Extended Person–Environment Fit and Psychological Well–Being

Abstract

The Person–Environment Fit theory has primarily been concerned with a person’s working environment in predicting her/his psychological well–being. Research studies show that a person’s environment comprises not only of the work environment but also a combination of work and family environments. The existing literature presents five forms of the extended person–environment fit phenomenon, namely, person–job fit, person–group fit, person–supervisor fit, person-organization fit and person–family fit. Since employees’ psychological well–being is a significant factor influencing the success of any organization, this study intends to investigate the impact of a person’s environmental factors (person–job fit, person–group fit, person–supervisor fit, person-organization fit and person–family fit) on her/his psychological well–being. A significant theoretical contribution of this study is the extension of the person–environment fit construct in envisaging an employees’ psychological well–being. Hypotheses testing confirmed that person–job fit, person–group fit, person–supervisor fit, and person–family fit are positively related to psychological well–being while person–organization fit becomes an insignificant factor in determining psychological well–being. However, taken as a whole, the extended person–environment fit construct is positively related to psychological well–being. From the management perspective, this study reveals that organizations should ensure good fit between an employee and her/his job, group, supervisor, and family as these factors result in enhancing employees’ psychological well–being.