The Effects of Career Calling and Perceived Overqualification on Work Outcomes for Primary and Secondary School Teachers

Abstract

While perceived overqualification (POQ) has received increased research attention in recent years, the identification of variables that moderate POQ-outcome relationships is critical to our understanding of how the construct affects career outcomes. This study, involving 170 full-time primary and secondary school educators in a suburban mid-Atlantic school system, found that POQ is negatively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment while positively related to turnover intentions and desire to turnover. While POQ was not significantly related to performance or continuance organizational commitment, the relationships between POQ and both performance and continuance organizational commitment were significantly moderated by the experience of career calling orientation. Generally, the relationship between POQ and performance was stronger, and the relationship between POQ and continuance organizational commitment was weaker, for those with high calling. Additionally, the effects of career calling were considerably stronger than those of POQ for all criteria. The implications surrounding these results, and opportunities for future investigation, are discussed.

Teaching as a Calling and Well-Being of Slovenian and Croatian Teachers

“…Teaching is a complex and challenging work that requires the highest standards of professional engagement (Lobene & Meade, 2013). Teachers are the key agents in today's knowledge society; however, their profession is often regarded as less attractive than many other professions .…”

Dual relational model of perceived overqualification: Employee's self‐concept and task performance

“…However, existing studies on the relationship between overqualification and task performance have reported conflicting results. Some studies have demonstrated that overqualification is associated with low task performance (e.g., Bolino & Feldman, ; Kristof‐Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, ), others have found that employees who feel overqualified perform better (e.g., Erdogan & Bauer, ; Fine & Nevo, ), and still others have found no direct relationship between overqualification and task performance (e.g., Lobene & Meade, ; Maynard, Rokitowski, & Bodolato, ). This indicates that there may be boundary conditions affecting the influence of perceived overqualification on task performance.…”

Overqualification and counterproductive work behaviors: Examining a moderated mediation model

“…Examining this link is significant because, theoretically, overqualification represents a poor person–job fit (Maynard & Parfyonova, ), which has been suggested to be an important trigger of CWB (Luksyte, Spitzmueller, & Maynard, ). However, preliminary evidence linking overqualification with CWB is mixed at best (Lobene & Meade, ; Luksyte et al, ). Moreover, a theory‐based model that can incorporate multiple mediating paths and boundary conditions of the potential relationship between employee perceived overqualification and their misbehavior is yet to be developed.…”