The Effects of Person-Job Environment Congruency on Individual and Organizational Outcomes

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the effects of person-job environment congruency on outcomes important to individuals and organizations, so that new personnel decision making strategies can be developed. To accomplish these aims, the research had two objectives: (1) to develop an operational model of person-job environment congruency based on an integration of available research evidence and (2) to investigate the effectiveness of the concepts and methods proposed by the model on individual and organizational criteria of success. Within a person-job environment congruency model framework, there are essentially two matching systems. In the first, the work experiences of an individual are matched to the requirements of the job. In the second matching system the preferences of individuals are matched with the capacity of the work environment to meet or satisfy these preferences. Based on this conceptualization, it was hypothesized that in a given job classification, a congruence between worker experiences with requirements of the job and worker preferences with conditions of the work environment will be positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Data were collected in this study from two samples in service professions. Each sample contained a norm group and a response group. Information used to develop the job and work environment profiles were obtained from the norm group in each sample. Both experiences and preferences as well as the dependent measures were obtained from the response groups; from this information worker profiles were developed. A congruence index between job and worker profiles was calculated from the two groups of people in each participating sample. Canonical correlational analyses were used to test the relationship between the worker experiences-job requirements congruence and worker preferences-work environment congruence on the dependent measures of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results significantly supported the hypotheses postulated within this study, demonstrating that congruence was related to positive individual and organizational outcomes. The findings of this research were discussed in terms of future research directions and implications for practice were provided