Developing a Performance Coaching Model for Overqualified Employees in Public Sector: Implications for Career Growth and Organizational Effectiveness
Keywords:
Performance Coaching, Overqualified Employees, Grounded Theory Method, Job Competency, Iran’s Electrical Power IndustryAbstract
Despite the well-documented benefits of performance coaching in employee development, its efficacy for overqualified employees—a critical yet overlooked talent segment—remains poorly understood. This study bridges this gap by proposing a novel coaching framework specifically designed for overqualified professionals in Iran’s Electrical Industry. Leveraging grounded theory methodology, we analyze data from 16 semi-structured interviews to develop a comprehensive model featuring 131 distinct elements categorized into 18 core constructs. Our results demonstrate a dynamic interplay between Casual Factors, Contextual Conditions, and Intervening Factors in shaping job and organizational competencies. These competencies subsequently inform strategic interventions in organizational development and talent management, generating multi-level impacts across individual, team, and organizational outcomes. The proposed model not only advances theoretical understanding of coaching efficacy but also provides practitioners with an evidence-based framework for optimizing the performance of overqualified employees—a crucial resource in contemporary talent management.
References
Aly Mahmoud, S., & Zakaria Elsaeed, Z. (2021). Abusive and Coaching Supervision and its relation to nurses' talent. Egyptian Journal of Health Care, 12(4), 381-398. https://doi.org/10.21608/ejhc.2021.199769
Angelin, C. S., Sugi, S., & Rajendran, K. (2021). Occupational performance coaching for mothers of children with disabilities in India. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 88(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008417420972868
Chen, G., Tang, Y., & Su, Y. (2021). The effect of perceived over-qualification on turnover intention from a cognition perspective. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 699715. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.699715
Cidral, W., Berg, C. H., & Paulino, M. L. (2023). Determinants of coaching success: a systematic review. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 72(3), 753-771. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-07-2020-0367
Eurostat. (2023). Non-nationals more likely over-qualified than nationals. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230309-3
Flaherty, J. (2022). Coaching: Evoking excellence in others. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003206422
Gallardo-Gallardo, E., & Thunnissen, M. (2022). The quest for relevant talent management research. In Talent management: A decade of developments (pp. 39-63). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-834-120221003
Graham, F., Williman, J., Desha, L., Snell, D., Jones, B., Ingham, T., Latu, A. T. F. a., Ranta, A., Walker, E., & Makasini, S. (2024). Realist process evaluation of occupational performance coaching: protocol. BMJ open, 14(6), e075727. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-075727
Grant, A. M. (2022). Is it time to REGROW the GROW model? Issues related to teaching coaching session structures. Coaching Practiced, 29-40. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119835714.ch3
Grant, R., & Phene, A. (2022). The knowledge based view and global strategy: Past impact and future potential. Global Strategy Journal, 12(1), 3-30. https://doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1399
Harandi, A., & Mirzaeian Khamseh, P. (2024). Can perceived overqualification increase cyberloafing? An emphasis on the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Interdisciplinary Journal of Management Studies (Formerly known as Iranian Journal of Management Studies), 17(2), 409-424. https://ijms.ut.ac.ir/article_92041.html
Kasdorf, R. L., & Kayaalp, A. (2022). Employee career development and turnover: a moderated mediation model. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 30(2), 324-339. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-09-2020-2416
Khan, J., Saeed, I., Zada, M., Nisar, H. G., Ali, A., & Zada, S. (2023). The positive side of overqualification: examining perceived overqualification linkage with knowledge sharing and career planning. Journal of Knowledge Management, 27(4), 993-1015. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-02-2022-0111
Liu, W., Zhang, B., Sun, R., & Li, S. (2024). Busting the blackbox between managerial coaching behaviors and employee outcomes from a perspective of discrete emotional process mechanism. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 45(6), 954-975. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-05-2023-0219
Mah, S., Huang, C., & Yun, S. (2024). Overqualified Employees' Actual Turnover: The Role of Growth Dissatisfaction and the Contextual Effects of Age and Pay. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-024-09959-2
Modderkolk, L., van Meurs, J., de Klein, V., Engels, Y., & Wichmann, A. B. (2025). Effectiveness of Meaning-Centered Coaching on the Job of Oncology Nurses on Spiritual Care Competences: A Participatory Action Research Approach. Cancer Nursing, 48(1), 55-63. https://doi.org/10.1097/ncc.0000000000001255
Nawaz, A., & Sajid, M. (2023). Investigating the Impact of Over Qualification on Employee Performance, Satisfaction and Employee Relations. International Journal of Advanced Natural Sciences and Engineering Researches, 7, 100-104. https://doi.org/10.59287/ijanser.1342
Nur Izzaty, M., Ishak Abd, R., Abdullah Sanusi, O., Suhaila, A., & Nurshahira, I. (2024). How Does Managerial Coaching Affect Talent Development? The Mediating Role of Subordinates' Learning Motivation. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice, 30(6), 3554-3568. https://doi.org/10.53555/kuey.v30i6.4034
O'Moore, G. (2022). PEAK: A model for use within performance coaching. Coaching Practiced, 19-28. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119835714.ch2
Passmore, J., & Sinclair, T. (2020). Becoming a coach: The essential ICF guide. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53161-4
Rafiei, M., Hadadian, A., & Fayyazi, M. (2021). The Effect of Perceived Overqualification on Job Attitudes (A Study on Iran's Banking Industry). Transformation management journal, 12(2), 207-228. https://tmj.um.ac.ir/article_30993_en.html
Rahimi, M., Hassani, M., & Ghalavandi, H. (2024). The Effect of Job Demand, Role Ambiguity, Perceived Overqualification and Organizational Support on Employee Well-Being. Organizational Culture Management, 22(3), 211-227. https://doi.org/10.22059/jomc.2024.369963.1008625
Romão, S., Ribeiro, N., Gomes, D. R., & Singh, S. (2022). The impact of leaders' coaching skills on employees' happiness and turnover intention. Administrative Sciences, 12(3), 84. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci12030084
Sehatpour, M. H., Abedin, B., & Kazemi, A. (2022). Talent management in government organizations: identification of challenges and ranking the solutions to address them. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 71(4), 1444-1468. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-05-2020-0231
Singh, H. K., Kennedy, G. A., & Stupans, I. (2022). Competencies and training of health professionals engaged in health coaching: A systematic review. Chronic Illness, 18(1), 58-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742395319899466
Van Dijk, H., Shantz, A., & Alfes, K. (2020). Welcome to the bright side: Why, how, and when overqualification enhances performance. Human Resource Management Review, 30(2), 100688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.04.004
Wiegand, J. P. (2023). When overqualification turns dark: a moderated-mediation model of perceived overqualification, narcissism, frustration, and counterproductive work behavior. Personality and individual differences, 214, 112351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2023.112351
Yaşar, E., & Alakuş, N. A. (2024). Are they really overqualification? Evaluation of perceived overqualification by the employees. Journal of multidisciplinary academic tourism, 9(1), 73-85. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jomat/issue/79065/1255953
Zaman, N. U., Atta, A., Parvez, A., & Ahmad, A. (2024). Cultivating Team Learning: Interplay of Ambidextrous Leadership and Psychological Safety. Pakistan Business Review, 26(1), 27-49. https://journals.iobm.edu.pk/index.php/pbr/article/view/1172
Downloads
Published
Submitted
Revised
Accepted
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Kaveh Mansournia (Author); Sayyed Mohsen Allameh; Seyed Hasan Hosseini (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
