THE EVOLUTION OF PERSON–ORGANIZATION FIT: 35 YEARS OF THEORY, MEASUREMENT, AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/psy-visnyk/2025.3.33Keywords:
person–organization fit, cultural congruence, person–environment fit, work engagement, affective commitment, recruitment and onboarding, HR analytics, literature review.Abstract
This article presents a scoping review of the literature on person–organization fit (P-O fit) published between 1990 and 2024. Its aim is to integrate classical and contemporary approaches to defining, measuring and applying P-O fit, while exposing research gaps for future inquiry. A systematic search was carried out in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and Google Scholar. After a two-stage screening procedure, a final corpus of 43 peer-reviewed empirical studies was compiled. Descriptive analysis revealed an exponential rise in P-O-fit publications from 1990 to 2012, peaking at about 235 000 items in 2012, followed by a gradual decline after 2014, indicating thematic differentiation and a shift toward more specialised concepts. Synthesis of the findings identified four conceptual clusters: (1) types of P-O fit (supplementary, complementary, goal-related, evolutionary); (2) measurement approaches; (3) outcomes at the individual, team and organisational levels; (4) roles of mediators and moderators. Meta-regression shows that P-O fit consistently predicts work engagement, affective commitment and intention to stay. At the team level, high P-O fit correlates with collective effectiveness and voice behaviour. These effects are mediated by need fulfilment, psychological safety and work meaningfulness, and are amplified by contextual factors such as national culture (individualism/collectivism), career stage and leadership style. Time-lagged designs demonstrate that employee engagement rises over the first six months of employment when P-O fit is high, whereas low fit produces the opposite trend. Theoretically, the review introduces a third axis–elasticity–into the classical “supplementary versus complementary” dichotomy, emphasising the capacity of the person–organisation system to adapt without loss of perceived congruence. P-O fit is framed as a meta-resource within the Job Demands–Resources model that activates engagement, and as a core element of the employee-experience paradigm. Practically, the review proposes actionable recommendations for recruitment (value-based job adverts, structured value interviews), onboarding (serial mentorship, digital rituals), employervalue- proposition development (metrics of “value clarity”) and HR analytics (dynamic P-O-fit tracking via machine-learning algorithms embedded in HR information systems).
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