Fit Perceptions, Work Engagement, Satisfaction and Commitment

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between fit (organization and job) perceptions and work engagement (WE). Design/methodology/approach: The authors deployed a two-wave survey among 377 clerical employees of the specialist lending division of a large UK bank, with the waves separated by 12 months. Findings: The results show a positive relationship between person organization (PO) and person job (PJ) fit perceptions (at Time 1) and WE (at Time 2). Job satisfaction (JS) and affective commitment (AC) dual-mediate these relationships. The effect of PO fit on WE manifests primarily via AC, while the effect of PJ fit manifests primarily via JS. Practical implications: The study indicates that organizations should consider the fit of employees to their jobs and the organization when designing interventions intended to increase WE. Also, potential synergies exist between organizational interventions designed to influence employee attitudes focused on similar units of analysis: e.g., PJ fit with JS or PO fit with AC. Originality/value: This study provides the first investigation of the dual-mediation, via JS and AC, of the effects of both PJ and PO fit on WE. Furthermore, the use of a time-lagged design strengthens the evidence for the novel hypotheses of this study and enables verification of findings in the extant literature.