Testing additive versus interactive effects of person-organization fit and organizational trust on engagement and performance
| Published date | 05 September 2016 |
| Pages | 1323-1339 |
| Date | 05 September 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2015-0029 |
| Author | Kerstin Alfes,Amanda Shantz,Ratnesvary Alahakone |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Testing additive versus
interactive effects of
person-organization fit
and organizational trust on
engagement and performance
Kerstin Alfes
Organisation and Human Resource Management,
ESCP Europe Wirtschaftshochschule Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Amanda Shantz
Department of Management,
IESEG School of Management LEM-CNRS (UMR 9221), Paris, France, and
Ratnesvary Alahakone
School of Management and Business, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
Abstract
Purpose –To date,most research has assumedan additive relationship betweenwork-related predictors
and engagement. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the refinement of engagement theory by
exploringthe extent to which two predictors –person-organization fit and organizational trust –interact
to influence employees’engagement, which in turn,positively influences theirtask performance.
Design/methodology/approach –A test of moderated mediation was conducted using survey data
collected from 335 employees and matched performance records from the Human Resource department
in a support services organization in the UK.
Findings –Engagement was best predicted by the interactive model, rather than the additive model,
as employees who felt a close fit with their organization and who trusted their organization were most
engaged with their work. Further, engagement mediated the relationship between the interaction and
task performance.
Originality/value –This paper contributes to a refinement of engagement theory by presenting and
testing a model that explains the synergistic effect of work-related factors on engagement.
Keywords Quantitative, Performance evaluation, Trust,Engagement, Person-environment fit (P-E fit)
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Today’s dynamic and increasingly complex business environment poses new
challenges for organizations to remain innovative and competitive. Research has
identified employee engagement as a means to meet these new realities (Christian
et al., 2011), and finding ways to increase engagement levels has therefore become a top
priority for Human Resource Management (HRM) professionals (Truss et al., 2013).
Hence, it behooves HRM scholars to pay particular attention to how research examines
drivers of engagement, as it may have implications for how HRM professionals design
and implement strategies intended to raise engagement levels.
One approach to examining drivers of engagement has involved asking employees
to assess a number of personal and work-related resources, summing these components
together, and examining the relationship between this composite measure and
Personnel Review
Vol. 45 No. 6, 2016
pp. 1323-1339
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-02-2015-0029
Received 14 February 2015
Revised 28 September 2015
Accepted 11 November 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1323
Testing
additive versus
interactive
effects
engagement (e.g. Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). Other research has taken a different
approach by examining the individual effect of a number of drivers of engagement so
as to disentangle the relative effect of each (e.g. Shantz et al., 2013; Rich et al., 2010).
Although research that uses these approaches has gone some way in enhancing our
understanding of the antecedents of engagement, they rely on an “additive”logic; the
underlying assumption is that drivers are independent of one another and that the
overall effect on engagement is the additive sum of each driver’s individual effect.
Neither of these approaches has considered the possibility that drivers operate
“interactively,”in that they mutually reinforce one another. An interaction effect is a
multiplicative relationship between variables where the effect of one variable is
influenced by another variable, and the outcome of two variables may be synergistic.
Understanding whether drivers of engagement are additive or interactive has
implications for how engagement strategies are designed and carried out. If drivers of
engagement are additive, then each tool designed to increase engagement exerts a
separate influence, and only the strongest individual predictors of engagement should
be put into place. If drivers produce an interactive effect, on the other hand, then HRM
professionals need to take a more strategic view in managing engagement levels of the
workforce and focus on designing coherent combinations of practices rather than solely
identifying individual drivers of engagement. This is because the overall effect of some
combinations may be greater than the sum of the individual practices.
A key objective of the present study is to test the predictability of an additive vs an
interactive model of engagement by exploring the extent to which person-organ ization
fit (P-O fit), and organizational trust interact to jointly influence engagement.
We decidedto focus on P-O fit and organizational trustas potential driversof engagement
for two reasons. First, although research has identified that organizational trust and P-O
fit additively predict engagement (Biswas and Bhatnagar, 2013; Agarwal, 2014),
no research to our knowledge has examined whether they interact to multiplicatively
predict engagement. Second, recent research suggests that in addition to commonly
studied antecedents at the individual and job level, employee perceptions of
organizational factors are particularly important in enhancing engagement and
increasing individual performance (e.g. Chughtai and Buckley, 2013; Bailey et al., 2015).
This is in line with self-determination theory (SDT, Ryan and Deci, 2000), which suggests
that the provision of a supportive work environment satiates employees’basic needs and
enhances their autonomous motivation (i.e. engagement) and further their job
performance (Gagné and Deci, 2005; Meyer and Gagné, 2008).
Although searching for ways to increase levels of engagement is laudable, it is
necessary for HRM professionals to furnish this knowledge with a demonstration that
engagement leads to higher levels of performance. Hence, we also examine the extent to
which engagement mediates the interactive effect of P-O fit and trust on employees’
task performance, as assessed by employees’appraisal records. Although previous
studies have positioned engagement as a mediator of the relationship between various
predictors and employees’performance, few studies have used time-lagged, supervisor-
generated performance measures, and none, to our knowledge, have analyzed whether
engagement mediates the relationship between an interaction of predictors and
employees’task performance. Understanding the relationship between engagement
and performance is important, given the increasing pressures facing HRM practitioners
to demonstrate the value of their activities.
In summary, this paper contributes to engagement theory through the presentation
of theoretical arguments that support the synergistic effect of organizational factors in
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45,6
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