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In recent years, the literature on person‐environment fit as a sought‐after outcome has burgeoned whereas misfit has been relatively neglected. Specifically, little research has investigated how people develop and maintain perceptions of not fitting in. The aim of this paper is to review past research on misfit, and present new data examining the role of coworker social relations in surfacing or diminishing perceptions of misfit.

Written data were collected from 167 participants and analyzed using thematic coding. Themes emerging from the data were compared against the model of person‐environment misfit.

From the authors' analysis of previous misfit research they identify four dimensions of misfit: sociodemographic, individual differences, structural, and social. The authors' data support and extend these dimensions. Further, the findings suggest that the social context is related to perceptions of misfit.

Managers can play a key role in misfit perceptions, both through action and inaction. Managers should note the importance of social relations in perceptions of misfit, and aim to provide supportive and well‐structured work contexts.

This paper makes four key contributions to the person‐environment fit literature. One is the categorization of dimensions of misfit, developed from past research. The second is the provision of three conceptual models summarizing different approaches to misfit in relation to fit. Third, the paper provides a novel perspective on misfit by focusing on social norms as the background against which misfit is experienced. Fourth, this research supports and extends on the four component model of misfit developed in the authors' initial review.

The purpose of this review is to argue that the way that perceived employee misfit (PEM) has been measured in quantitative studies does not capture the construct identified in qualitative studies.

Through reverse citation analysis, this study reveals how low levels of value congruence became the currency of PEM in quantitative studies.

This study finds that in the absence of alternatives, researchers have taken low scores of value congruence as a measure of misfit. However, there is limited evidence to show that PEM relates to values, supplementary conceptualization or interactions with the organization (rather than interactions with other employees, tasks, etc.). In addition, the most commonly used instruments measure degrees of similarity, not disparity, making the interpretation of PEM-related data unclear. Combined, these factors raise construct validity concerns about most quantitative studies of PEM.

Given the upsurge of interest in PEM, there is an urgent need for greater clarification on the nature of the construct. From the analysis, this study identifies two key dimensions of studying PEM that create four distinctly different ways of conceptualizing the construct.

This study highlights a series of major methodological weaknesses in the study of PEM and reveal that almost all published quantitative studies of PEM are actually studying something else; something whose nature is very unclear.

Traditional approaches to business processes and their management consider the “people dimension” as an antecedent of process performance. The authors complemented this approach by considering employees as process perceivers and thus taking an employee-centered perspective on business processes. The authors investigated dimensions of healthy business processes, that is, processes which, while promoting performance, foster employee well-being.

Based on a qualitative dataset and two quantitative studies, the authors developed and validated a scale for healthy business processes, interpreted it from a salutogenic perspective and tested relationships with people and performance outcomes.

The scale comprises four factors reflecting the three dimensions of the salutogenic concept “sense of coherence”: manageability was represented by the factors process tools and process flexibility; comprehensibility was represented by the factor process description; and meaningfulness was represented by the factor management support. The scale and its subscales were significantly related to people and performance outcomes.

The authors propose that health-oriented business process management and performance-oriented business process management are two components of an integrated business process management that favors neither a functionalist, efficiency-oriented approach nor an employee-oriented approach, but takes both approaches and their interaction equally into account in the sense of person-process fit.

The COVID-19 pandemic and technological advancements have enabled employees to telework. Referring to this emerging phenomenon, the authors aim to examine how employees' levels of trust in management mediated by psychological well-being impact their performance as they telework. Deploying the theoretical lens of person-environment misfit, the authors also explore the role of technostress in the trust-wellbeing-performance relationship.

The data was collected from 511 full-time service sector employees across Indian organizations through a structured survey questionnaire. The proposed moderation-mediation model for this study was tested using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method.

Structural equation modeling results indicate that trust in management significantly impacts employee performance while teleworking. While psychological well-being was observed as a significant mediator, technostress played the moderator role in the trust-performance relationship. The moderated-mediation effect of psychological well-being in the trust-performance relationship was stronger when technostress was low and weaker when technostress was high.

The authors extend the person-environment misfit theory in the context of telework, highlighting the role of technostress that may impact the trust-wellbeing- performance relationship in such work settings.

The study informs leaders and managers on balancing delicate aspects such as employee trust and well-being that significantly impact performance as they telework. The authors also highlight the critical role of managers in respecting employees' personal and professional boundaries to alleviate technostress.

The authors make a novel theoretical contribution to the emerging literature on teleworking by examining the trust-psychological wellbeing-performance link and the role of technostress in this relationship.

Various individual and environmental factors influencing employees’ online knowledge sharing have been identified, but the understanding regarding these has been mostly limited because of their independent and direct effects our understanding has been mostly limited to their independent and direct effects. This study aims to propose that the fit between employees and their environments (PE fit) matters. A model explaining how PE fit and misfit affect employees’ knowledge sharing behavior through influencing their affective commitment is developed and assessed.

The proposed model was assessed with data collected in a survey of 218 employees.

Results indicate that PE fit in the norm of collaboration, innovativeness and skill variety leads to the development of stronger affective commitment and, therefore, more knowledge sharing behavior than when they are in shortfall or excess in the environment (i.e. PE misfit).

The findings indicate a new direction for knowledge sharing research that focuses on PE fit and suggest that knowledge sharing can be improved more proactively in practice by assessing PE fit during recruitment.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize job immobility concepts, e.g. staying in an unsatisfying job and perceiving limited opportunities to move and apply for another job. The existing literature on this situation of job immobility in which the employee is experiencing stuckness in the job is scattered across research domains, limited in scope and existing constructs are not clearly defined or operationalized.

In this conceptual paper, the authors propose the construct “locked at the job,” by reviewing and building on the job immobility literature and the theory of control and self-regulation.

This study defines the concept that consists of two dimensions as feeling dissatisfied in the current job and inactivity due to perceived limited job opportunities. This study proposes a conceptual model of antecedents and consequences of locked at the job, based on the person-environment fit theory.

This conceptual paper allows value to be added in practice by the conceptualization of locked at the job, in addition to providing a preview with respect to conceptual causes and consequences of this phenomenon.

Research on this job immobility phenomenon is scattered across different research domains, limited in scope and the concept has not been clearly defined or operationalized.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the psychological mechanisms explaining the impact of fit on burnout based on meta-theories.

A total of 199 employees participated in three waves with three-week intervals. Person-organization fit and person-job fit were measured in Wave 1, psychological-mechanism variables were measured in Wave 2, and burnout was measured in Wave 3.

Person-organization fit and person-job fit related to three components of job burnout via multiple psychological mechanisms.

The findings help to extend existing theories on fit and burnout literature. The research advances the understanding of psychological mechanisms about how misfit leads to job burnout. It helps stimulate research interest to further investigation on their relationships and effects with other variables besides burnout. It also helps understand the construct of burnout.

For individuals, person-job fit should be achieved as well as person-organization fit to avoid burnout. Measuring organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), psychological capital, and role conflict may help employers to recognize early signs of burnout and to develop effective interventions to reduce burnout. The findings help better understand the value of P-E fit and effective interventions in burnout.

It helps employees better select job and organization and adapt to the job and organization, reduce management cost, and keep mental health.

Two original contributions are that: it adopted three meta-theories to comprehensively investigate the psychological mechanisms explaining how misfit leads to burnout; and it integrated individual and environmental factors of burnout into one fit-based model, which treats the person as a subject rather than a passive agent.

Online labour markets (OLMs) have recently become a widespread phenomenon of digital work. While the implications of OLMs on worker well-being are hotly debated, little empirical research examines the impact of such work on individuals. The highly competitive and fast-paced nature of OLMs compels workers to multitask and to perform intense technology-enabled work, which can potentially enhance technostress. This paper examines the antecedents and well-being consequences of technostress arising from work in OLMs.

The authors draw from person–environment fit theory and job characteristics theory and test a research model of the antecedents and consequences of worker technostress in OLMs. Data were gathered from 366 workers in a popular OLM through a large-scale online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the research model.

The findings extend existing research by validating the relationships between specific OLM characteristics and strain. Contrary to previous literature, the results indicate a link between technology complexity and work overload in OLMs. Furthermore, in OLMs, feedback is positively associated with work overload and job insecurity, while strain directly influences workers' negative affective well-being and discontinuous intention.

This study contributes to technostress literature by developing and testing a research model relevant to a new form of work conducted through OLMs. The authors expand the current research on technostress by integrating job characteristics as new antecedents to technostress and demonstrating its impact on different types of subjective well-being and discontinuous intention. In addition, while examining the impact of technostressors on outcomes, the authors consider their impact at the individual level (disaggregated approach) to capture the subtlety involved in understanding technostressors' unique relationships with outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an original model of stress and coping as a complex interactive process between an individual and his or her environment.

A preliminary test of the model is conducted using data from a meta-analysis of perceived occupational stress among police officers. Collapsing correlates into predictor domains that mirror the proposed model of stress and coping allowed for a preliminary analysis of some of the constructs in the proposed model.

The findings suggest that each domain contributes to the perception of stress and that knowledge in this area might best be advanced by recognizing the importance of each in shaping an interactive process of stress and coping rather than attempting to rank individual correlates.

The data do not provide definitive conclusions that personal characteristics or job characteristics, for example, are more important than others in shaping stress perception among police officers. Clearly, these findings suggest that questions about what is most important in shaping police stress have remained unanswered because the variables of interest make equally important contributions to a complex process.

Adopting the proposed integrative model of stress and coping may help researchers move beyond the flawed conceptualization of perceived stress among police officers as a simple operational/organizational dichotomy, allowing for a more rich understanding of stress and coping as a complex process.

The growing instability of the labor market will almost certainly result in more employees whose values misfit with their organization’s. This paper draws from the exit-neglect-voice-loyalty model to examine a broader range of responses to misfit; explores sociopolitical resources as the mechanisms through which misfit transmits its effects and investigates job mobility as a boundary condition enhancing or constraining responses to misfit.

A novel model (N = 152 New Zealand employees) examined links from misfit to two sociopolitical resources (perceived influence and organizational responsiveness) and from these to exit-neglect-voice-loyalty moderated by job mobility. Supplemental analyses examine moderated-mediation.

Misfit negatively predicted both sociopolitical resources, perceived influence and organizational responsiveness. Moderated-mediation analyses showed that the constructive reactions to misfit (voice and loyalty) were predicted conditionally at low levels of job mobility and indirectly via the respective sociopolitical resources. In contrast, destructive reactions to misfit (exit and neglect) were predicted directly, with neglect predicted at high levels of job mobility.

Implications for human resource practitioners highlight the deleterious repercussions of misfit but also include the conditions under which misfit employees may attempt to constructively salvage their employment relationship.

This study integrates a broader set of concurrent responses to misfit using the exit-neglect-voice-loyalty typology, as well as introducing sociopolitical perspectives to the literature on misfit.