To create and maintain a fully engaged workforce, establishing person-organization (P-O) fit among employees has continued to be a central focus of organizational research. In addition, with growing numbers of older workers approaching retirement age, younger workers will soon become the dominant segment of the future workforce. Given this unfolding population trend, it has become increasingly necessary for organizations to gain a clearer understanding of the work values of the growing young population of workers and how P-O fit based on those work values may be linked to desirable work-related attitudes and behaviors.
The overarching aim of this dissertation is two-fold: (1) investigate the generational differences and similarities in work values among younger Chinese workers; (2) uncover the underlying mechanisms by which the linkages between the work-value-based person-organization fit and employee work outcomes may be influenced by the impact of leader-member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS).
In this study, I used a research design that blended interviews and two survey-based studies to address four main research questions. More specifically, I conducted a pilot test to refine the work-value scale in China, and to pretest the established and validated measures for the key variables. In the second study, I gathered survey data from a sample of 179 employees from three Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The research findings showed no significant differences in employee work values between the two younger generations (i.e., the Social-Reform Generation and the Millennials Generation). Regarding the hypothesized conceptual scheme that links P-O fit and work outcomes, the results supported most of my hypotheses. Specifically, P-O fit is a significant predictor of three important work outcomes; it is positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment, while negatively related to turnover intention after controlling for demographic characteristics. The three hypothesized mediating mechanisms involving POS also received empirical support. That is, as predicted, POS mediates the effect of P-O fit on job satisfaction, organizational support, and turnover intention. Finally, when LMX was incorporated into the conceptual model and statistical analyses, the findings revealed that there was overall moderated mediation for the connections between P-O fit, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, but no moderated mediation for the connection between P-O fit and turnover intention.
