Person-Organization Fit Scale

Description

This measure, (Person-Organization Fit) developed by Bretz and Judge (1994), consists of two questionnaires containing 15 items each. One questionnaire asks employees to indicate how accurately each statement describes their current organization. The other questionnaire asks employees for their individual preferences for an organization to work in. A fit score for each individual is calculated as the sum of the differences between the responses to the two questionnaires. Thus, low scores indicate better person-organization fit. The questions used to assess person-organization fit were developed to reflect fit between an employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and his or her job requirements; congruence between employee needs and organizational systems and struc­tures; agreement between an employee’s value orientations and the per­ceived values orientation of the organization; and perceived match between an employee’s personality and the organization’s personality or image (Bretz & Judge, 1994).

Reliability

Rather than coefficient alpha, Bretz and Judge (1994) assessed the internal reliability of the measures of employee preferences, organizational charac­teristics, and differences between the two using confirmatory factor analy­ sis. A single factor was found for each of the three scales, indicating internal consistency reliability.

Validity

Person-organization fit correlated positively with job satisfaction, salary level, job level, hours worked per week, access to a mentor, and career inter­ruption. Person-organization fit correlated negatively with being nonwhite and having a Ph.D. (Bretz & Judge, 1994).

Source

Items

Responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = not true at all and 5 = definitely true.

Instructions: Each employee is asked to complete the first questionnaire describing his or her perceptions about the organization. Then the employee is asked to complete the second questionnaire describing the type of orga­ nization he or she would prefer. Lack of fit is calculated as the sum of the differences between the corresponding items of the two questionnaires.

Job and organization perception items:

1. This organization pays on the basis of individual performance.
2. This organization has a profit or gainsharing plan.
3. This organization makes promotions based mostly on individual performance.
4. This organization encourages competition between employees
5. This organization encourages and rewards loyalty
6. Teamwork and cooperation are valued and rewarded here
7. When the organization has a good year it pays bonuses to the employees
8. People generally have to work in groups to get their work done
9. This organization offers long-term employment security
10. This organization has a “fast-track” program
11. This organization has/follows a promote-from-within policy
12. The typical employee here works very hard to fulfill work expectations
13. There is an emphasis on helping others
14. Fairness is an important consideration in organizational activities
15. When mistakes are made it is best to be honest and “take your lumps”