"Person-Organization Fit, Person-Job Fit, and Turnover: The Role of Leader-Member Exchange"

Abstract

Person-Environment (PE) fit has been found to have significant implications for employee attitudes and behaviors. Most research to date has approached PE fit as a static phenomenon, and without examining how different types of PE fit may affect each other. We address these shortcomings by adopting a temporal approach to fit, examining relationships between two types of PE fit over time: Person-Organization (PO) and Person-Job (PJ) fit. We further examine the role of leader-member exchange (LMX) in influencing how PO and PJ fit are related to each other over time, and in affecting subsequent turnover. Analyzing data taken in three successive waves (T1; T2 one year later; T3 two years later) from a sample of 160 employees working in an elderly care organization in the Netherlands, we find that PO fit at T1 is positively associated with PJ fit at T2, but only for employees in high-quality LMX relationships. In addition, the needs-supplies dimension of PJ fit at T1 is positively associated with PO fit at T2, only for high-quality LMX. Higher needs-supplies fit at T2 is associated with lower turnover at T3. In contrast, the demands-abilities dimension of PJ fit at T1 is negatively associated with PO fit at T2. Among employees in high-quality LMX relationships, this dimension of PJ fit at T2 is associated with higher turnover at T3.