Journal of Organizational Behavior最新文献

Existing studies have viewed overqualification as either a demotivating state of underutilizing surplus qualifications or a favorable condition of possessing superior capabilities, generating mixed results regarding the impact of overqualification on employees' extra-role performance. To reconcile this contradiction, the current paper draws on social exchange theory to account for the negative and positive impact of perceived overqualification on helping simultaneously. We build an exchange-based model and posit that overqualification is a double-edged sword that affects employees' helping through two opposing pathways. On the one hand, overqualified employees' superior capabilities enable them to feel respected and admired at work, which is captured by perceived status. Such positive social recognition motivates them to reciprocate with increased helping behavior. On the other hand, overqualified employees may perceive their mismatched job positions, where their surplus qualifications are underutilized, as indicative of poor treatment by their employers. In response to this unfavorable employment relationship, overqualified employees may depersonalize coworkers and withhold their helping behavior. Two studies with complementary designs (Study 1: A pre-registered experimental study, Study 2: A multi-wave and multisource field study) provided support for our theorizing. Furthermore, we found that the paradoxical effects of perceived overqualification on helping via perceived status and depersonalization were moderated by task and goal interdependence. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

This research examines the morally compensatory behavioral consequence, wherein employees engage in subsequent helping behavior to repair prior deceptive knowledge hiding. Grounded in moral cleansing theory, we propose and validate a parallel path mediation model that accounts for emotional (self-conscious moral emotions) and cognitive (moral self-regulation) processes. Through a multimethod design combining a vignette experiment (Study 1) with a two-wave field survey involving 181 employee-coworker dyads (Study 2), we find that, first, deceptive knowledge hiding triggers morally compensatory helping behavior, demonstrating the behavioral transformation of this implicitly immoral behavior; second, guilt experience (an emotional mechanism) and perceived loss of moral credits (a cognitive mechanism) mediate the deceptive knowledge hiding–helping behavior relationship; and third, reflective moral attentiveness amplifies the effects of deceptive knowledge hiding on both those mediators and the indirect effects of deceptive knowledge hiding on helping behavior through those mediators, establishing this individual moral trait as a boundary condition. Our research enriches the knowledge management literature by uncovering the moral compensation processes that follow deceptive knowledge hiding. It also highlights implications for managing posttransgression behaviors in organizations.

Maternity leave and motherhood are typically associated with severe career penalties for women. Some literature suggests that this may be due to women opting out (i.e., pull dynamics), while other studies show that mothers may be pushed out by organizations (i.e., push dynamics). We adopt an organizational justice lens to investigate push and pull dynamics around maternity leave. Through a four-wave interview study with 35 highly educated women in France (134 interviews), we investigate their personal (un)fairness experiences at work as well as their changing career and work-life priorities and choices. Using a contemporary approach to grounded theory, we find that injustice events and inactions interlink to form injustice episodes, which often change and extend over time. Injustice episodes (push factors) and changing career and work-life priorities (pull factors) are found to influence each other and to exert both direct and indirect effects on career withdrawal over time, illustrating how pushes and pulls intertwine to create career disadvantages for women when they become mothers. This research highlights the important role of organizational justice in gender equality at work and, more generally, how motivated justice dynamics unfold in career transitions.

The rise of gig work—flexible, short-term, task-based labor, often mediated by digital platforms—has significantly reshaped the employment landscape. This special issue presents five articles that investigate gig work through the lens of organizational behavior (OB), offering new theoretical perspectives and practical insights into this rapidly growing labor segment. The articles examine a range of psychological processes central to gig work, including identity regulation, flow experience, psychological detachment, safety and risk assessments, and algorithmic management. Taken together, they demonstrate that gig work represents more than just a novel context for applying existing theories; it also provides opportunities to rethink foundational OB constructs such as autonomy, motivation, emotional well-being, and managerial control. This special issue illustrates how distinctive features of gig work—algorithmic oversight, precariousness, and limited organizational attachment—challenge traditional assumptions embedded in existing OB theories. Furthermore, it highlights methodological challenges and opportunities unique to gig research. By showcasing gig work's theoretical richness and methodological distinctiveness, we aim to stimulate future research that positions gig work not as peripheral, but as a central domain in the evolution of OB.