Observational analysis links perceived overqualification to cyberloafing in 301 employees, suggesting development opportunities may mitigate frustration effects.
Perceived overqualification represents a persistent structural challenge in contemporary labor markets and has garnered increasing scholarly attention in organizational behavior research. Informed by COR theory, we examine the psychological mechanism through which perceived overqualification leads to cyberloafing, introducing frustration as a mediator in this relationship. Furthermore, the moderating effect of opportunities for development on this indirect relationship is investigated. A two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted at a two-week interval, using a sample of 301 employees from ten companies in Guangdong and Guangxi, China. The results indicate that employees who view themselves as overqualified adopt cyberloafing by heightening the feeling of frustration. Notably, opportunities for development attenuate the indirect effect of perceived overqualification on cyberloafing via frustration. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of resource dynamics among overqualified employees and offer practical implications for the effective deployment and engagement of surplus talent in organizations.
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Chang et al. (2025) studied this question.
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