Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the direct effect of the perceived overqualification on the burnout syndrome and the indirect effect through the workers’ autonomous and controlled motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses were tested with a sample of 3,256 contact center operators from one Portuguese company and data were analyzed using the software package Mplus to conduct structural equation models.

Findings

The results revealed that workers’ perceived overqualification is positively related to burnout and that both autonomous and controlled motivation partially mediates this relationship.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional design should be regarded as a limitation. Moreover, each variable was only assessed with self-reported measures, the sample comprised call center employees from only one company and one country (Portugal), and the workers were all employed in commercial services of telecommunications, energy, banking or insurance companies, which may constrain the generalization of these results.

Practical implications

Workers’ perceived overqualification should be avoided to prevent their burnout. Furthermore, an increase in workers’ skills and competencies, enhanced decision latitude, and the task variety and quality should be crucial for employees to develop more autonomous motivation to work in a contact center and the promotion of their well-being at work. More precisely, as overqualification concerns the employees’ perceptions of surplus education, experience and knowledge, from a practical perspective, enhancing the decision latitude, task variety and quality of these individuals’ work may contribute to decreasing individuals’ perception of overqualification and, therefore, contribute to increasing workers’ autonomous motivations and well-being.

Originality/value

This study provides evidence concerning the mediating role of both workers’ autonomous and controlled motivation to explain the relationship between perceived overqualification and burnout.

中文翻译：

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认为资历过高和联络中心工作人员倦怠：动机是调解者吗？

目的

本文的目的是测试感知过度资格对职业倦怠综合症的直接影响和通过工人自主和受控动机的间接影响。

设计/方法/方法

这些假设用来自一家葡萄牙公司的 3,256 名联络中心操作员的样本进行了测试，并使用软件包 Mplus 分析数据以进行结构方程模型。

发现

结果表明，工人感知到的资格过高与倦怠呈正相关，自主和受控动机部分地调节了这种关系。

研究限制/影响

横截面设计应被视为一种限制。此外，每个变量仅通过自我报告的措施进行评估，样本仅包括来自一个公司和一个国家（葡萄牙）的呼叫中心员工，并且这些员工都受雇于电信、能源、银行或保险公司的商业服务，其中可能会限制这些结果的推广。

实际影响

应避免工人认为自己的资历过高，以防止他们精疲力竭。此外，员工技能和能力的提高、决策自由度的提高以及任务的多样性和质量对于员工培养在联络中心工作的自主动机和促进他们在工作中的幸福感至关重要。更准确地说，由于资历过高涉及员工对过剩教育、经验和知识的看法，从实践的角度来看，提高这些人的决策范围、任务多样性和工作质量可能有助于降低个人对资历过高的看法，因此，有助于提高工人的自主动机和福祉。

原创性/价值

这项研究提供了关于工人自主和受控动机的中介作用的证据，以解释感知过度资格和职业倦怠之间的关系。