Congruence in Perceived Employee–Peer Overqualification and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract. Drawing on equity theory and person–group fit theory, we examined the association between (in)congruence in employee and peer overqualification and perceived insider status. We further proposed that perceived insider status is related to employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The results of multilevel polynomial regressions using data collected with 211 employees from 55 teams supported the hypothesized congruence effect. Specifically, employees’ perceived insider status was greater, and their OCB was maximized, when employees and their peers had congruent perceptions of their overqualification levels. Furthermore, when both employees and their peers perceived their overqualification levels as low, perceived insider status and OCB were higher than when both perceived their overqualification levels as high. These findings highlight the pivotal role of congruence between employee and peer perceptions of overqualification at work.