Comparing Person Organization Fit and Person Job Fit

IntroductionPerson-environment fit has been a popular topic for long years [Schneider 1986; Holland 1997; Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson 2005; Edwards 1991; Goodman & Svyantek 1999; Arthur et al. 2006; Greguras, Diefendorff 2009; Kim et al. 2013]. There have been a number of studies on POF and PJF and their associations with organizational and individual outcomes [Boon et al. 2011; Silverthorne 2004; Edwards et al. 2006; Greguras, Diefendorff 2009; Guan et al. 2010; Warr, Inceoglu 2012; Singhal, Chatter 2006]. Despite the increasing number of studies conducted in the topic of POF and PJF, there are still not adequate empirical findings about comparing POF and PJF in the context of their relationships on individual and organizational outcomes, especially for blue color employees in a collectivist culture like Turkey. Therefore, the study was conducted to examine which type of fit stronger related with individual outcomes (Person Organization Fit; POF, vs Person Job Fit; PJF). The paper is structured as follows. Firstly we define the concepts, and then we did a critical literature review in order to present research questions and hypothesis background. Later we explain the methodology part; including data collection, analysis and results. Finally we discussed the findings, limitations merits, limitations, future research and made a conclusion.1. Literature review1.1. Defining the conceptsPerson-environment fit is broadly defined as "the compatibility between an individual and a work environment that occurs when their characteristics are well matched" [Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson 2005, p. 281]. Different types of fit have been defined in the literature such as POF, PJF, Person-Vocation fit, Person-Group fit and Person-Person fit [Kristof-Brown 2006]. Among the various types of fit, POF and PJF are the most studied ones [Aichia & Sackett 2005]. POF is defined as "the compatibility between people and entire organizations" [Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson 2005, p. 285]. PJF is defined as the "congruence or match between a person's characteristics and those of the job or tasks that are performed at work" [Lee, Reiche & Song 2010]. Thus PJF is considered in two main perspectives, one of them is the match of employees' knowledge, skills and ability with the job requires and the other is the fit of employee's needs, desire and preferences with the job itself [Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson 2005]. 1.2. Extant research on person organization fit and person job fit.Meta-analysis results show that there is a negative relationship between IQJ and POF [Verquer, Beehr & Wagner 2003; Hoffman & Woehr 2006] and PJF (Kristof-Brown 2006; Hassan, Akram & Naz 2012]. Considering the relationship between POF and performance, a meta-analysis results indicate that; POF had low correlations with overall job performance (.07) and task performance (.13), but moderate correlations with contextual performance (.27) [Kristof-Brown 2006]. Additionally Lin, Yu,& Yic [2014] and Farooqui & Nagendra [2014] found that there is a significant relationship between POF and performance. PJF has also a significant positive relationship with job performance [June & Rosli 2011]. These findings show that POF and PJF associate positively with performance and negatively with IQJ. Hence it is considered that instead of examining the relationships of POF and PJF with critical variables, it might be useful to compare their association with individual outcomes (i.e., IQJ and PIP). Memon et al. [2014] emphasize that even though the number of studies increase in the topic of POF and PJF, they are examined usually separately. Lauver & Kristof-Brown [2001] stated that POF and PJF are distinct constructs. Therefore it is considered that more studies in the context of comparing these two variables will contribute to understand these concepts better. As mentioned earlier of this manuscript, person environment fit has various types and each type of it represents different kind of compatibility with different aspects of fit. …