Talentsage, Wednesday 12 August 2020
Our companies, our friends, and management gurus are all encouraging us to bring our “whole self” or more of our self to work by selecting the workplace that allows us to be our “authentic” or “best self”. The best research on person-organization fit suggests that the best way to achieve this is to choose the workplace where we can be our self and be successful as our self, rather than wasting energy trying to conform to a culture that is one size too small.
To facilitate this process, companies are encouraged to create strong cultures that allow potential employees to understand the organization before they join, increasing the probability of a good person- organization fit. When a firm’s cultural values and ways of working resonate with people, they are a magnet for attracting “the right” prospective employees. Once hired, employees who believe in the values of the firm feel motivated and engaged by the values they share with their colleagues and the ease of engaging with like-minded others. Moreover, as research clearly demonstrates, strong cultures—where employees agree on what the values are and hold them dear—serve a critical coordinative function. The firm can dispose of the thick employee handbooks because “who we are and how we do things here” is crystal clear to employees, inside of them before they arrive, helping everyone to coordinate and work together smoothly.