Mission Congruence: To Agree or Not to Agree, and Its Implications for Public Employee Turnover
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Edmund C. Stazyk,Michael S. Hayes |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0091026019829847 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2019
Article
Public Personnel Management
2019, Vol. 48(4) 513 –534
Mission Congruence: To
© The Author(s) 2019
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Agree or Not to Agree, and
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https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019829847
DOI: 10.1177/0091026019829847
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Its Implications for Public
Employee Turnover
Michael S. Hayes1 and Edmund C. Stazyk2
Abstract
Previous studies within and outside of the field of public administration consistently
find positive organizational outcomes when there is high compatibility or fit between
employees and organizations—a concept now widely known as person–organization fit.
Previous public administration scholars have established the link between employees’
person–organization fit perceptions and employee turnover intention. However, no
previous study has examined whether there is a link with actual turnover. This study
addresses this gap in the literature on public sector employee fit by examining the
relationship between one particular type of fit—mission congruence—and public
employee turnover. Using nationally representative data on public school teachers, we
find that teachers in U.S. schools who perceive themselves to be compatible with their
organizations’ central mission are at least 11% more likely to remain at their current
school. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.
Keywords
person–organization fit, human resources, employee turnover, SASS, teachers
Introduction
Over the past three decades, research has demonstrated the importance of achieving fit
or compatibility between employees and organizations—a concept known as person–
organization fit (P-O fit; Chatman, 1989; Edwards, 1991; Kristof, 1996; Vancouver &
1Rutgers University–Camden, NJ, USA
2University at Albany–State University of New York, NY, USA
Corresponding Author:
Michael S. Hayes, Department of Public Policy and Administration, Rutgers University–Camden, 401
Cooper Street Room 302, Camden, NJ 08102-1403, USA.
Email: michael.hayes@rutgers.edu
514
Public Personnel Management 48(4)
Schmitt, 1991). Scholars now recognize that any effort to understand, predict, and alter
the attitudes and behavior of employees is largely predicated on workers’ fit with their
organization. Absent adequate P-O fit, organizational initiatives and management prac-
tices intended to improve performance will often fail to gain meaningful traction among
workers (Edwards, 1991; Kristof, 1996; Kristof-Brown & Stevens, 2001; Lauver &
Kristof-Brown, 2001; Vancouver & Schmitt, 1991).
Previous studies have generated substantial empirical evidence of the concept’s
relevance. For instance, as Lauver and Kristof-Brown (2001, p. 454) note, P-O fit is
“positively related to individuals’ career involvement, job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and career success and negatively related to turnover intentions and
behaviors.” Consequently, increased effort has been devoted to exploring the precise
psychological processes that explain and shape compatibility between workers and
their environments (Kristof-Brown & Stevens, 2001; Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, &
Johnson, 2005).
Interestingly, public management scholarship has only recently started to incorpo-
rate P-O fit theories into research. Of the existing studies employing P-O fit, some
have used the concept to explain why public service motivation (PSM) research pro-
duces results that conflict with PSM’s core theoretical tenets (Bright, 2008; Christensen
& Wright, 2011; Steijn, 2008; Wright & Pandey, 2008). Findings here have echoed
conclusions from other research traditions about the importance of fit. For example,
Wright and Pandey (2008) demonstrate that public employees must believe their val-
ues are congruent with those of their organization for PSM to operate as anticipated.
When employees perceive their values as incompatible with the organization’s, it
becomes less likely that employees will believe they can fulfill their altruistic motives
through the organization and their jobs. Therefore, the potential benefits of PSM
appear to be largely contingent on employee fit.
Other public management studies examine the effect of P-O fit on employees’ turn-
over intentions, levels of goal ambiguity, and job sector selections (Caillier, 2016; Jin,
McDonald, & Park, 2018; Lee & Wilkins, 2011; Mostafa, 2016; Sun, Peng, & Pandey,
2014; Vigoda-Gadot & Meiri, 2008). One common finding from this literature is that
public employees with higher degrees of P-O fit are less likely to report a desire to
leave their organization compared with employees with lower levels of P-O fit. Due to
data availability challenges, these previous studies often rely on small, non-represen-
tative samples of public employees. In addition, these previous studies rely on turn-
over intention measures instead of measures of actual turnover.
The current study begins addressing this gap in the literature by examining how one
particular type of fit—mission congruence—affects employee turnover. We use a
large, nationally representative random sample of elementary and secondary public
school teachers to examine whether variations in the perceived degree of agreement
over a school’s central mission influence a teacher’s decision to remain or leave their
school. Unlike other studies, we have access to actual turnover data and are subse-
quently able to ascertain whether perceived mission congruence drives teachers’ deci-
sions to stay in their current schools (stayers), move to another school (movers), or
leave full-time employment in the teaching profession (leavers).
Hayes and Stazyk
515
While understanding how P-O fit affects turnover intentions is important, it is also
vital for practitioners and scholars to understand the relationship between P-O fit and
actual employee turnover for at least three reasons. First, previous studies suggest
there is an inconsistent relationship between turnover intention and actual turnover,
which suggests that factors that predict turnover intention might not be the same fac-
tors that predict actual turnover (DeAngelis, Wall, & Che, 2013; Grissom, Viano, &
Selin, 2016; Ladd, 2011). Second, actual turnover—even healthy turnover—has reper-
cussions for organizations and organizational performance. Organizations incur con-
siderable financial costs when employees turnover (Barnes, Crowe, & Schaefer, 2007;
Milanowski & Odden, 2007). Furthermore, previous research suggests that the most
effective teachers are more likely to leave their school compared with less effective
teachers, which suggests that the overall effect of turnover may reduce school perfor-
mance (Guarino, Santibañez, & Daley, 2006). Finally, schools capable of demonstrat-
ing how teachers fit with and help realize a school’s mission may be able to stem
teacher turnover decisions, thereby alleviating certain performance declines.
In the next section, we begin with a review of P-E fit and mission congruence,
before turning to a discussion of mission congruence in the context of schools and its
likely relationship to turnover. Subsequent sections describe our measures and meth-
ods and then present results and conclusions.
Person–Environment (P-E) Fit
The notion that employees interact with their work environment and that these interac-
tions play a considerable role in shaping employees’ job-related attitudes and behav-
iors is hardly new (e.g., Barnard, 1938; Lewin, 1935; Murray, 1938; Parsons, 1909).
However, our understanding of the significance of such interactions has grown sub-
stantially, due primarily to research in industrial/organizational psychology and orga-
nizational behavior. Research in these fields has demonstrated that the degree of
compatibility present between employees and their jobs helps predict a number of
individual and organizational outcomes, especially those related to employee motiva-
tion, job satisfaction, stress, turnover, and occupational choice (Edwards, 1991).
Stand-alone theories of P-E fit ultimately emerged from this body of research and a
growing recognition of the importance of fit (Cable & Edwards, 2004; Edwards, 1991;
Kristof-Brown et al., 2005).
Broadly, P-E fit is defined as “the compatibility between an individual and the work
environment that occurs when their characteristics are well matched” (Kristof-Brown
et al., 2005, p. 281). Individual-level characteristics include “individuals’ biological or
psychological needs, values, goals, abilities, or personality” whereas environmental
characteristics “refer to intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, physical or psychological
demands, [and] cultural values . . .” (Cable & Edwards, 2004, p. 822). Several sources
of fit exist, including person–vocation, –organization, –supervisor, –teams, and –job
fit—although other forms and types of fit are also relevant (Edwards, 1991; Kristof,
1996; Kristof-Brown & Stevens, 2001; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005; Lauver & Kristof-
Brown, 2001). The current study focuses primarily on P-O fit.
516
Public Personnel Management 48(4)
Two approaches are utilized to evaluate P-O fit (Cable & Edwards, 2004; Edwards,
1991; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005). The first approach focuses on complementary fit.
Complementary fit encompasses the basic tenets of need-satisfaction theories and pre-
sumes fit and compatibility exist when both the employee and the organization...
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