Perceived overqualification, characterized by the perception that one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities exceed job requirements, is becoming increasingly prevalent. While perceived overqualification is commonly conceptualized as person-job misfit associated with adverse outcomes, it may also constitute surplus resources that can be converted into constructive behaviors through job crafting. Mixed findings regarding the overqualification-job crafting association indicate substantial heterogeneity in employees’ responses. We propose that motivational orientations account for this heterogeneity by directing overqualified employees toward either promotion-oriented or prevention-oriented job crafting. To address these issues, this study integrates the conservation of resources theory and regulatory focus theory to examine how perceived overqualification influences promotion-oriented, and prevention-oriented job crafting, while also exploring the mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating role of vocational delay of gratification.

The present study employed two complementary studies to provide evidence for our research model. Study 1 adopted a scenario-based experiment with a 2 (overqualification: high vs. low) × 2 (vocational delay of gratification: high vs. low) between-subjects design (N = 152). Participants were instructed to immerse themselves in carefully constructed workplace scenarios and then complete measures of job insecurity, promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented job crafting. The results revealed a significant interaction between overqualification and vocational delay of gratification on job insecurity. Under low vocational delay of gratification, high overqualification heightened job insecurity, whereas under high vocational delay of gratification, high overqualification reduced job insecurity. Moderated mediation analyses further showed that among individuals high in vocational delay of gratification, perceived overqualification indirectly promoted promotion-oriented job crafting via reduced job insecurity. Conversely, among individuals low in vocational delay of gratification, perceived overqualification increased prevention-oriented job crafting through elevated job insecurity.

Study 2 extended the experimental findings to a real organizational context using a three-wave field survey (N = 231). The results replicated the moderated mediation patterns observed in Study 1, thereby confirming that vocational delay of gratification shapes whether perceived overqualification functions as a resource that attenuates job insecurity or as a threat that amplifies it, thereby leading to divergent forms of job crafting.

Our study offers significant theoretical contributions. First, it contributes to the literature on job crafting by proposing its potential negative effect. By linking overqualification to both promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented job crafting, we provide a novel explanatory lens that reconciles previously inconsistent findings. Second, drawing on the COR theory, we demonstrate that employees are not passive victims of person-job misfit; rather, they actively regulate their resources by investing or conserving them. This finding enriches person-job fit theory by underscoring the importance of self-regulatory processes in shaping outcomes of misfit experiences. Finally, by integrating the COR theory with Regulatory Focus Theory, we highlight job insecurity as a key mediating mechanism and vocational delay of gratification as a pivotal boundary condition. These insights reveal divergent pathways—resource investment versus resource conservation—through which perceived overqualification manifests in the workplace.

The research provides important practical implications for organizations in managing overqualified employees. First, organizations should approach the recruitment of highly qualified candidates with an awareness of both risks and opportunities. Instead of dismissing overqualified applicants outright, managers should consider whether roles can be structured to harness employees’ surplus potential. Second, organizations should prioritize the creation of a supportive and stable work climate that enhances psychological safety, thereby alleviating overqualified employees’ concerns about future uncertainties. Moreover, during the selection stages, organizations may benefit from assessing candidates’ vocational delay of gratification as an indicator of their ability to adapt constructively to short-term person-job misfit. Finally, day-to-day managerial practices should be sensitive to the motivational orientations of overqualified employees. Supervisors can tailor developmental opportunities to foster promotion crafting among those with high delay of gratification, while offering targeted support to help employees with a short-term orientation to avoid maladaptive prevention strategies.