The Effect of Overeducation on Job Content Innovation and Career-Enhancing Strategies Among Young Spanish Employees

The increase of education in younger people and the relative scarcity of qualified jobs available for them make the overeducation of young workers a social issue. We explored the relationships between overeducation and extra-role behaviors (job content innovation and career-enhancing strategies) as well as the direct and moderating role of personal initiative and intrinsic work values in these relationships. We collected data from a sample of 638 young Spanish employees. As expected, there were negative relationships between overeducation and content innovation and career-enhancing strategies. Personal initiative and intrinsic work values related positively to extra-role behaviors. Moreover, high levels of intrinsic work values and personal initiative emerged as moderating factors that buffered the negative effect of overeducation on extra-role behaviors.