Research On The Influence Of Sense Of Overqualification On Employees’ Bootleg Innovation

In the face of accelerated globalization,China’s attention to higher education has deepened,the level of education has improved,and higher education has changed from elitist in the past to universal now,however,the growth rate of jobs is slow,which cannot meet the current employment demand of college graduates at all,and many high-quality talents are forced to choose jobs lower than their job expectations.This incongruity leads to the imbalance between the supply and demand of talents in the country,and then generates the phenomenon of "objective overqualification",while on the other hand,the phenomenon of "objective overqualification" gives rise to the "subjective overqualification" perception of employees.Employees in the workplace perceive that their abilities,skills,experience,education,etc.exceed the standard requirements of the current position,making them produce a sense of mismatch and lack of talent,that is,a sense of overqualification.Employees with a sense of overqualification usually have a strong sense of active innovation and are more inclined to implement innovative behaviors,but due to the organizational rules and regulations or the innovation constraints of their superiors,employees may choose to innovate in a bootleg manner,i.e.,to avoid conflicts with their superiors or the organization in some hidden way and carry out unofficial innovative behaviors to achieve personal or organizational innovation performance.Based on the above background,it is important to investigate the mechanism between overqualification and bootleg innovation in order for individuals and organizations to have a more correct view of overqualification and bootleg innovation.Based on the selfregulation theory,self-verification theory and impression management theory,this study is based on a literature review and focuses on the influence of overqualification on bootleg innovation,and introduces assertive impression management motivation as a mediating variable and work autonomy and its three dimensions as moderating variables from the individual level.This study mainly used questionnaire and empirical analysis to collect data and statistical analysis to test the predetermined hypotheses and draw the corresponding conclusions.The main findings of this study are: overqualification positively affects bootleg innovation;overqualification positively affects assertive impression management motivation,which also positively affects bootleg innovation,and acquired impression management motivation partially mediates the relationship between overqualification and bootleg innovation;work autonomy and its three dimensions-method autonomy,scheduling autonomy,and criteria autonomy-positively moderate the relationship between feelings of overqualification and assertive impression management motivation.The findings of this study reveal that managers need to dialectically view employees’ sense of overqualification and bootleg innovation,and should motivate such employees to be highly qualified at the right time,give them appropriate work autonomy,help them build a good image,identify the role of bootleg innovation in the organization,and promote the generation of bootleg innovation behaviors to obtain higher performance for the company.