Paper #2

Under qualification and Affective Commitment: The role of Transformational Leadership

Hussain Ahmed Mughal and Rahim Bin Mahmood

Abstract: The current study aimed to assess the association between perceived under qualification (PU) with Job attitudes (affective commitment) AC and transformational leadership (TL). Alongside direct relationship between PU and AC, the study also tested the moderating role of transformational leadership to respond to the scholarly calls for empirical attention on the interaction effect of TL on the direct association between PU and AC. Equally, the study has also addressed scholarly calls regarding person-job (misfit) from previous studies, indicating that one type of misfit ‘perceived over qualification’ as mainly neglected by scholars in the area. Survey methodology was used to obtain data from the staff members of four public sector universities in the UK. The findings revealed that perceived under qualification is negatively related to Job attitudes (Affective commitment) and positively related through transformational leadership (moderating factor). However, when transformational leadership is incorporated as a moderating variable, the negative attitudinal implication on Job attitudes is mitigated. The results have supported the hypothesized direct and moderated relationship. The current study extends the body of knowledge in testing the other type of Person-Job misfit known as perceived under qualification and corrects the biased understanding of Person-Job misfit of perceived over qualification, which the previous scholars have exclusively examined.

Keywords: Transformational Leadership; Affective Commitment; Perceived Under qualification; Person-Job Misfit.