Perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing: The role of organizational identity and psychological entitlement

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Employees’ perception of being overqualified is a critical factor in influencing their knowledge sharing behavior. However previous studies have not examined the internal mechanism by which perceived overqualification affects knowledge sharing.

OBJECTIVE:

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing and to examine the mediating effect of organizational identity and the moderating role of psychological entitlement.

METHODS:

Participants were 284 full-time employees from different companies in China. They answered self-report questionnaires that assessed perceived overqualification, knowledge sharing, organizational identity, and psychological entitlement. Path analyses were conducted, and the latent moderated structural equations were used to judge the significance of the mediation and moderation.

RESULTS:

The results revealed that overqualified employees were less willing to share knowledge, and the mediating role of organizational identity was significant. Further, the presence of high psychological entitlement would diminish the beneficial effect of organizational identity on employee knowledge sharing.

CONCLUSIONS:

The findings of the study enrich and expand our knowledge on the relationship between overqualification and knowledge sharing and have theoretical and practical implications for promoting constructive behavior among overqualified employees.

Keywords

Perceived overqualification knowledge sharing organizational identity psychological entitlement moderated mediation effects

1 Introduction

With the expansion of higher education and the regression of the global economy, a rising number of employees who have levels of education, skills, and experience that exceed the demands of their jobs enter the labor market. Additionally, the imbalance is exacerbated by the sharp decline in job opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. As a consequence, perceived overqualification (POQ) which refers to an employee’s belief who possesses more skills and experience required for a particular position [2], is increasingly common among employees [3], and has become a general issue faced by labor markets in both developed and developing countries [4].

Extensive research has shown that perceived overqualification adversely impact on management practice. It would impair employees’ perception of the organization, work, and themselves, resulting in negative work attitude (e.g., low job involvement) and work behavior (e.g., counterproductive behavior), as well as low work performance (e.g., task performance), and can damage their physical and mental health (e.g., pressure and depressive symptoms) [5]. More recently, literature has emerged that offers contradictory findings. POQ can also have positive effects on employees, such as extra-role behavior [6], a high level of motivation [7], creative thinking [8], and interpersonal altruism [9].

However, there is conflicting evidence on the impact of feelings of overqualification on knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing refers to individuals sharing relevant information, ideas, and professional skills with others in the organization [10]. To promote efficiency, organizations encourage overqualified employees to mentor others or share their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) [11]. Several studies have supported that POQ could improve knowledge sharing [11, 12], but others have offered contradictory findings [4, 13].

Previous studies have explored the mechanisms by which POQ affects knowledge sharing from the perspectives of identity theory [4], relative deprivation theory [14], and role identity theory [11], but previous studies have neglected the fact that knowledge sharing is essentially an exchange behavior. Social exchange theory suggests that all human interaction behavior can be understood as a form of social exchange [15]; employees develop and maintain exchange relationships with others by receiving anticipated rewards [16]. Therefore, based on social exchange theory, the current study aims to investigate the impact mechanism of POQ on knowledge sharing.

Organizational identity means that organization’s members are consistent with the organization they joined in many aspects of behavior and ideas, and is considered a paticular form of social identity [17]. Member’s identification with the organization is essentially the process of an individual’s social-affective needs being gradually fulfilled. Social exchange is one of the most crucial ways for individuals to serve their social emotions (e.g., self-esteem, praise, and support) [15]. This study thus introduces organizational identity as a mediating variable to explore the mechanism of POQ and knowledge sharing.

In addition, human behavior can be influenced by individual-environment interactions [18], and personality differences may affect the process of identity formation through social exchange between individuals and organizations [15]. Psychological entitlement refers to a general belief that individuals tend to take more rights and see themselves as deserving of positive outcomes than others [19]. High levels of psychological entitlement can exacerbate the sense of injustice associated with overqualification [20], impair socio-emotional satisfaction, and consequently weaken identity linkage with the organization. Hence, the present study makes significant contributions to the extant literature by simultaneously taking organization identity and psychological entitlement into account and examining their interactive impact on employees from a social exchange perspective.

2 Literature review and hypotheses development

2.1 Perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing

Perceived overqualification refers to the individual’s belief that they possess higher levels of skills, experience, and knowledge than what is required by their job [21]. According to the social exchange theory, employees develop and maintain exchange relationships with others by receiving anticipated rewards [16]. In a social exchange, individuals adhere to the “principle of reciprocity” [22], where both parties hope to obtain an inevitable return from the other to reduce communication costs. On one hand, the benefits of an exchange are not only material gains but also spiritual rewards like positive relationships, personal satisfaction, and a sense of achievement [22]. On the other hand, the costs of an exchange are equally material and moral (i.e., opportunity costs and time investment). If neither party perceives that the exchange as reciprocal, the exchange will be terminated in that condition. From social exchange theory perspective, knowledge sharing is also a critical exchange behavior between individuals [23]. Overqualified employees tend to assume the role and responsibility of knowledge providers during sharing but rarely derive any benefits themselves [24]. Therefore, sharing knowledge with overqualified employees violates the principle of “reciprocity,” and they have a negative attitude towards it, leading to less knowledge sharing. Hence, the following can be hypothesized:

H1: Perceived overqualification is negatively associated with knowledge sharing.

2.2 Organizational identity as a mediator

Organizational identity means that organization’s members are consistent with the organization they joined in many aspects of behavior and ideas and is considered a special form of social identity [17]. Member’s identification with the organization is essentially the process of an individual’s social-affective needs being gradually fulfilled [15]. And Social exchange is an important source of socio-emotional need fulfillment for individuals (e.g., self-esteem, praise and support) [15]. Specifically, individuals satisfy their socio-emotional needs through exchanges with the organization, which facilitates the incorporation of the organizational identity into the individual’s self-identity and the formation of the employee’s identification with the organization [15]. However, highly overqualified employees are not respected and appreciated by their supervisors and organizations, which leads to negative judgments about their positive self-esteem [25, 26], which in turn makes it difficult to satisfy their socio-emotional needs [15]. When individuals are unable to meet their socio-emotional needs by obtaining them from the organization, employees’ identification with the organization will be diminished [27]. Thus, we propose:

H2: Perceived overqualification has a negative and significant impact on organizational identity.

According to social exchange theory [15, 16], employees with high levels of organizational identity commonly foster positive exchange relationships with their organization, maintain a stronger emotional linkage to it, and show greater willingness to make self-sacrifices for its mission. This, in turn, promotes organizational performance [28]. Previous studies indicate that employees with strong identification to their organization display higher levels of job satisfaction, perform better and are more likely to engage in extra-role behaviors [29, 30]. Meanwhile, increased organizational identity, in turn, facilitates knowledge sharing, which is an essential extra-role behavior [31]. As a result, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Organizational identity has a positive and significant impact on knowledge sharing.

In conjunction with H2, it can be inferred:

H4: Organizational identity mediates the relationship between Perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing.

2.3 Psychological entitlement as a moderator

Human behavior is a result of the interaction between the individual and the environment [18]. Social exchange and organizational identity can be influenced by personal traits [15]. The present study further focuses on how individual characteristics moderate the effect of POQ on knowledge sharing. As an individual trait, employees with higher levels of psychological entitlement keep an expectation for preferential treatment from their organization in comparison to those with lower ones. However, this unrealistic expectation can be easily challenged [32], leading to a greater sense of unfairness [20] and a decrease in intrinsic job satisfaction [33]. Therefore, when facing overqualification, individuals with higher psychological entitlement will experience an impaired impact of organizational identity on knowledge sharing, leading to a further negative impact on employee knowledge sharing [34]. Based on the above views, this paper expects:

H5: Psychological entitlement plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between organizational identity and knowledge sharing.

2.4 Moderated mediation effects

H4 infers that POQ can reduce knowledge sharing behavior through employee’s organizational identity. H5 infers that psychological entitlement negatively moderates employee organizational identity and knowledge sharing. Taking these together, we further propose the moderated mediation model of these relationships. This study proposes that psychological privilege moderates the indirect effect of POQ on knowledge sharing through organizational identity, i.e., when employees’ psychological privilege is higher, the positive effect of organizational identity on employees’ knowledge sharing behavior is more minor. Specifically, employees with high psychological entitlement tend to have unreasonable expectations, misinterpret personal job responsibilities, and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs [35], which may have an impact on employees’ sense of belonging to the organization, affective connection, and thus reduce behaviors that are beneficial to the organization (i.e., knowledge sharing).

H6: Psychological entitlement negatively moderates the indirect relationship between feelings of overqualification and knowledge sharing through organizational identity. Specifically, the stronger the psychological entitlement, the weaker this indirect relationship.

3 Materials and methods

3.1 Participants and procedures

This study used the questionnaire method to collect data. With the help of in-service psychology students from Jinan University, a total of six employees from companies in developed regions of China, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangdong, were selected as the subjects of this study because these cities face a more severe problem of overqualification. Given the prevalence of overqualification in all industries, we did not impose any special requirements on the participants [26]. We received 321 questionnaires through a combination of field surveys and online questionnaires.

After some copies of questionnaires were excluded, 284 valid surveys remained for analysis (a response rate of 88.47%). Invalid questionnaires were excluded due to the following standards: Eliminating questionnaires with repeated options, such as selecting “not at all,” and disregarding those with consistent and consecutive responses, such as 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5. Within the sample, 57.7% were male, 53.5% were aged from 28 to 34, and 70.4% had a university degree or below.

3.2 Measures

All English-language outcome measures had been adapted into Mandarin Chinese language by a “translation/re-translation” method.

3.2.1 Perceived overqualification

The Scale of perceived overqualification (SPOQ) developed by Maynard et al. [36] was used to measure the extent to which the employees were perceived overqualified. This scale consists of nine items rated on a 5-point scale (from “1 = very strongly disagree” to “5 = very strongly agree”). Sample items are “the education required for my job is lower than mine” and “the level of qualifications required for my job is lower than mine”. A higher score indicates a greater sense of overqualification. The alpha coefficient was 0.77.

3.2.2 Organizational identity

Miller’s The Organizational Identity Scale [34] was used to assess employees’ organizational identity. This measure consists of 12 items rated on a seven-point scale (from “1 = very strongly disagree” to “7 = very strongly agree”). The sample item reads “The Company’s image represents me well”. Higher scores indicate a higher organizational identity of the individual. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89.

3.2.3 Knowledge sharing

Ten items adapted from Hooff and Ridder [37] were used to measure knowledge sharing. Sample item includes “I will share the information I have obtained with my colleagues in my department”. Respondents rated this measure based on the 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (“very strongly disagree”) to 5 (“very strongly agree”), with higher scores indicating that they are more willing to engage in such sharing behavior. The scale’s reliability was 0.84.

3.2.4 Psychological entitlement

The nine-item scale used by Campbell [19] was adopted to measure psychological entitlement. The sample item reads “Things should go the way I want them to”. Respondents rated this measure based on the 7-point Likert-type scale from 1 (“very strongly disagree”) to 7 (“very strongly agree”), with higher scores suggesting higher psychological entitlement. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.85.

3.2.5 Control variables

Consistent with previous studies [26, 38], we measured gender, marital status, age, education, organizational tenure, and job title to control for their potentially spurious effects.

4 Results

4.1 Discriminant validity and common method bias

As shown in Table 1, we first conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses to examine the distinctiveness of our study constructs. The four-factor measurement model (M₁: i.e., POQ, organizational identification, psychological entitlement, knowledge sharing) had a good model fit, with χ²/ df = 2.68, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.92, and RMSEA = 0.08. We further examined several alternative measurement models and compared them with the four-factor model. As shown in Table 1, the four-factor model fits our data better than other models, suggesting that we concluded that the four variables were empirically distinct from one another, representing four distinct constructs.

Table 1
Results of validation factor analysis

Measurement models χ²/ df CFI TLI RMSEA

M₁: Four-factor (POQ, OI, PE, KS) 2.68 0.94 0.92 0.08

M₂: Three-factor (combined OI and PE into one factor) 4.94 0.89 0.81 0.12

M₃: Three-factor (combined POQ and KS into one factor) 6.42 0.80 0.73 0.14

M₄: Three-factor (combined POQ and OI into one factor) 7.48 0.76 0.68 0.15

M₅: Three-factor (combined POQ and PE into one factor) 9.52 0.69 0.58 0.17

M₆: One-factor (combined all items into one factor) 1.74 0.40 0.26 0.23

Measurement models	χ²/ df	CFI	TLI	RMSEA
M₁: Four-factor (POQ, OI, PE, KS)	2.68	0.94	0.92	0.08
M₂: Three-factor (combined OI and PE into one factor)	4.94	0.89	0.81	0.12
M₃: Three-factor (combined POQ and KS into one factor)	6.42	0.80	0.73	0.14
M₄: Three-factor (combined POQ and OI into one factor)	7.48	0.76	0.68	0.15
M₅: Three-factor (combined POQ and PE into one factor)	9.52	0.69	0.58	0.17
M₆: One-factor (combined all items into one factor)	1.74	0.40	0.26	0.23

NOTE. N = 284. POQ = perceived overqualification; OI = organizational identification; PE = psychological entitlement; KS = knowledge sharing; CFI = comparative fit index; TLI = Tucker-Lewis index; RMSEA = root-mean-square error of approximation.

The participants self-reported all variables at the same time point, introducing potential common method variance into our findings [39]. The results of Harmon single-factor test revealed that the variance explained by the first factor obtained from unrotated was 18.49%, and the variance explained by the first factor obtained from rotated was 11.47% (less than 40% [40]), which indicated that common method bias was not likely a serious problem among current study.

4.2 Descriptive statistics

The mean value, standard deviation, and correlation coefficients of all key variables are presented in Table 2. POQ was significantly and negatively related to organizational identification (r = –0.20, p < 0.01), and knowledge sharing (r = –0.23, p < 0.01), while positively related to psychological entitlement (r = 0.20, p < 0.01). Organizational identification was significantly and positively correlated with knowledge sharing (r = 0.42, p < 0.01). Additionally, psychological entitlement was significantly and negatively related to knowledge sharing (r = –0.13, p < 0.05). There was no significant correlation between organizational identification and psychological entitlement (p > 0.05). These findings provided preliminary support for the hypothesized relationships.

Table 2
The means, standard deviations, correlations, and reliabilities among the variables

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Gender 1.42 0.50

2 Age 2.42 0.80 –0.12^*

3Marital status 1.55 0.50 0.01 0.01

4 Education 3.23 0.56 –0.08 0.16^ –0.11

5 Tenure 3.67 1.34 –0.03 0.20^ 0.02 0.02

6 Job title 2.95 1.30 –0.11 0.48^ –0.07 0.29^ 0.11

7 POQ 2.68 0.67 –0.08 –0.04 0.01 0.11 0.03 –0.01 (0.77)

8 KS 3.73 0.49 0.04 0.16^ 0.01 0.09 0.01 0.22^ –0.23^ (0.84)

9 PE 3.85 0.91 –0.10 –0.18^ 0.02 –0.02 –0.04 –0.06 0.20^** –0.13^* (0.85)

10 OI 4.41 0.95 –0.02 0.13^* 0.11 0.04 0.05 0.14^* –0.20^ 0.42^ 0.12 (0.89)

	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1 Gender	1.42	0.50
2 Age	2.42	0.80	–0.12^*
3Marital status	1.55	0.50	0.01	0.01
4 Education	3.23	0.56	–0.08	0.16^**	–0.11
5 Tenure	3.67	1.34	–0.03	0.20^**	0.02	0.02
6 Job title	2.95	1.30	–0.11	0.48^**	–0.07	0.29^**	0.11
7 POQ	2.68	0.67	–0.08	–0.04	0.01	0.11	0.03	–0.01	(0.77)
8 KS	3.73	0.49	0.04	0.16^**	0.01	0.09	0.01	0.22^**	–0.23^**	(0.84)
9 PE	3.85	0.91	–0.10	–0.18^**	0.02	–0.02	–0.04	–0.06	0.20^**	–0.13^*	(0.85)
10 OI	4.41	0.95	–0.02	0.13^*	0.11	0.04	0.05	0.14^*	–0.20^**	0.42^**	0.12	(0.89)

Note. N = 284. Gender was coded with 1 indicating male and 0 indicating female. Age was measured in years using five categories (1 = 27 or below, 2 = 28–34, 3 = 35–41, 4 = 42–48, and 5 = over 48). Marital status was coded with 1 indicating married and 0 indicating unmarried. Educational level was divided into four categories (1 = high school or below, 2 = college, 3 = bachelor’s degree, 4 = master’s degree and above). Organizational tenure was measured in years using six categories (1 = less than half a year, 2 = six months to one year, 3 = 1–3, 4 = 4–5, 5 = 6–10, and 6 = 11 or above). Job title was divided into five categories [1 = general staff, 2 = basic professionals with national technical qualification requirements (without subordinates), 3 = basic managers (with subordinates, subordinates without subordinate teams), 4 = middle managers (with at least one layer of reporting relationships within subordinate teams), and 5 = high-level managers (in charge of two or more functional teams)]. Cronbach’s alphas are reported on the diagonal in parentheses. ^* p < 0.05; ^** p < 0.01 (two-tailed tests).

4.3 Tests of moderated mediation

The Latent Moderated Structural Equations (LMS) approach is a new method developed for the analysis of the general interaction model that utilizes the mixture distribution and provides a Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation of model parameters by adapting the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. The finite sample properties and the robustness of LMS are discussed [41]. The Latent Moderated Structural Equations method has the advantage of eliminating the need for a multiplicative index and can be easily implemented with the structural equation software Mplus [42]. The procedures to analyze the moderated model by LMS are as follows: First, we need to decide how well the model would fit by running a baseline model where the latent interaction term is not included. Second, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) or log-likelihood ratio test is used to decide how well the model would fit by running a moderated mediation model where the latent interaction term is included. Third, the product of coefficients approach, which is implemented by Mplus software, is recommended to analyze moderated mediation effects. It shows that the moderated mediation effect is significant if a bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap confidence interval of the targeted product of coefficients does not include zero. [42].

To investigate the mechanism of the perceived overqualification on knowledge sharing, we used LMS to test our theoretical model (i.e., the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of psychological entitlement) [43]. Meanwhile, we parceled the indicator items for the latent variables to ensure the stability of the structural equation model assessment and the degree of model fit [44]. Gender, marital status, age, education, tenure, and job title were included as control variables.

First of all, we test the baseline model without the latent moderator terms. The test results found that χ² = 203.19, df = 93, RMSEA = 0. 07, CFI = 0. 91, TLI = 0. 88, which showed the baseline model fitted to the data well.

Second, we test the moderated mediation model with the latent moderator. It was found that the AIC value of the moderated mediation model with latent moderator decreased by 17.12 (baseline model: AIC = 7131.12, latent moderated model: AIC = 7114.00) and the BIC value decreased by 13.47 (baseline model: BIC = 7313.57, latent moderated model: BIC = 7300.10) compared with the baseline model. These findings indicated that our latent moderated model provided a better fit to the data than the baseline mode. About LogLikelihood value, the moderated mediation structural equation model (LogLikelihood = –3506.00) had an increase of 9.56 over the baseline structural equation model (LogLikelihood = –3515.56) (i.e., a –2LL value of 9.56, with degrees of freedom plus 1). The chi-square test for the –2LL value was significant (p < 0. 05). These results suggest that the moderated mediation model with the latent moderator fits better and allows for further testing of the whole moderated mediation model.

Third, we used the products of coefficients method to test the moderated mediation model with the latent moderator. The results showed that perceived overqualification significantly predicted knowledge sharing [β= –0.16, SE = 0.07, p < 0.05, 95% CI = (–0.28, –0.03)] and organizational identification [β= –0.46, SE = 0.17, p < 0. 01, 95% CI = (–0.82, –0.15)]. Also, organizational identification was positively related to knowledge sharing significantly [β= 0.23, SE = 0.04, p < 0.01, 95% CI = (0.16, 0.28)], and the indirect effect indicated that organizational identification significantly mediated the link between perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing [estimate = –0.11, 95% CI = (–0.22, –0.04)]. In addition, psychological entitlement significantly predicted knowledge sharing [β= –0.42, SE = 0.18, p < 0.05, 95% CI = (–1.0, –0.19)], and the interaction between psychological entitlement and organizational identification significantly predicted knowledge sharing [(β= 0.20, SE = 0. 06, p < 0. 01, 95% CI = (0.11, 0.34)], which indicated that psychological entitlement moderated the relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing. In summary, not only did perceived overqualification influence knowledge sharing via the mediating role of organizational identity, but psychological entitlement moderates the relationship between organizational identification and knowledge sharing. All of the above findings supported our hypothesis.

Lastly, to further figure out the moderating role of psychological entitlement, we divided psychological entitlement into high (M + 1SD) and low (M-1SD) level. As depicted in Fig. 2, the indirect effect of perceived overqualification affecting knowledge sharing via organizational identity was estimated as –0.02 with low psychological entitlement (M-1SD) [95% CI = (–0.08, 0.05)]. While at high level of psychological entitlement (M + 1SD), the indirect effect of perceived overqualification affecting knowledge sharing via organizational identity was estimated as –0.19 [95% CI = (–0.37, –0.05)]. Since the confidence interval did not contain zero, the indirect effect was considered to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). These findings suggested that the indirect effect of organizational identity between perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing was relatively stronger for employees with higher psychological entitlement.

Fig.1

Theoretical model.

Fig.2

Moderating effect of psychological entitlement on the relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge sharing.

5 Discussion

Based on the social exchange theory, the current study investigated the mechanism of POQ’s influence on knowledge sharing. Using data collected in China, we found that POQ predicted employees’ organizational identity, further promoting their desire to share knowledge in the workplace. In addition, our results revealed that high psychological entitlement diminished the beneficial effect of employees’ organizational identity on knowledge sharing behaviors. These findings contribute to the extant management literature in several ways.

5.1 Theoretical contributions

First, organizational identity provides a path for explaining why overqualified employees are less willing to engage in behaviors that benefit their organizations and colleagues in organizational situations. From the perspective of social exchange, overqualified employees are only unilateral knowledge providers in management practice, which weakens reciprocity that promotes collaborative behavior and makes it hard to maintain sharing knowledge [45]; furthermore, overqualified employees mostly believe that they are not valued in the organization and lack a sense of existence and belonging as a member of the organization, which results in a low sense of identity [46] and a lack of motivation to share knowledge actively [47]. This finding supports previous studies [4 , 12].

Second, the present study found that overqualified employees with more psychological entitlement employees are not that inclined to engage in knowledge sharing behavior. Previous works on the relationship between POQ and knowledge sharing behaviors have been ambivalent and uncertain [4 , 11–13]. Our findings indicate that this inconsistency may be caused by the personality trait of psychological entitlement. Psychological entitlement serves as the self-perception of individuals who believe that they are entitled to more privileged treatment [48], and individuals with high entitlement tend to ignore their willingness to give [49], and have more self-serving motivation [50], and meanwhile their organizational identity has a lower enhancement effect on knowledge sharing, further raising the negative influence of POQ on knowledge sharing.

5.2 Practical implications

Our research has several practical implications as well. First and foremost, organizations should emphasize on inhibiting overqualification, considering its costly consequences. Although overqualification can bring benefits to organizations to some extent such as promoting employees’ in-role performance [51] and innovative behaviors [52], there are still quite large negative effects (e.g., causing negative work attitudes [53] and work behaviors [5] and lower subjective well-being [54], etc.). Hence, it is crucial for managers to implement personality-job fit and guide overqualified employees to achieve job crafting.

Second, the underlying role of organizational identity further draws organizations’ attention to the importance of a healthy culture and atmosphere. Our findings suggest that managers should take measures to promote employees’ organizational identity and buffer their sense of overqualification. Previous research has shown managers can enhance organizational distinctiveness and reputation [55] to boost members’ identification.

Lastly, the current study implies that psychological entitlement can diminish the positive effect of organizational identity on knowledge sharing. From these findings, managers can investigate personality traits such as psychological entitlement during recruitment to counterbalance their likely adverse effects.

5.3 Limitations and avenues for future research

Some limitations of our study should be noted for future research. First, as our variables were all rated by employees themselves, and the data were collected at the same time, common method and source bias could not be completely ruled out due to lack of objectivity. Our results of Harmon single-factor test—first factor extracting only 11.47% variance [40] and low correlations among study variables revealed that common method bias was not likely a serious problem. Second, apart from the demographic variables investigated in the current study, we had inadequate consideration of other likely factors such as hubris [56], narcissism [57], perceived group cohesion differences at the workplace [58], and affective condition [26], which could influence the employees’ perceptions and behaviors as well. Therefore, future studies should fully account for the interaction of these variables. Finally, the study population sampling problem is a concern. The population of this study is Chinese corporate employees, and the results need to be carefully generalized to other samples in different cultures. Collectivism versus individualism is a common categorization of cultural values that accurately and effectively describes objective cultural differences in reality [59]. Higher collectivist tendencies lead individuals to place more emphasis on interpersonal relationships and collective interests and less emphasis on individual interests. In comparison, lower collectivist tendencies lead individuals to place more emphasis on satisfying their own needs [60]. Future research could further examine the moderating role of individual-collectivist cultural contexts.

6 Conclusions

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study found that the sense of overqualification has a significant negative effect on knowledge sharing, and organizational identification plays a mediating role in it. Psychological privilege moderated the second half of the path, specifically, when psychological privilege is high, the weaker the positive effect of employee organizational identification on knowledge sharing, and the stronger the mediating effect of organizational identification in the relationship between feelings of overqualification and knowledge sharing.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Informed consent

All participants gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Not applicable.

Funding

This research was supported by the Neuroeconomics Laboratory of Guangzhou Huashang College (2021WSYS002).

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