Currently, 23% of employees across OECD countries report being overqualified (OECD, 2024) because they have knowledge, skills, and abilities that exceed their position’s requirements (Luksyte et al., 2022). Overqualified employees may express frustration of their unmet needs by engaging in territorial behaviours aimed at protecting and maintaining their possessions which they feel belongs to them (Brown et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2023). We further argue that hindrance appraisal–when employees view their job demands as impediments to their goals–may shape the extent to which overqualified employees engage in prevention job crafting. When job demands are perceived as inadequate or misaligned with their capabilities, overqualified employees may proactively alter their work to prevent a worsening sense of misfit. Although such prevention-focused crafting may help restore a sense of control over their job; in seeking to reclaim ownership over their work, overqualified employees may engage in territorial behaviours, asserting control over job-related resources. For example, they may limit others' access to specific tasks and procedures over which they feel strong ownership.
To test our research model, we recruited employees (n = 625; 49.7% women, mean age 23 years, 3.6% full-timers) and their coworkers (n = 182; 56.8% women, mean age 25 years, 22.6% full-timers), resulting (N = 113 matched dyads). Results of interaction-term method using linear regression analysis suggest that hindrance appraisal moderated the negative relationship between perceived overqualification and prevention job crafting (B = -0.06, SE = 0.03, t = -1.91, p = 0.05). Simple slopes analysis (Figure 1) showed that for higher (+1SD) hindrance appraisal, the negative relationship was stronger (B = -0.26, p = 0.04); at lower (-1SD) levels, it was weaker (B = -0.15, p = 0.04). Prevention job crafting was positively related to territorial marking and defending (B = 0.32, SE = 0.15, t = 2.17, p = 0.03). Results of moderated mediation using Hayes Process Macro – Model 7 supported conditional indirect effects of perceived overqualification on territorial marking and defending via prevention job crafting (IMM = -0.08, 95%CI [-0.15, -0.01]), which were negative for higher hindrance appraisal (B = -0.11, 95%CI [-0.21, -0.01]) than for lower hindrance appraisal (B = 0.03, [-0.03, 0.12]).
Consistent with person-job fit theory, our research highlights that when overqualified employees believe there is no potential to advance in their boring job, they may avert from firmly protecting their tasks and resources because of reducing effort to improve their job.