Who thinks they're a big fish in a small pond and why does it matter? A meta-analysis of perceived overqualification

•POQ was associated with job attitudes, retention, and psychological wellbeing.•POQ was related to CWBs and self-ratings of OCBs, but not task performance or CIP.•POQ was associated with education, NA, narcissism, and objective overqualification.•Several relationships were moderated by power distance.•Job attitudes partially mediated the POQ-turnover intentions relationship.

We carried out a meta-analysis of perceived overqualification (POQ). Synthesizing twenty-five years of research (k = 61), we helped to clarify disparate and conflicting findings in the literature. Our results indicated that POQ was associated with job satisfaction (ρ = −0.41), organizational commitment (ρ = −0.35), turnover intentions (ρ = 0.37), job search behaviors (ρ = 0.30), and psychological wellbeing (ρ = −0.26). In terms of job performance, POQ was associated with CWB (ρ = 0.16) and self-ratings of OCB (ρ = −0.25), but not task (ρ = 0.04) or creative and innovative (ρ = 0.04) performance dimensions. Results further indicated that POQ was associated with education (ρ = 0.08), negative affectivity (ρ = 0.11), narcissism (ρ = 0.09), and objective overqualification (ρ = 0.40). Beyond providing estimates of population correlations, we addressed a number of important gaps in the literature, including the role of power distance as a moderator. Implications for research and practice are discussed.