Research
In May-2010, Leon completed his doctorate dissertation on the topic of the effect of Person-Organization Fit on the likelihood of an invitation to an initial job interview. The summary of study results is offered below:
Human Resources researches have long argued that hiring a successful employee not only requires a combination of relevant experience, technical skills, and abilities of the candidate, but also depends on a match between a candidate’s personal values and the culture of an organization (also known as Person-Organization Fit). Current recruitment procedures initially use the computerized system of keyword parsing, matching candidate’s experience, technical skills, and abilities (also known as Person-Job Fit) to the job requirements. Based on Person-Job Fit, hiring managers and Human Resources professionals make their selection of candidates for an initial job interview, leaving other important job fit “intangibles” to be assessed during the later stages of the recruitment process or not evaluated at all.
Companies that do not assess P-O Fit of the candidate during recruitment may incur higher costs of employee replacement due to higher turnover rate among employees whose personal values do not fit organizational values. Other companies evaluate P-O Fit during the interview phase of recruitment process; however, this process is generally unstructured and opened for personal biases (Grigoryev, 2006). Arguably, applying the concept of P-O Fit late in the recruitment process may potentially eliminate a candidate who has a higher P-O Fit but lesser match of KSAs (or Person-Job Fit), as his or her resume may not even be accounted for the selection for an initial interview.
The current study examined the impact on the hiring process when Person-Organization Fit is introduced in the earliest stage of hiring, when the candidates are submitting their applications. The results demonstrated that the pool of candidates invited to an initial job interview can be significantly altered if hiring managers had knowledge of a job applicant’s Person-Organization Fit in addition to the information about this applicant’s knowledge, skills, and abilities currently derived from resumes. Furthermore, 69% of hiring managers interviewed for this study indicated that the information about a job applicant’s P-O Fit served as a main reasoning in their decision-making process of inviting the job applicant on an initial interview. Organizations using Person-Organization Fit in recruiting may want to consider the impact of this type of information on hiring managers’ decision making.