A bibliometric analysis of person-organization fit research: significant features and contemporary trends

Abstract

Person-organization (PO) fit is broadly defined as the compatibility between an individual and their employing organization that occurs when the characteristics of the two entities are well matched. It is related to higher levels of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, job retention, organizational citizenship behaviours, and job performance. In recent years, there has been a significant and hastening increase in the number of journal articles published in which person-organization fit is a major feature of the study. This study documents the historical and contemporary nature of this field using bibliometric methods to provide an overview of PO fit research and to analyse contemporary trends. After screening, 887 refereed journal articles were surfaced in the Scopus database that featured PO fit. Descriptively, this study identifies leading journal articles, authors, countries, and collaborative networks. Analytically, the paper identifies and discusses major and emerging research themes. These include an increase in studies exploring PO fit and its impact on employee engagement during their employment. Other contemporary themes include an increasing interest in ethical issues related to PO fit and the interaction of PO and person-job fit. These three topics are critically discussed. Conversely, the analysis shows a lessening of the occurrence of PO fit studies focusing on the early employment phases of recruitment, selection, and socialization. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which PO fit research is changing, the positive skew in PO fit research, and the limitations of this study.

Empirical studies of the “similarity leads to attraction” hypothesis in workplace interactions: a systematic review

“…These studies compare the similarity of aspects of people at work, most typically work values, and explore the consequences. Work value congruence has been shown to lead to positive organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, decrease employee conflict and negatively related to intentions to leave and organizational exit (Hoffman and Woehr 2006;Jehn 1994;Jehn et al 1997Jehn et al , 1999Kristof-Brown and Guay 2011;Subramanian et al 2022;Verquer et al 2003), thereby supporting SAH. Conversely, value incongruence is associated with distancing outcomes such as feelings of not belonging or being unfulfilled, and organizational exit (Edwards and Cable 2009;Edwards and Shipp 2007;Follmer et al 2018;Kristof-Brown et al 2005;Vogel et al 2016) thereby supporting DRH leading Abbasi et al (2021) to suggest that value congruence and value incongruence, and therefore SAH and DRH, are two different forces.…”

Compromiso organizacional, satisfacción laboral, y su repercusión en el desempeño del personal

“…Desde el ángulo analítico, el estudio determina y discute los temas de estudio relevantes y emergentes. Entre ellos se incorpora un incremento de las investigaciones que examinan la afinidad de la PO y su repercusión en el CO de los trabajadores durante su vínculo laboral (Subramanian et al, 2022).…”

An investigation into how value incongruence became misfit

“…Further, people who perceive themselves as misfits are likely to conceptualize the construct in terms of discrepancy (Edwards, 2008; Van Vianen, 2018) between themselves and elements of the work environment rather than by the ways in which they are similar (De Cooman et al , 2019; Doblhofer et al , 2019; Hylén et al , 2018; Lamiani et al , 2018; Zubielevitch et al , 2021). Hence, it might be expected that perceived misfit would be studied with direct molecular measures that capture people’s perceptions of degrees of salient discrepancy rather than degrees of similarity captured by molar measures (Edwards, 2008; Edwards et al , 2006; Hylén et al , 2018; Subramanian et al , 2022). Edwards (2008, p. 220) argues that:…”