The relationship of perceived qverqualification in nurses with job crafting and career success

The purpose of this cross-sectional, descriptive and correlation-seeking study is to examine the relationship between perceived overqualification and job crafting and career success in nurses. The population of the research consisted of nurses working in a state hospital, a training and research hospital and a university hospital operating in Istanbul. Since the number of nurses actively working in hospitals is unknown, the unknown universe sampling method was used to calculate the sample size, and in the final case, the sample of the study consisted of 603 nurses. The data of the research was collected between December 2022 and May 2023 with the "Nurse Information Form", "Perceived Overqualification Scale", "Job Crafting Scale" and "Subjective Career Success Scale". The data of the study were analyzed using descriptive tests, correlation analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis. It was determined that self-superiority, one of the sub-dimensions of the Perceived Overqualification Scale, was above the average, while the job underestimation sub-dimension and the total score were below the average. The total score and subscales of the Job Crafting Scale were found to be above average. It was determined that the satisfaction and personal life sub-dimensions of the Subjective Career Success Scale were below the average, while the other sub-dimensions and the total score of the scale were above the average. While there was no significant relationship between the total score of perceived overqualification and the total score of job crafting, a positive relationship was found with the task crafting dimension of job crafting and a negative significant relationship with the cognitive crafting dimension. Again, a positive correlation was found between the job underestimation dimension of perceived overqualification and task crafting, and a significant negative correlation was found between the cognitive crafting and relational crafting dimensions. A positive significant relationship was found between the self-esteem dimension and task crafting. While no significant relationship was found between the perceived overqualification total score and the subjective career success total score, a significant negative relationship was detected with the meaningful work sub-dimension. There is a negative relationship between underestimating one's job, one of the sub-dimensions of perceived overqualification, and the total score of subjective career success and the sub-dimensions of recognition, meaningful work, ınfluence and growth-development; a positive correlation was found between the self-superiority sub-dimension and the recognition and quality work sub-dimensions. A significant positive relationship was found between nurses' job crafting and subjective career success sub-dimension and total score averages. Nurses' demographic and occupational characteristics, other than age and total working hours in the profession, explain 5% of the total perceived overqualification score, 6.4% of the job crafting score and 9.4% of the subjective career success score. The total score of nurses' perceived overqualification together with their characteristics explains 6.3% of the job crafting score. The total score and characteristics of nurses' perceived overqualification and job crafting explain 44.7% of the subjective career success total score. Variables that significantly affect perceived overqualification: Gender (male), education (Ph.D.) and unit of study (polyclinic) are variables that significantly affect job crafting; Educational status (associate degree), income status (very poor), income status (minimum), duty (responsible nurse) and monthly working hours (161-180 hours) and variables affecting subjective career success; income status (minimum) (negative), unit worked (emergency), unit worked (outpatient treatment), monthly working hours (160 hours and below), monthly working hours (161-180 hours), perceived overqualification total score (negative) and job crafting total score. In conclusion; although there was no significant relationship between perceived overqualification and job crafting in nurses, it was seen to have a significant negative effect along with other variables in the regression analysis. It was determined that perceived overqualification (negative) and job crafting affected nurses' subjective career success. It can be said that the research results will contribute to the literature by supporting the negative effect of perceived overqualification in nurses and revealing the importance of job crafting in subjective career success, and will guide the practices of nurse managers.