Profiles of fit and misfit: a repeated weekly measures study of perceived value congruence

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Value congruence is generally studied as a stable experience instead of a dynamic phenomenon. This static approach largely ignores the emerging evidence that the fit experiences of individuals vary over time, and that different individuals may develop distinct experience profiles as time unfolds. We hypothesize that these temporal profiles of value congruence provide relevant insights into the relationship between perceived value congruence and employee functioning. We conducted a repeated weekly measures study with 125 white-collar Belgian employees to assess perceptions of value congruence and work role behaviours during 12 consecutive weeks. Through cluster analysis we were able to group employees with similar experience profiles based on average, variance, and frequency of changes into five distinct fit and misfit types. These were differentially related to two types of work role behaviours, i.e., work role proficiency (task performance and organizational citizenship behaviour) and work role proactivity (change-oriented behaviour and innovative work behaviour). Overall, our findings challenge the idea that fit-misfit is a dichotomous category, and underscore the need for more temporal research on perceptions of organizational fit in order to get a better understanding of how different types of fit and misfit behave in work settings.