Do Managers Use Feedback Seeking as a Strategy to Regulate Demands–Abilities Misfit? The Moderating Role of Implicit Person Theory

Purpose: This study examined to what extent managers who hold an incremental implicit person theory (i.e., believe that personal attributes are relatively malleable) rely on proactive strategies to address imbalances between demands and abilities. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were collected from a convenient sample of managers in 12 organizations in Spain and Belgium (N = 303). Given the well-known shortcomings of traditional congruence measures, we conducted polynomial regression. Findings: Results indicated that implicit person theory was a significant moderator of the relationship between demands-abilities (D-A) fit and feedback seeking for two out of three task dimensions. Specifically, incremental theorists sought feedback to a great extent when misfit occurred between low to moderate demands and abilities. Implications: The current study found preliminary evidence for a proactive framework of person-job misfit which could be used to guide future research. The results of this study suggest the use of self-persuasion techniques to influence managers' incremental person theory (Heslin et al, J Appl Psychol 90: 842-856, 2005). Originality/Value: Research on person-environment fit is often guided by the assumption that individuals react negatively to misfit leading to maladaptive outcomes. However, this study tested a different perspective on P–E misfit by extending initial work (i.e., Simmering et al., J Appl Psychol 88:954-963, 2003) on the positive relationship between P–E misfit and proactive behavior.