Person-Organization Fit and Friendship From Coworkers: Effects on Feeling Self-Verified and Employee Outcomes

Abstract

This study examined how person-organization fit and friendship from coworkers combine to affect people's self-verification, and how self-verification ultimately relates to employee outcomes (job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). Based on a sample of 117 employee-supervisor pairs, multilevel analyses revealed a positive relationship between employees' perceptions of person-organization fit and self-verification, and also showed that the relationship was facilitated by friendship from coworkers. Specifically, person-organization fit and self-verification perceptions were positively related when friendship from coworkers was high, but nonsignificant when friendship from coworkers was low. In addition, employees' self-verification perceptions were positively and significantly associated with job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Our research suggests that enhancing person-organization fit and promoting friendship from coworkers in the workplace organizations can satisfy the basic human impulse to feel self-verified, and thus enhance employees' positive work behaviors.