Person-organization fit and personality psychology.
Vocational fit is a process that uses personality to assess which professions are best suited to an individual. (Twenge & Campbell, 2020). Similarly, person-organization fit is a process that assesses how an individual’s personality may fit with the modal personality and values of an organization and its members as a whole (Gardner et al., 2012). As a result, person-organization fit has emerged as a key focus in organizational recruitment and selection, as research has shown hiring individuals with high levels of person-organization fit can create many positive outcomes. Fundamentally, a high correlation in person-organization fit and supporting personality traits has demonstrated to be a valid predictor of job performance, employee motivation, and employee-employer attachment and commitment (Tsai et al., 2012), and negatively related to intent to leave and turnover (Gardner et al., 2012). Person-organization fit can also help determine what type of organizational culture an individual’s personality may operate best in. For example, more extraverted and agreeable individual’s maintain a better organizational fit within clan-like cultures, whereas individuals higher in conscientiousness and lower in openness tend to thrive better in a hierarchy culture (Gardner et al., 2012). Moreover, while standalone personality assessments are effective in helping organizations understand individual personality traits, which tend to be relatively stable over time, person-organization fit builds on this by focussing on the correlation between an individual’s and organization’s values, which are more susceptible to change over time (Tsai et al., 2012). Many industries now see person-organization fit as key to maintaining workforce attachment and retention in the 21st century (Gardner et al., 2012).
While person-organization fit is seen as an important quality to measure, research, and thus organizations, tend to fall short in conceptualizing the longevity of perceived fit. Most commonly, research on person-organization fit focusses on a single point in time, recruitment and selection, promoting a static and inaccurate view of personnel (Swider et al., 2015). In contrast, significantly less research and attention has been given in measuring continual person-organization fit over the long-term (Boon & Biron, 2016). Largely, person-organization fit research propagated solely during recruitment and selection assumes that initially assessed fit will exist for long periods (Boon & Biron, 2016). However, personality psychology shows us that peoples intrinsic motivations, values, and self-concept is generally evolving (Twenge & Campbell, 2020). This helps conceptualize person-organization fit as a process rather than a one-time assessment, malleable and changing over time, which has been largely ignored (Boon & Biron, 2016). It is my belief that this gap in understanding and knowledge is most evident when considering the potential impacts it has on turnover during periods of significant organizational change, such as major restructuring, growth, or market transition, when talent retention and reorientation is most at risk. During these change periods, organizations routinely undergo considerable talent turnover, falling victim to traditional role typecasting, stagnation, and uncertainty in emerging role requirements. This unnecessarily risks previous investments in personnel and introduces many direct and indirect organizational costs (Boon & Biron, 2016), undermining employee attachment, performance, and motivation (Überschaer et al., 2016). Given the growing competition for top-tier talent in many industries, organizations are incentivized more than ever to address changing business needs “in house”, thus retaining and repurposing a larger portion of their existing talent (Swider et al., 2015). This is of particular importance for fast-growth technology companies, who extraordinarily rely on self-motivated and attached individuals for organizational success (Tsai et al., 2012). At the same time, adhering to person-organization fit as a continual process serves to proactively address maturing employee competencies and evolving individual professional interests, ensuring sustained workforce attachment and production (Boon & Biron, 2016).
Boon, C., & Biron, M. (2016). Temporal issues in person–organization fit, person–job fit and turnover: The role of leader–member exchange. Human Relations (New York), 69(12), 2177-2200.
Gardner, W., Reithel, B., Cogliser, C., Walumbwa, F., & Foley, R. (2012). Matching Personality and Organizational Culture: Effects of Recruitment Strategy and the Five-Factor Model on Subjective Person–Organization Fit. Management Communication Quarterly, 26(4), 585-622.
Swider, B., Zimmerman, R., & Barrick, M. (2015). Searching for the Right Fit: Development of Applicant Person-Organization Fit Perceptions During the Recruitment Process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 880-893.
Tsai, Wei-Chi, Chen, Hao-Yi, & Chen, Chien-Cheng. (2012). Incremental Validity of Person-Organization Fit Over the Big Five Personality Measures. The Journal of Psychology, 146(5), 485-509.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2020). Personality Psychology: Understanding Yourself and Others, 2nd Ed. Retrieved from https://revel-ise.pearson.com/courses/5f0f1221df9760001a1b7705/contents
Überschaer, A., Baum, M., Bietz, B., & Kabst, R. (2016). The contingencies of person-organization fit perceptions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(6), 1021-1039.
