The Influence of Culture Strength on Person-Organization Fit and Turnover

This paper illustrates an attempt to further organizational culture research. Past attempts have focused much too broadly on the possible outcome effects of organizational culture (linking directly to performance); this discussion hinges primarily on the outcomes of person-organization fit and its impact on employee quit rates. Past research has found a significant link between these two constructs, but the idea of cultural strength has not been theoretically linked or examined in regard to this or any other cultural phenomenon. To this end, the current exploration is an attempt at synthesizing these seemingly disparate, yet dependent constructs. The following asserts that the strength of an organization's culture moderates the relationship between person-organization fit and turnover propensity. Introduction In order to maintain a productive organization, managers must strive to create an environment that is agreeable to a bulk of the individuals within the organization. In line with this thinking, managers assume that individual behavior is primarily affected by factors external to the individual, such as organizational rewards and punishments, corporate culture, and other environmental conditions (James, 2000). As an illustration, James (2000) cites the work of Nash (1990) and Badaracco and Webb (1995), wherein a number of cultural (organizational) pressures resulted in unethical conduct, including an emphasis on the bottom line ("performance is what really counts"), an overemphasis on short-term results, and problems employees face balancing conflicting obligations ("show us you are a team player"). While prior studies have shown that organizational culture can be linked to measures of firm performance-e.g. retention, job satisfaction (Sheridan, 1992; Aycan, Kanungo, Mendonca, Yu, Deller, Stahl and Kurshid, 2000), the purpose of this paper is to build on this growing literature by examining how the strength of an organization's culture influences, promotes or impedes voluntary employee termination within firms. This paper contributes to research on organizational culture by identifying how strong and weak cultures influence the person-organization fit/turnover paradigm. Organizational Culture (Strength) Schein (1990) defines culture in managerial terms as "how people feel about the organization, the authority system and the degree of employee involvement and commitment"; he continues, adding that culture can be viewed as a widely held, shared set of values, beliefs and ideals. Interestingly, O'Reilly (1989) noted two characteristics of strong cultures. First, he noted the intensity displayed by members of the organization in approval or disapproval of those who act in certain ways, and second the presence of widespread agreement on values among members. For theoretical purposes, if agreement on values does not exist, one can refer to it as a weak culture. Taken in concert, these definitions provide the framework for the theoretical argument presented below. Person-Organization Fit O'Reilly, Chatman and Caldwell (1991) focused more keenly on the notion of person-organization fit, they set forth the concept that certain types of organizations have cultures that are more or less attractive to certain types of individuals. O'Reilly et al.'s examination of this linkage was one of the first empirical tests of the much hypothesized relationship between person-organization fit and commitment, satisfaction, and performance. In assessing person-organization fit, two components must be examined. First, preferences that individuals have for organizational cultures must be demonstrated and second, the relationship between individual preferences and organizational culture. As a result, measures of person-organization fit stem from a semi-idiographic technique based on profile comparison. Turnover Voluntary employee termination, or turnover, has been a developing construct in the field of organizational research. …