Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business, United States
This study examines the possibility of a non-linear relationship between perceived overqualification (POQ) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) in the workgroup context of justice and task interdependence. Drawing upon justice theory, we integrate two contrasting perspectives on employee POQ to offer a more accurate nonlinear nature of the relationship between POQ and CWB moderated by workgroup attributes of justice climate and task interdependence. Multilevel analyses of multi-source data from 209 employees and 39 managers nested in 39 workgroups showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between POQ and CWB with the highest level of CWB occurring at the intermediate levels of POQ. Moreover, moderation analyses revealed that workgroup justice climate and task interdependence independently influence the curvilinear relationship between POQ and CWB. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
