The importance of value congruence: an analysis of college recreation employees and organizations

ABSTRACT

Rationale/Purpose: Broadly, the purpose of the study was to explore the psychological processes of college recreation employees. Several constructs were chosen for this study including person-organization fit (PO Fit), motivation (in the form of self-determination theory), and employee engagement (job and organizational). The study was meant to improve the engagement of college recreation employees.

Design/methodology/approach: Models were crafted to examine how PO Fit influenced job and organizational engagement as mediated by motivation. Three forms of motivation were utilized (i.e. intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation) and each were tested separately. Data were collected from 580 full-time college recreation employees. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the mediation effects.

Findings: It was revealed that PO Fit enhances intrinsic motivation and employee engagement. PO Fit also has an overall positive effect on college recreation employee engagement, despite the adverse effects of non-self-determined motivations.

Practical Implications: College recreation organizations would likely benefit from improved hiring practices that value hiring prospective employees that sense an alignment or fit with the organization.

Research Contribution: PO Fit was found to be a powerful variable that enhances intrinsic motivation and weakens the harmful effects of undesirable motivations for college recreation employees.

KEYWORDS:

• Person-organization fit
• self-determination theory
• employee engagement
• college recreation employees

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).