Kültürel Değerler ve Kişi Örgüt -Kişi İş Uyumu İlişkisi: Kavramsal Bir Çerçeve Cultural Values and Person Oragnization-Person Job Fit: A Conceptual Framework

Person environment fit is an important topic with in the field of organizational behavior. And it gained special attention as a research topic relatively in recent years. Under the umbrella of general concept of person environment fit, individuals fit with different work environment dimensions are researched. These work environment dimensions are person organization fit, person supervisor fit, person group fit and person job fit. Of the various dimensions of the person environment fit person organization and person job fit appears to be the most important and most researched dimensions of person environment fit Person organization fit is mainly the compatibility of individuals’ wit values of the organization. In other words it’s the match or mismatch between the organizational culture and the individual values. Person job fit on the other hand is the compatibility of individual and the job. In other words it is the match between knowledge skills and abilities that a job requires and the individual posses. It is well documented a higher match between the organization, the job and the individual will yield positive work outcomes such as higher organizational commitment, satisfaction, citizenship behavior and lower negative outcomes such as intent to leave and actual turnover. In the person environment fit research stream the conceptual distinctiveness of person environment fit is also investigated in many research articles. Although there has been an important amount of research investigating the person organization and person job fit with a focus on outcomes of person organization and person job fit and conceptual distinctiveness of person environment fit concepts, the literature lack of a cultural flavor. Therefore in this research the impact of individualist collectivist values on person organization and person job fit and their outcomes relationship is investigated. In this conceptual research paper, first of all, person organization and person job fit research and outcomes of person organization and person job fit is analyzed. Secondly the literature about cultural values particularly individualist and collectivist values is documented. And thirdly a conceptual framework is put forward by basing on person environment fit and cultural values literature. As a result of theoretical analysis, it is argued that for the people who are higher on individualist values fitting with job is more important. Because, individuals who are high on individualist values have higher achievement motivation and therefore the match between their skills and with the job will be more important for their achievement. As a result it is argued that the impact of person job fit on outcome variables will be higher for the individuals who are high on individualist values. On the other hand achievement motivation is lower for the individuals who are high on collectivist values. Therefore the importance of fitting with job will be lower for the people who are high on collectivist values because of their lower achievement motivation compared to individuals with individualist values. As a result, it can also be argued that the higher an individual’s collectivist values the weaker the effect of person job fit on work outcomes. Fitting with organization refers to an individuals match with organizations values in other words social context of the work environment. For the collectivist values interdependence among people, social context, relationships, emotional attachment to in group are important criteria that drives their lives. Therefore for the collectivist values, an individual fitting with organization which means fitting with the social context of work environment is more important. As a result of this, for the individuals that have collectivist values the relationship between the person organization fit and work outcomes will be stronger. On the other hand, for the individualist values independence and distance from social context and in group are an important criterion that drives their life. Therefore fitting in the social context of the work environment will be less important fort he individuals who are high on individualist values. As a result it can be argued that for the individuals who are high on individualist values the relationship between the person organization fit and work outcomes will be weaker. This theoretical framework and the propositions put forward as a result of this research add a cultural component to person organization and person job fit literature which is a missing part of the research topic. This research proposes that the importance of fitting with organization and job differs according to the cultural values of individuals. This theoretical research * Yrd. Doç. Dr., Çağ Üniversitesi Kültürel Değerler ve Kişi Örgüt -Kişi İş Uyumu İlişkisi: Kavramsal Bir Çerçeve Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi • 26 / 2011 14 also brings important implications for practice particularly for Human Resource Management practioners especially for selection. Selecting the right candidate that is both suitable for the job and for the organization is an important aim of personnel selection process. However the fit of candidate with the job and organization may not be equally important for all individuals and for all cultures. For instance, for collectivist cultures fitting the candidate with the organization will be more important for higher positive work outcomes. Whereas, for individualist cultures finding the candidate who fits with the job in terms of competencies will be more important for higher positive work outcomes. This research may also have outcomes for organizational socialization and job design practices for Human Resource Management practioners in different cultures.