AbstractsPsychology

Person-environment fit is defined as the compatibility between an individual and his/her work environment. Specifically, person-group (PG) fit is said to occur when an individual's attitudes or values align with the attitudes or values of his/her coworkers. Because jobs today are rarely independent or isolated, and the majority of employees collaborate with coworkers on a daily basis, coworkers comprise a significant part of the individual's work environment. An individual experiences good PG fit when his/her values, personality, and abilities are aligned with those of his/her coworkers. PG fit has been shown to positively relate to work-related attitudes in several studies. However, research is limited on the extent to which individual differences may affect this relationship. One construct that seems particularly relevant to the relationship between PG fit and work-related attitudes is work centrality, which is defined as the extent to which an individual feels that work is a central component in his/her life. For people who view work as a key component in their lives and strongly associate the work role with their self-identities, it was hypothesized that values, personality, and abilities-based PG fit would be positively related to job satisfaction, affective commitment, and employee engagement, and negatively related to turnover intentions. Additionally, it was hypothesized that individuals who were higher in work centrality would exhibit stronger relationships between PG fit and job satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover intentions, and employee engagement. Data were collected from a convenience sample from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, an online work pool. The final sample size consisted of 298 participants living and working in the U.S. All participants worked full-time, which was defined as currently working a minimum of 30 hours per week at one job. Correlations and moderated multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. As hypothesized, direct, positive effects were found between each dimension of PG fit and job satisfaction, affective commitment, and employee engagement, and a direct, negative effect was found between each dimension of PG fit and turnover intentions. Results did not support the moderation hypotheses. However, one significant interaction in the opposite direction was found, suggesting that the relationship between personality-based PG fit and job satisfaction mattered more for individuals who were lower in work centrality. This finding contributes to the literature by helping to expand the nomological network surrounding PE fit. It also has several practical implications for recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and socializing new employees.