WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU KNOW: THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONENVIRONMENT FIT AND SOCIAL NETWORK CENTRALITY ON INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

Job seekers and employers frequently make application and selection decisions based on how well they believe there is a ‘fit’ with the organization and job. The personenvironment fit literature has strongly supported this practice demonstrating that fit is an antecedent to attraction, selection, and attrition. What has been lacking, however, is evidence that once individuals enter the organization their fit relates to performance. Using a social network analytical lens, I develop a framework that integrates PE fit and social networks to explore antecedents to employee performance. Using this framework, I explore how informal workplace relationships may act as catalysts through which fit either enhances or detracts from individual performance, how fit might directly influence performance once the social context is taken into account, and how fit might make an individual an attractive exchange partner benefiting performance. Results suggest that PE fit is related to individual performance (both in- and extra-role) but that this relationship differs depending on how well embedded the employee is in the informal social networks of the organization. It is only when accounting for the ‘who you know’ element of organizational life that we can see how ‘who you are’ relates to performance