theory, although relatively new has become more well-developed and mature since
its inception in 1974 (Caplan 1987). PE fit theory or the idea that finding a "values
congruence" between an employee and the organization they work in has been
studied for decades to determine to what degree PE fit or other subsidiary
concepts and theories can help lessen negative consequences such as high
turnover, and worker burnout. Some of the positive aspects for organizations
who might use PE fit and other fit theories can include greater employee career
prospects, increased worker engagement, and greater job satisfaction.
In 2022, HASC, a non-profit, contractor training organization supporting workers in the energy industry
performed a qualitative study on employees’ experiences of being hired and how fit
theory may have been applied by the hiring organizations. This study was performed
to determine: (a) challenges faced by new employees to organizations among
contractors who support the energy industry, (b) how these new employees deal
with those challenges over their first three months of work, and (c) how the
concepts of "fit" theory apply to these employees, the contracting organizations,
and these challenges. The purpose of this research is to explore in what ways
industrial contractors are motivated to remain at their organizations after
several weeks of work as compared to their expectations about the organization.
A secondary purpose is to help determine if the worker's expectations for the hiring
organization and their goals for themselves align with the organization’s
goals.
How do the participants express their career goals and
expectations for their positions within the organizations when hired?
How do the participants express their lived experiences
of working within their new organizations especially regarding fit theory
within their first three months?
Background
PE fit as a concept is based on
the idea that the values, traits, or characteristics of an employee when
matched with an organization with similar values, traits, and characteristics, provides
a greater possibility for increased job satisfaction and long-term employment
and growth for employees. This concept, also called, “values-fit.” has
many subsidiary concepts and theories such as: (a) Person-Organization (PO)
fit, (b) Person-Group (PG) fit, (c) Person-Supervisor (PS) fit, (d) Person-Vocation
(PV) fit, and (e) Person-Job (PJ) fit. Studies, such as those done by Westerman
and Cyr (2004) have found that there is a complex and dense network of
relationships between PO fit and the subsidiary fit concepts in terms of job
satisfaction, organization commitment, and an employee’s intention to remain at
the organization. They find that values congruence, a foundational element of
PO fit is a significant indicator and predictor of an employee’s retention,
satisfaction, and commitment.
This values or goal congruence theory
is the cornerstone of the theory of attraction-selection-attrition (ASA). As Hoffman
and Woehr (2006) write in their study of the relationship between PO fit and
ASA, workers will be attracted to organizations whose goals match their own and
will help them meet their own individual goals. Additionally, all of these
theories are based on aspects of self-determination theory (SDT) and Maslow's
hierarchy of needs. Travaglianti et al., (2016) write that workers will find
more satisfactory working conditions and quality of work if they are allowed to
have satisfactory income, security of their position, and continued skill
development. This idea of employees fulfilling their own needs is in line with
what Uysal et al. (2017) write about Mazlow's theory of hierarchy of needs
corresponding to individual motivation. A majority of the articles reviewed for
this article include studies focused on how PO fit can ensure greater job
satisfaction and decrease employee turnover. Miller and Youngs (2020) build on
work by Ellis et al. (2017) and Chan et al. (2008) and find that a greater
degree of PO and PJ fit perceived by the employee after hiring leads to a
greater degree of job satisfaction. Boon and Biron (2016) focus on how PO fit,
and PJ fit can affect employee turnover, a byproduct of decreased job
satisfaction by the employee. Because of these findings, this case study used three
primary themes as a foundation for the interview questions, these include how better use of PO fit by the organization and the employee could affect (a) employee
retention, (b) recruiting and hiring, and (c) job satisfaction.
PO Fit to Increase
Retention and Decrease Turnover
The first perspective
investigated as a part of this study was how aspects of PO fit could influence
employee retention or decrease employee turnover. McHugh et al. (2020), using a
qualitative study, examine the effects of turnover in manufacturing and
identify themes similar in nature to PO fit which makes PO fit a factor even if
tangentially. McCulloch and Turban (2007) investigate call center agents, a
high-turnover job type, and apply a field study to examine if PO fit can help
in employee selection to increase job satisfaction and performance but do not
find a direct relationship between PO fit and job performance. Similarly, Olubiyi
et al. (2019), focusing on a different high turnover industry, retail, also do
not find a significant link between PO fit and job satisfaction, however, their
study does confirm that employees perceived values congruence not only yields
greater job satisfaction but that the increased satisfaction does reduce
turnover. Finally, Knekta and McCartney (2021) study how a sense of belonging
can affect retention among students in a biology department and find that a
strong sense of belonging or a strong sense of social ties within an
environment or organization can increase retention.
PO Fit Used for
Recruiting and Hiring
PO fit assessments are also used to
help organizations make better hiring decisions. A study by Arthur et al.
(2006) focuses on using PO fit in the employment decision-making process and using
an ASA model to create a PO fit framework to ensure there is a match between employees'
values, interests, and goals to the organization's values, interests, and
goals. However, the authors do not find a direct relationship between using PO
fit and hiring decisions creating positive hiring outcomes. O'Brien and Ackroyd
(2011) have a similar goal in their work in recruiting nurses with the outcome
of positively affecting retention and find that the cohorts they study showed
retention rates that were higher than the expected or average. The study by
Sekiguchi (2007) focuses on PJ and PO fit in employee selection and hiring and focuses on two aspects: (a) transactional psychological contracts which occur with
recruits coming into an organization, and (b) relational psychological
contracts which are more long-term and are built between the organization and
the employees over time. Their work tends to suggest that PJ fit may be more
important during hiring, while PO fit is a more appropriate focus for long-term
retention. Yen (2017) attempts to answer the question of whether applicants
attach importance to either PO fit or PJ fit when making choices about which
organizations they apply to and if these two fit concepts influence the
applicants' choices across different recruiting stages. Yen (2017) finds that
PJ fit has a stronger influence on an applicant’s decision-making process than
PO fit. Carless (2005) finds similar results about the importance of PJ fit in the
attraction of recruits and hiring in her study on PJ fit verse PO fit as a recruiting
success predictor and finds that using PO and PJ fit framework in hiring does
help predict a recruits attraction to an organization. Swider et al. (2014)
also focus on the recruiting process and how an employee’s perceived PO fit
might change as the applicant advances through the recruiting and hiring
processes. The authors find that applicants change their preferences and
attitudes over time as they advance through the hiring process and gather more
information about the organization they are applying to. Just as studies on PO
fit to increase retention found that there were no significant, repeatable,
direct links this investigation of PO fit to be used for recruiting is at best
varied but tends to show, that PO fit and PJ fit could be a good framework to
ensure hiring and recruiting that leads to employees who will be more satisfied
with their jobs.
Chen, et al. (2016) find in their
study of 225 employees in 12 different catering organizations that PO fit
predicts job satisfaction. They examine how PO fit and supervisor support might
affect both job satisfaction and job stress. Lane et al. (2019) review teachers'
morale using Bandura's self-efficacy theory as a conceptual framework for their
interviews and find loss of confidence, stress or burnout, and ineffective
professional development as challenges to morale and job satisfaction.
Similarly, Ellis et al. (2017) research how an accurate or realistic job
preview relates to job satisfaction. Shah and Ayub (2021) find the same
relationship as Ellis et al. (2017), specifically that PJ fit and PO fit both
have a positive significant relationship with job satisfaction. Hoffman and
Woehr (2005) and Leung and Chaturvedi (2011) focus on how job satisfaction can
be affected both by workers' behaviors and attitudes. Hoffman and Woehr (2005) work
to find a link between PO fit and behavioral outcomes such as performance,
citizenship, and turnover by building on work by Verquer et al, (2003) that found
that PO fit was directly related to an intent to quit, low job satisfaction,
and commitment to the organization. However, Hoffman and Woehr's (2005) results
although positive, suggest only a weak relationship between PO fit and behavior
outcomes. Leung and Chaturvedi (2011) look to strengthen the links between PO
fit and attitudinal outcomes with their study and find that perception influences
a worker's commitment and satisfaction on the job via both perceived and
subjective fit. The studies reviewed for this theme of job satisfaction tend to
show that when used with other tools, especially those that include supervisor
support or leadership support, job satisfaction can be increased and measured
via frameworks that rely on PO fit theory.
Method
These
three primary themes (a) employee retention, (b) recruiting and hiring, and (c)
job satisfaction provided the perspectives through which participants were interviewed
for this study. However, as Orlikowski
and Baroudi (1991) write, that an interpretivist researcher should not view a study in an objective manner
but rather understand that participants will construct their own reality and
meanings from their experiences. Therefore, interpretivist researchers should
analyze their data with this understanding, and so although the above three
perspectives were used as a framework for the questions in this study, during the
analysis, how the participants interpreted the world was
a part of the interpretation as well. Since qualitative case study
research is better at eliciting lived experiences and the how and the why of their
thoughts than other methods so a qualitative case study was selected for this
research. Yin (2009) advocates the use of case study research to
perform in-depth investigations of phenomena within real-life contexts, so a
qualitative case study methodology has been utilized.
Participants for this study were selected from an industry introduction
class named Basic Orientation Plus which most newer workers in the energy
industry must take before beginning work. Participants were asked to volunteer
with the knowledge that each interview would be 15 to 20 minutes and that there
would be three interviews over the course of the first few months following
their completion of Basic Orientation Plus. The participants were not told that
this interview would cover PO fit theory, but only that it was a survey of
workers in the industrial community. For completing this series of interviews,
the participants were rewarded with a $50-dollar gift card. Participants were
provided an agreement with all of this information and a sample set of
questions, to sign before volunteering.
Interviews took place between September 1, 2022 and November
30, 2022. Of the 10 volunteers, only six participants took part in all three
interviews. The interviews were recorded and transcribed using MS Word. Interviews
were conducted via phone, recorded, and transcribed, and all participants' names
and organizations were redacted to maintain anonymity. Interviews were reviewed
and themes identified to determine if there were commonalities between the
experiences of the participants. Information about the six participants who
took part in the entire case study can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1
Demographic and Detail Information of Study Participants
Participant | Age | Gender | Highest Degree | Position | Industry Experience (yrs) |
1 | 39 | M | High | Sewer Treatment Technician | 0 |
2 | 36 | F | High | Safety Attendant | 3 |
3 | 33 | F | High | Safety Attendant | 0 |
4 | 28 | M | College | Environmental Technician | 0 |
5 | 24 | M | College | Environmental Technician | 0 |
6 | 25 | M | College | Environmental Technician | 0 |
Results
and Discussion
There
were four themes identified through the participant interviews, these included:
(a) pay, (b) career development, (c) job security, and (d) family and personal
life. The theme of "pay" refers to anytime the participants discussed
if they expected their positions and new careers to be more lucrative than their
present positions, or other positions they had held in the past. Career development
and career advancement came up several times during the interviews and refers
to future prospects either within the industry or the hiring organization. Job
security as a theme was discussed by several participants as was the
intersection of their jobs and the participants' personal and family lives.
Pay
This theme was a major contributing factor
to all six of the participants who completed this series of interviews. When
asked about why they were looking forward to the opportunities that their new
job provided them, Participant 1, responded, "I'm very excited about it, because
for one it is lucrative" and went on to say about the industry "I'm
kind of loving the industry and the lucrative nature of the work and the
freedom and growth." Participant 2, in their first interview, discussed the
pay at their new organization by saying, "well, they pay very well, . . . they pay very, very well" and
later in that same interview said "I know with this position that I have
and the amount of money that I will be making, it'll be tremendous change from
where I'm at now." More than any other theme the participants discussed
and focused on the pay they received as a motivating factor, either to stay or
leave the industry. Two of the participants, Participants 4 and 4, left the
industry by the end of the case study, and one, Participant 6, was actively
looking for another position. Although these three participants took their
positions because of the pay range that the organization offered, the three of them
all stated that the amount of pay did not make up for the amount of time they
spent working. Participant 4, who left his position by the second interview
stated that he could make more money without travel or physical work.
Participant 6 stated that even though his hours were such that he was making a
significant amount of overtime, the take-home pay, after taxes, was not enough
to justify the time on the job.
Career Development Opportunities
Another theme that was pervasive throughout
the interviews was the desire the participants had for advancing their careers.
Participant 1 said in his first interview, "but just overall, this, us,
having a career, . . . I've had multiple jobs, but this one is a career"
and he felt comforted by the fact "to know that I have a career and
potential to grow." The discussion of career development and growth came
up four times in Participant 1's first two interviews. A theme touched on by
him more than any other theme. Participant 3 expressed her desire for career
advancement by saying "I do want to grow and I know the company has room
for growth and employees improvement. I do know companies always say that they
could possibly keep employees." Participant 4, who left his position
before the second interview, stated in his first interview that one reason he
took the job was that it was in his career of choice and there was potential
for growth. Participant 2 had been looking forward to a job with the
organization that hired her and was eager for the opportunity to grow into new
roles throughout each of the three interviews she was a part of.
Job Security
Participants generally described job
security in terms of consistency in their work life to include, regular
paychecks and a sense of stability in their job; their knowing that they will
have a job the next day and for the foreseeable future. In his first interview,
Participant 1 stated, "so while I'm at home, it's not so stressful because
I know I have that job security and can provide and take care of my
family." However, there were no other clear statements regarding job
security alone, but in some cases, there
were statements that alluded to and corresponds with personal life. Participants
2 and 3, who held similar positions at the same company, both enjoyed the
stability of their new jobs. Although Participants 4, 5 both left their
positions, it was not the lack of job security that drove them away, but rather
the travel demands and the demands that were placed on their family and personal
life. This was the same rationale provided by Participant 6 in terms of job
security.
Family and Personal Life
Whether positive or negative, the way that
participants' jobs influenced their personal and family lives, was a major
theme. As stated above, Participants 4 and 5 left their positions, and
Participant 6 was waiting for another opportunity before leaving his, because
of the travel demands and how that affected their ability to maintain a
personal life. However, Participants 1, 2, and 3 all felt that the positions
they accepted provided opportunities to be with their families in ways that
other positions that they had held previously did not. Participant 1 stated:
"just knowing that I can get different licenses and I can still provide
for my family, but also there is a career aspect" is a good feeling. While
Participant 2 said when asked about her work experiences and where she worked stated: "at a pest control company, which is great, . . . fine and
dandy and everything, . . . but the
problem was I felt like me and my family were literally on a hamster wheel with
inflation and everything going up with, you know, having three kids and
extracurricular activities and keeping that healthy home life was really,
really, hard." In her second interview, Participant 2 stated how "work
stays at work: sometimes in some positions you'll be in where you're coming
home and you're just so exhausted, whether it's physically, mentally, or
emotionally exhausted, that you're not putting in 100% at home" and then
later in the interview went on to say that her new position has
"tremendously helped in my home life as well."
Discussion
In an industry that has a high turnover rate
like contractors services the energy industry, of the six participants who
continued throughout the entirety of the case study, two left their positions
and were no longer looking for positions in the industry, another was seriously
contemplating leaving. Three remained with their positions and did not expect
to leave their organizations. Notably, the three participants who left or were
leaving their organizations all had travel demands with their jobs, the three
who remained all worked locally with no extensive travel demands. Additionally,
for these three participants who left or were leaving their jobs, all three
were in the same field, that of environmental testing and quality control. Of
the four themes, (a) pay, (b) career development, (c) job security, and
(d) family and personal life, the two that seemed to have the most bearing on
the participants who left were pay and family and personal life, while career
development and job security also figured heavily for those who stayed. Future case studies of this sort might want
to focus on how travel demands figure into the PO and PJ fit aspects of job
positions and turnover in the industry, or look directly into the position of
environmental quality technician. Although travel demands were a significant
part of the reason that participants 4 and 5 left their positions and
Participant 6 was considering it, the lack of travel or the aspect of travel
was not a part of the question set for participants 1, 2, and 3.
Significantly, in terms of organizations
using PO and PJ fit to recruit employees and decreasing turnover, Participants
4, 5, and 6 all admitted that when they took their offers, they were all told
that travel would be a significant part of the job, and all agreed to take the
respective jobs despite the extensive travel demands. However, when tasked with
the actual demands of the jobs they took, the travel demands in each case
became a primary reason for leaving. However, Participant 5, admitted that had
he been paid more, he might have stayed with the job despite the travel
demands. Participant 4, who left his position prior to the second interview,
admitted that he could make more money at his new position without having to
travel than he could have had he stayed with the original position.
From the organizations' perspective, the
interviews tend to show that they recruited the participants with the intent to
have a positive PO and PJ fit. For Participants 1, 2, and 3 this tended to
work, but failed for Participants 4, 5, and 6. The themes established at the
beginning of this study: (a) PO fit for recruiting, (b) PO fit for job
satisfaction, and (c) PO fit for changing an employee's mindset were all a part
of the many discussions and interviews. For Participants 1, 2, and 3, the
recruiting framework seemed to include an understanding of the PO fit concepts,
and in terms of the themes of retention, recruiting, and job satisfaction the
framework tended to be successful. For the participants who left or were
considering leaving their positions, the framework, although expressed by the
organizations, did not yield the positive results they hoped for.
Conclusion
During the interviews, the
researcher focused the interview questions around values fit and PO fit,
specifically in terms of recruiting, job satisfaction, leadership, training, and
commitment to the organization to determine to what degree PO fit theory was
used naturally by industrial organizations during their recruiting, hiring,
onboarding, and operations processes and the resulting success of those efforts.
The conclusions regarding using PO fit theory as a framework for hiring, to
stop turnover, increase retention, or change employee mindset tends to show a
mixed bag of results. Do PO fit theory and the subsidiary concepts that make
up the cohort of "values fit" theories make sense to use for employee
relationships both before, during, and after hire? As Morley (2007) writes "achieving
a high degree of PO fit is viewed in many quarters as desirable in terms of positive
work-related outcomes, especially in the context of a tight labor market and the
war for talent and in buttressing organizational culture" (p. 111). Based
on this case study there is evidence that Morley (2007) is correct, that using
PO fit frameworks can help with recruiting and job satisfaction. However, as
shown by the fact that 50% of the participants who completed the study left their
positions and the industry, it is not a guaranteed success mechanism.
References
Boon,
C., & Biron, M. (2016). Temporal issues in person-organization fit,
person-job fit and turnover: The role of leader-member exchange. Human
Relations; Studies towards the Integration of the Social Sciences, 69(12),
2177–2200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726716636945
Caplan,
R. D. (1987). Person-environment fit theory and organizations: Commensurate
dimensions, time perspectives, and mechanisms. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 31(3), 248–267.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(87)90042-x
Carless,
S. A. (2005). Person-job fit versus person-organization fit as predictors of
organizational attraction and job acceptance intentions: A longitudinal study. Journal
of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78(3), 411–429. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1348/096317905X25995
Chen,
P., Sparrow, P., & Cooper, C. (2016). The relationship between
person-organization fit and job satisfaction. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 31(5), 946–959. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-08-2014-0236
Ellis,
C., Skidmore, S., & Combs, J. (2017). The hiring process matters: The role
of person–job and person–organization fit in teacher satisfaction. Educational
Administration Quarterly. 053. 448-474. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X16687007
Knekta,
E., & McCartney, M. (2021). What can departments do to increase students’
retention? A case study of students’ sense of belonging and involvement in a
biology department. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory
& Practice, 22(4), 721–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025118788351
Hoffman,
B. J., & Woehr, D. J. (2006). A quantitative review of the relationship
between person-organization fit and behavioral outcomes. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 68(3), 389-399.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.08.003
Lane,
L. J., Jones, D., & Penny, G. R. (2019). Qualitative case study of
teachers’ morale in a turnaround school. Eric.ed.gov. Retrieved September
30, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1233111.pdf
Leung,
A., & Chaturvedi, S. (2011). Linking the Fits, fitting the links:
Connecting different types of po fit to attitudinal outcomes. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 79(2), 391-402.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.02.007
McCulloch,
M. C., & Turban, D. B. (2007). Using person-organization fit to select
employees for high-turnover jobs. International Journal of Selection and
Assessment, 15(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2007.00368.x
Miller,
J. M., & Youngs, P. (2021). Person-organization fit and first-year teacher
retention in the United States. Teaching and Teacher Education, 97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103226
Morley,
M. (2007). Person-Organization fit. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 22. 109-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710726375
O’Brien,
T., & Ackroyd, S. (2012). Understanding the recruitment and retention of
overseas nurses: Realist case study research in National Health Service
Hospitals in the UK: Assimilation of OSN into the UK nursing cadre. Nursing Inquiry, 19(1), 39–50.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1800.2011.00572.x
Olubiyi,
O., Smiley, G., Luckel, H. & Melaragno, R. (2019). A qualitative case study
of employee turnover in retail business. Heliyon. 5. e01796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01796
Orlikowski,W.
J., Baroudi, J. J. (1991) Studying Information Technology in Organizations:
Research Approaches and Assumptions. Information
Systems Research 2(1):1-28. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2.1.1
Person-organization fit. (2016, February 1).
Sekiguchi,
T. (2007). A contingency perspective of the importance of pj fit and po fit in
employee selection. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 22. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710726384
Shah,
S., & Ayub, M. (2021). The impact of person-job fit, person-organization
fit on job satisfaction. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management, and
Innovation, 3(1), 57–76. https://doi.org/10.52633/jemi.v3i1.51
Swider,
B., Zimmerman, R. & Barrick, M. (2014). Searching for the right fit: Development
of applicant person-organization fit perceptions during the recruitment
process. The Journal of applied psychology. 100. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038357
Travaglianti,
F., Babic, A., & Hansez, I. (2016). The role of work-related needs in the
relationship between job crafting, burnout and work engagement. SA Journal
of Industrial Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1308
Uysal,
H., Aydemir, S. & Genç, E. (2017). Maslow's hierarchy of needs in 21st
century: The examination of vocational differences. Accessed October, 11, 2022
from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321267309
Verquer,
M. L., Beehr, T. A., & Wagner, S. H. (2003). A meta-analysis of relations
between person-organization fit and work attitudes. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 63(3), 473-89. https://er.lib.k-state.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/meta-analysis-relations-between-person/docview/62176727/se-2
Westerman,
J. & Cyr, L. (2004). An integrative analysis of person–organization fit
theories. International Journal of Selection and Assessment. 12. 252 -
261. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075X.2004.279_1.x
Yen,
C.-L. (A.). (2017). The tradeoff between fit perceptions across recruitment
stages by new job seekers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 29(10), 2610–2628. https://doi-org.er.lib.k-state.edu/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2016-0295
No comments:
Post a Comment