Implications of Overqualification for Work–Family Conflict: Bringing Too Much to the Table?

Abstract

In their focal article, Erdogan, Bauer, Peir ó, and Truxillo (2011) note that, ''in cases where employees have chosen jobs for which they are overqualified so that they can handle their nonwork responsibilities and interests, overqualified employees may experience lower levels of work-family conflict. A high-level employee may want to leave behind a high-paying corporate job demanding 60-hour work weeks in favor of spending more time with family and friends and devoting more time to hobbies, which would result in lower levels of work-life conflict and higher satisfaction with life.'' Certainly, they are not alone in their view, as Kalleberg ( 2008) recently stated that, ''Alleviating work-family conflict may require that people obtain more flexible jobs that do not fully utilize their educational qualifications or that do not pay as much as they would like'' (p. 27). Thus, there appears to be a growing viewpoint that underemployment (of which overqualification is a facet) would result in lower levels of work-family conflict (WFC). We

Malawian Higher Education: towards a more internationalized system.

“…Literature attests that 45-50% of graduate students complete their course work yet fail to graduate due to supervision-related challenges (Gao, 2019). This is consistent with the previous research that emphasizes a time-based con ict when employees overprioritize one role over another (Culbertson et al, 2011). Notwithstanding this, underquali ed faculty may also be deleterious to student progress as they lack the skills and competence to correctly direct their students to appropriate literature that can help the students comfortably handle their research (Gao, 2019;Singh, 2020).…”

Overqualification Theory, Research, and Practice: Things That Matter

“…Culbertson, Mills, and Huffman (2011) challenged the notion that overqualified employees could experience less work–family conflict. They noted that while overqualification may make time‐based work–family conflict less of an issue, strain‐based conflict in the form of reduced job control may actually increase as a result of overqualification.…”

“…By accepting a position for which they will be overqualified, employees may be trying to increase their leisure, family, and marital satisfaction, which would mean that while job satisfaction may decline, satisfaction with other domains may increase-and that their well-being and life satisfaction may go up as well. Therefore, we are excited about Culbertson et al's (2011) suggestion that integrating overqualification with the literature on work-family interface would be beneficial. We agree with their suggestions that this is a complicated relationship that requires researchers to consider choice as a contingency and pay specific attention to the characteristics of the jobs overqualified employees hold.…”

Training match and mismatch as a driver of key employee behaviours

“…HR metrics could incorporate analyses of employee turnover by relative skills and training levels, and exit interviews should perhaps explicitly investigate issues of training match/mismatch to establish whether these issues are related to turnover. Research surveys should investigate the varied psychological, sociological and other effects, and attempt to disentangle the relative positive versus negative effects of overtraining especially (for instance, establish within the particular organisation's environment whether, indeed, work-family conflict exists in such situations as suggested by Culbertson et al, 2011).…”

“…In the case of overtraining, overqualification theory also may point to the possible creation of work–life conflict, largely because individuals experiencing negative psychological reactions as discussed earlier may carry such negativity to their personal lives ( e.g . Culbertson et al ., ; Feldman, ). In the case of undertraining, we may speculate that stress from inadequate preparation for work tasks may also carry over to personal lives with negative effects.…”