How do leaders' positive emotions improve followers' person–job fit in China? The effects of organizational identification and psychological safety

PurposeAlthough a plethora of literature has developed person–job fit theory, how leaders' emotions affect followers' person–job fit has received insufficient attention. Drawing on emotions as social information (EASI) theory, the present research study investigated the impact of leaders' positive emotions on person–job fit and further explained the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating effect of organizational identification.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 319 Chinese employees nested in 67 teams, and a cross-level design was adopted to examine the research hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicated that individual-level psychological safety played a mediating role in the cross-level relationship between team-directed leaders' positive emotions and individual-level person–job fit. Moreover, the authors found a cross-level moderating effect of team-level organizational identification.Practical implicationsThis present research empirically showed that leaders displaying positive emotions in the workplace benefited followers' perceptions of psychological safety, which in turn improved followers' attitudes towards their job in management practice. In addition, organizational identification could positively advance this process.Originality/valueThis study is the first to evaluate the operational mechanism of leaders' emotion on followers' perceived person–job fit in the Chinese context. Person–job fit has primarily been investigated as a driver of employee outcomes in the previous research studies. These studies focussed on whether and how leaders' emotions improve followers' person–job fit.