruism [
10], and creativity and innovation [
11]. The relationship between overqualification and creativity is important but has not been thoroughly researched [
12], and consequently, it is ambiguous.
We focused on creativity, which involves generating new and useful ideas regarding products, services, practices, and procedures [
13], as a negative reaction to POQ. Organizations today compete in a dynamic and uncertain environment in which creativity is highly valuable [
14]. Creativity is believed to aid in decision making in ambiguous situations, such as those created by the COVID-19 pandemic, through improving flexible thinking and idea generation [
15]. According to existing research, POQ and creativity are positively correlated. Due to their superior KSAOs (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics), overqualified workers can complete their contractual work at a much greater speed than their colleagues, and thus they can devote more of their time to think creatively [
2,
16]. In addition, overqualified individuals, as they possess surplus KSAOs, could carry out divergent thinking, association, and analogic reasoning, which are key to the process of creativity [
17]. Moreover, academics state that motivating factors behind creativity could be the boredom [
18,
19] and job dissatisfaction [
20] that accompany overqualification. Some researchers claim that POQ could have a positive impact on creativity, but only if contextual factors are taken into account [
21,
22]. However, there is still another possibility that the POQ–creativity link may be undesirable, as employees who perceive themselves as overqualified are considered lacking intrinsic motivation to participate in the creative process owing to poor person–job fit [
21]. Accordingly, Lin et al. found that perceived underemployment had an inverted U-shaped relationship with creativity through the mediation effect of task crafting, which provides evidence for a potential negative relationship in this link [
19].
Moreover, since the antecedents and conditions of creativity are complex and diverse, only limited studies have examined the mediation processes linking overqualification and creativity. There has been a great deal of research focused on cognitive and emotional variables as the process linking overqualification and its consequences [
16]. The occupational stress levels of employees are believed to have a significant impact on creativity, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behaviors [
23], but no prior research has been conducted to examine the mechanisms between overqualification and creativity from this perspective. Effort–reward imbalance (ERI) theory states that overqualified employees put time and effort into acquiring KSAOs, which fails to result in a satisfactory social exchange through their work role [
24]. This may lead to negative outcomes, such as emotional exhaustion and a reduction in creative outcome.
Research indicates that contextual factors may be a contributing factor to the inconsistent results of POQ [
25]. According to Luksyte and Spitzmueller and the person–environment fit theory, contextual factors when looking at the POQ link to creativity. They looked at three of these factors: perceived organizational support, the mentoring of others, and idiosyncratic deals [
21]. Zhang et al. uncovered the employee-development-oriented organizational cultures’ enhancement of the relationship of POQ and creative performance that was mediated by organizational identification [
22]. Moreover, organizational identification was seen as another important boundary condition, such that the curvilinear interactive effect of perceived underemployment and organizational identification indirectly affects creativity through task crafting [
26]. Schemes such as pay for performance (PFP) are beneficial because they provide recognition to overqualified employees based on the value they add, allowing practitioners to recognize overqualified employees more comprehensively [
27]. Such schemes have become popular in recent years. Overqualified employees may feel less deprived and feel that they are being treated more fairly if they are paid according to their skills and competencies and not by the pay scale associated with their position [
27]. This will go some way to prevent a lack of remuneration for the additional skills and competencies that overqualified employees possess, thus ensuring that the benefit of their human capital is given due consideration. The notion of using rewards to foster creativity has received attention in recent years [
28]. One area that is interesting but has had limited research is the impact of organizational policies such as PFP and its effects.
We make several contributions to the literature with this study. First, drawing from ERI theory, we obtained a finding that differs from conventionally held mainstream beliefs that POQ has a negative impact on creativity. Our second contribution extends the scope of the existing research by testing the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the impact of POQ on creativity. Finally, we established a boundary condition under which the negative effects of POQ would be aggravated or buffered by identifying PFP as a contextual moderator of critical work.
5. Discussion
An analysis of a sample of employees in Chinese high-tech firms explored the mechanisms of influence between POQ and creativity. Our study was based both on the ERI theory and on the moderating role of PFP, an organizational policy. We concluded from cross-sectional data that POQ significantly reduces emotional exhaustion, which in turn decreases creativity. A further benefit of PFP is its capacity to attenuate the positive effect of POQ on emotional exhaustion, presumably through mediating its indirect impact on creativity through emotional exhaustion.
5.1. Theoretical Implications
In several ways, this study contributes to theory. To begin with, we studied creative talent from the standpoint of the ERI theory, a different approach from the mainstream view of previous research. Although current research focuses on exploring the positive outcomes of POQ, some researchers have called for more attention to be paid to the significant issue of POQ and creativity. Studies on this issue have generally shown a positive tendency, but empirical evidence has been scant. The study fills a gap to a certain degree by providing new evidence and possibilities regarding the impact of POQ on creativity, not only responding to demands for more research but also providing new possibilities for further study of this association.
Additionally, we utilized the ERI theory to include a new mechanism relating POQ to creativity by examining the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion. In accordance with ERI theory, we hypothesized that POQ, as a high-cost/low-gain condition in the employment relationship, causes employee emotional exhaustion, thereby damaging their creativity. By doing so, we advanced our understanding of the causal process linking POQ with creativity and provided a framework for understanding the relationship between POQ and employee exhaustion and creativity. Moreover, this study contributes to results in research related to the ERI theory. According to our research, employees do not only regard their abilities, time, and effort as inputs to a job but also consider that their qualifications, including education, skills, and experience, are a contribution to their employer. As a result, they should receive a reasonable return. Findings based on our research reveal that occupational stress occurs when individuals feel overqualified, which may further lead to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and a lack of creative thinking.
Thirdly, we presented a boundary condition at which the negative effects of POQ could be exacerbated or attenuated by identifying PFP as a contextual moderator of critical work. According to our findings, high levels of PFP can contribute to the emotional exhaustion linked to POQ. Our study of the moderating role of PFP provides a new and crucial boundary condition within which POQ can be detrimental to employees’ emotions and performance [
97].
5.2. Managerial Implications
There are important implications for managers in our findings. A clear and effective compensation system can reduce the negative impact of the economic downturn caused by the impact of the epidemic on many employees by reducing the perception of overqualification. In designing a compensation system that is closely aligned with performance, employers can effectively reduce employees’ stress and negative emotions caused by this ERI. Additionally, to help employees maximize their creative performance, managers need to remove stressors that are likely to cause burnout in the workplace. It is also relevant that the selection process with which recruitment managers choose applicants should be closely scrutinized and should be designed to select the best candidates rather than overqualified applicants. A detailed job description should be provided by HR during the recruitment process so that applicants can gain a clear understanding of the requirements of the role.
5.3. Limitations and Future Research Directions
We had limitations in our study, as in most research. First, the main limitation of this study was the fact that it was cross-sectional. There are two major problems with this sort of study. First, the use of the job incumbent as the only source of data leaves many alternative explanations for observed correlations other than that the intended traits are related. Despite the fact that we performed the single-factor test that showed common-method bias was not a serious problem in this study, the results could have been affected by common-method bias [
93] since the key variables were all collected at the same time and were self-reported. The second problem was that cross-sectional designs do not allow for confident causal conclusions. Caution is recommended in reaching conclusions concerning the causal relationships between the variables, as the current study did not capture causality variation [
98]. Even the use of structural equation modeling cannot overcome the severe limitations of having all data collected concurrently. There are too many alternative explanations; for instance, the hypothesized link between POQ and creativity could be reasonably assumed to be the other way round: someone who is creative may also have higher work expectations and could be more vulnerable to POQ. As a result, we encourage researchers to use alternatives to self-reporting; specifically, constructs related to supervisor-reporting performance (i.e., creativity) are encouraged. In addition, a longitudinal design could be considered as an alternative to overcome this limitation in future research. Although, based on solid theoretical derivation, we proposed that it should be POQ that affects creativity, the reversed model is also an interesting and promising research direction for future studies.
Secondly, respondents were from a collectivist cultural setting as they were from China. The Chinese labor market has been in transition from being centrally planned to- ward being fully market-driven [
99]. How individuals seek employment and how organizations manage their human resources in China are thus likely to bear more similarities with other market economies, such as the United States [
100]. Given the export-oriented growth model in China and the significant mismatch between the education system and the needs of the labor market, underemployment is widespread in other than low-paying manufacturing and manual labor types of jobs [
101]. As suggested in some estimates, 84% of Chinese employees currently feel overqualified for their jobs [
102]. As such, underemployment is likely to be as prevalent in China as in Western countries. Moreover, as power distance is emphasized and harmonious interpersonal relationships are valued [
95] in the Chinese context, POQ may not be accepted as widely in China as it is in other countries. Employees with collectivist attitudes are less likely to perceive themselves as overqualified; they are also more tolerant of POQ, according to Hu et al. [
12]. Thus, we could have underestimated the effects of overqualification on creativity as the prevalence of overqualification among Chinese employees. We urge researchers to conduct more research in diverse cultural contexts.