Employment Qualifications, Person–Job Fit, Underemployment Attributions, and Hiring Recommendations: A three‐study investigation

Abstract

Using an experimental design across three studies and four samples, we investigated the effects of employment qualification level (i.e., underqualified, adequately qualified, or overqualified) on hiring recommendations, and how the relationship was influenced by person-job (P-J) fit and underemployment attributions. In Study 1, we tested and found support for the strength and effectiveness of the employment qualification level manipulation. In Study 2, the results demonstrated that overqualified applicants received higher ratings on objective P-J fit, subjective P-J fit, and hiring recommendations than underqualified applicants. Also, overqualified applicants were rated higher on objective and subjective P-J fit than adequately qualified applicants. However, the results indicated no significant differences between adequately qualified and overqualified applicants on hiring recommendations. Finally, P-J fit was found to fully mediate the employment qualification level-hiring recommendation relationship, but only subjective P-J fit (i.e., and not objective P-J fit) was a significant mediator. In Study 3, we assessed the potential effects of underemployment attribution (i.e., internal-controllable vs. external-uncontrollable) on interviewer hiring recommendation. Results demonstrated that applicants who made an external-uncontrollable attribution for their overqualification were perceived negatively and received lower ratings on hiring recommendations than applicants who made an internalcontrollable attribution for their underemployment. Furthermore, the underemployment attribution-hiring recommendation relationship was found to be fully mediated by subjective (but not objective) P-J fit. Contributions of these results to theory, research, and practice, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Who Gets Stuck in Their Workplaces? The Role of Matching Factors, between Individual and Job, and Demographics in Predicting Being Locked In

“…With regard to knowledge/skills fit, we also used a single item, but between over-and under-qualification, which is an improvement from many studies that mostly focused on misfit regardless of direction or only in terms of over-qualification (Erdogan et al, 2011;Thompson et al, 2015). Furthermore, the few studies about mismatch between tasks and skills in terms of under-qualification commonly measure a shortage of formal education in relation to position, as a proxy for skills, which may fail to capture lack of skills (Quintini, 2011a), which we aim to do.…”

“…In this scenario, an underqualified individual may not feel able to meet the work demands put on them, which thus may result in low preferences to remain in the job. Also, opportunities to change to a similar or better job position elsewhere may be limited, especially as lacking knowledge/skills for a position is often combined with the absence of the corresponding appropriate, formal education level (Thompson et al, 2015). On the other hand, lacking skills for performing one's work tasks may feel inspiring for some individuals as it may be regarded as a chance for development.…”

“…On the other hand, lacking skills for performing one's work tasks may feel inspiring for some individuals as it may be regarded as a chance for development. Empiric evidence is scarce with regard to under-qualification, but one study showed that under-qualification was related to lower perceived employability (Wittekind et al, 2010) and another study found that underqualified individuals received fewer hiring recommendations than overqualified individuals did (Thompson et al, 2015).…”

Bias against Latina and African American women job applicants: a field experiment

“…We drew from the Bureau of Labor Statistics data to inform raters of the average salary for fitness club managers ($44,000) and then asked what salary they would recommend for the applicant. As seen in the following space, given that attributions, hiring recommendations and suggested salary are all outcomes of the personnel selection process, are conceptually and empirically related to one another (Heilman and Saruwatari, 1979;Kricheli-Katz, 2013;Thompson et al, 2015) and are potential outcomes of bias in decision-making tasks (Cortina et al, 2013;Triana et al, 2015), we make similar directional hypotheses for each.…”

The effects of achievement attribution and career indecision on perceived overqualification

“…성취귀인양식이 POQ에 미치는 영향에 대한 경험적 근거는 부족하다(예외: Thompson et al, 2015). 그러나 진로발달에 관한 대표적인 이론 중 하나인 사회인지진로이론 (Lent et al, 1994) 에서는 Bandura(1986) (Thompson et al, 2015). 더 나아가 취 업 인터뷰 맥락에서 수행된 귀인 연구들(예:…”