Perceived overqualification and employee proactivity: The cross-level moderation effects of LMX and initiative climate in small firms

Abstract

Drawing on social information processing (SIP) theory, this study examined the interactive effects of perceived overqualification (POQ), leader-member exchange (LMX), and initiative climate on supervisor-rated employee proactivity. Data were gathered from 523 employees and their direct supervisors working in 65 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey. The results indicated that POQ, by itself, was not significantly related to employee proactivity, nor were the two-way interactions of POQ × LMX and POQ × initiative climate. However, the three-way interaction of POQ, LMX, and initiative climate was significantly associated with proactivity. Subsequent analyses showed that overqualified employees showed higher proactivity when both LMX and initiative climate were high. On the other hand, POQ did not affect employee proactivity under low quality LMX and low initiative climate. The implications of these findings for theory and practice as well as future research directions were discussed.