P-O Fit, IWB & Exploratory Projects: A Research Report on UAE Space

This research report delves into the concept of Person-Organization (P-O) fit, examining the compatibility between an organization and its employees, and its impact on employee turnover, job performance, and work attitudes. It investigates the relationship between P-O fit and Innovative Work Behavior (IWB), particularly within exploratory projects, using the UAE Space Agency as a case study. The report explores how the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory mediates this relationship, focusing on how organizations attract and retain employees who share similar values and interests. The research aims to understand how P-O fit contributes to effective teamwork, idea generation, and overall organizational success, highlighting its importance in HR for recruitment and retention strategies. The study also examines the impact of P-O misfit and how employees proactively address such situations to improve their fit within the organization.

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Person-Organization Fit Research
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Abstract
Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) is a concept that identifies the compatibility between an
organization and its employees. This concept can mean that employees are supplying a need to
their organization, similar values are shared amongst the organization’s staff, or there exist
meaningful relationships between the organizational staff. There exist a meaningful relationship
between Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) and employee turnover, job performance, and
employee work attitudes which is based on Attraction-Selection-Attrition theory. For employees
to develop motivation and enthusiasm in working for a particular organization, they need to be
attracted to organizations that have values that favor their individual aspirations to the extent that
the employees are actually congruent with the organization. In exploratory projects which are
mainly used for research on future innovative ideas and concepts, the concept of Person-
Organization fit (P-O fit) is important because it ensures that project outcomes are firmly
established because the organizational staffs have interests and values that are tied to the
organization’s objectives. This concept also ensures that employees work in teams to achieve
optimal goals, work in a simulative environment to the extent that they enjoy work, and that they
stay longer for a long time in the organization.

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Introduction
Research Overview
Scholarly research suggests that employees and organizations work best when they share
similar values, interests, and when their needs are aligned. The manifestations of this alignment
are what results in Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) which represents employee retention,
commitment, and satisfaction. Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) is a concept that can be used to
examine how an employee interacts with his subordinates, supervisors, and other co-workers.
This is why Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) is important in terms of teamwork where
communication and co-operation depend on the alignment of needs and values for project
execution. This paper will research the roles and functions of exploratory projects and the
relationship between Person-Organization fit (P-O fit), Innovative Work Behavior (IWB). The
paper will also investigate the impact of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory as a
mediator of the relationship between the variables.
Research Background
This research Study will be based on a Case Study of UAE Space Agency to test the
validity of the principles mentioned and proposed which is the relationship between Person-
Organization fit (P-O fit), Innovative Work Behavior (IWB), and the roles and functions of
exploratory projects. The study will explore UAE Space Agency’s history of exploratory projects
to identify how the concept of Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) related to Innovative Work
Behavior (IWB) in the success of the organization’s exploratory team projects. The UAE Space
Agency was created in 2014 with the goal of fostering, developing, and regulating a universal
space center in the UAE through investments, partnerships, space research, and exploration. The

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agency has launched four commercial satellites since its inception which were part of a transfer
program with South Korean Satrec Initiative.
Research Problem
The research will be an analysis of correlations on how the UAE Space Agency’s
employees utilized Person-Organization fit (P-O fit), and Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) for
successful exploratory projects that led to the launching of four satellites as well as how the
agency is improving the concepts for their success in future exploratory projects. Also, based on
the Attraction-Selection-Attrition theory, this research will seek to answer how the agency is able
to recruit employees, and partners that share the same values and interests with the organization.
The research will also try to answer if consolidation of the agency’s culture was in any way
impacted by Person-Organization fit (P-O fit), and Innovative Work Behavior (IWB).
Research Purpose and Objectives
The purpose and objective of this research paper are to identify if employees are attracted
to organizations that have attributes, values, and interests that are similar to theirs. The other
objective is to identify how organizations are able to select employees with skills, knowledge,
and abilities that are more likely to consolidate with the attributes of existing employees for
effective team-work. The overall objective of the paper is to make people understand the concept
of Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) and its critical importance in the HR department as a tool and
methodology for employee recruitment and retention. The paper will finally analyze how Person-
Organization fit relates to effective opportunity exploration, idea generation, idea promotion, to
its implementation in Innovative Work Behavior (IWB).

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Research Questions
1. What is the relationship between Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) and Innovative Work
Behavior (IWB)?
2. What are exploratory projects and what are the roles and functions of employees in these
projects?
3. What is the impact of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory as a mediator of
Person-Organization fit (P-O fit) and Innovative Work Behavior (IWB)?
Literature Review
Person-Organization Fit (P-O fit). The Person-Organization is about the match between a
person's values and the values and characteristics of the entire organization where he/she is
employed. Since everyone has a different degree attributing importance to the different values
will attract people to various organizations. According to (Tom, 2011), individuals will be the
most successful in organizations sharing the same personality traits. A lot of research about the
PO fit follows the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model that states that people are attracted
and will remain in organizations sharing the same values and preferences as they make it
possible for them to reach their goals and become their needs (Schneider, Schneider, Goldstein,
& Smith, 2012). If the organization's values do not match the employees' values and preferences,
they will leave the organization. Employees with a high P-O fit will create a relationship with
their organization and define themselves in terms of their organization. This will lead to greater
organizational involvement and satisfaction of the needs of the employee.
Innovative work behavior is considered to be the intentional creation, introduction, and
application of new ideas in a role, group or organization that aim to improve the role,

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performance, group or organization (Farr & West, 2013). According to (Bruce and Scott, 2014),
innovative work behavior consists of the following three tasks: idea generation, idea promotion
and idea realization. As the innovation process can be considered as discontinuous activities
(Kanter, Schroeder, Scudder, Polley & Van de Ven, 2013), individuals will be expected to be
involved in a combination of these three behaviors at any time (Bruce & Scott, 2014). The
innovative process begins with idea generation. This consists of producing new and useful ideas
that can be passable in each domain (Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 2016; Kanter,
2004). Reasons that lead to the generation of new ideas can be: solving perceived work-related
problems and anticipating new trends (Drucker, 2013). For example, an employee who is
frustrated by losing documents may think of a new storage system. When someone has invented
a new idea, he or she will spread the idea and seek support for this idea. Here you can consult
friends, colleagues or even the employer. They can have the power to implement the idea
(Galbraith, 2015; Kant, 2004). This dimension of innovative work behavior is called idea
promotion. Here the employee will tell the idea of the new storage system to colleagues.
The last task consists of the idea of realization. The idea is being realized and this may
involve producing a prototype or model of innovation. This prototype can be applied in the role
of work, group or in the overall organization (Kanter, 2004, p.45). Here, the new storage system
will be implemented. An example of the context of the exploratory project of innovative
behavior may be that an employee establishes an internet forum to share information with each
other. Idea generation is the employee who thinks of an idea to communicate more easily with
the classmates. In idea promotion, the employee presents his idea to some classmates and is
looking for people who want to cooperate. Then the forum is started and this calls the idea
realization.

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Improvements through innovation will lead to the more effective functioning of the
organization and will also provide social psychological benefits. There will be a better fit for the
individual worker or group of individuals between the job demands and the resources of the
employee, which will lead to greater job satisfaction and more efficient international
communication. Innovative work behavior should serve as a problem-focused coping strategy
that is used by employees to deal with intensive tasks. (Burke & Belcourt, 2004; Fokman &
Lazarus, 1984; Hansen & Parasuraman, 2015). Job demands are defined as psychological
stressors such as having to work fast and hard, delivering great physical efforts, experiencing
high work pressure or having to perform a lot of work in a short period of time (Karasek, 2016).
These job demands will, in turn, generate a state of arousal with the employee (Bunce & West,
2014; Karasek, 2014; Karasek & Theorell, 2014). According to the P-E fit theory, this arousal
will trigger the employee to handle coping strategies so that they can adapt themselves to the
intensive tasks.
In most team projects about fit, a good P-E fit is associated with positive outcomes. For
example, the ASA model suggests that employees are attracted to organizations characterized by
a high degree of fitness and that employee leave organizations where there is misconduct
(Schneider, 2015, p.67). A P-E misfit is thus associated with negative outcomes. Stress, course,
course of progress, lower job satisfaction and performance reduction are all negative outcomes of
a P-E misfit (Kristof-Brown et al, 2005). In this exploratory project employees try to shed some
light on the theory of ASA. Attempts will be made to find that in certain situations, experiencing
a misfit can also lead to positive outcomes. The employee is considered to be a proactive being
that will use behavioral strategies to turn this mood into a fit. Thus, it is assumed that a misfit
will encourage the employee to improve his current situation. As a result, he will act proactively

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to address the situation. This process will eventually lead to a better fit. Subsequently, the Work
Adjustment Theory of (Dawis and Lofquist, 2015) states that when experiencing a misconduct,
the individual or the organization will change or the way in which he or she behaves in that
organization. Usually, the organization does not change because it co-determines why an
individual chooses an organization. It would be otherwise difficult for individuals to select an
organization that suits them or they should constantly adapt to changing organizational features.
Employees can pass this to the exploratory projects context. There are not many alternatives to
changing organization. This allows you to switch vertically from supervisory to freelance, either
horizontally from one supervisory to another or from one supervisory to another. This switchover
takes a lot of time and sometimes results in a backlog. This indicates that employees will first
change their own attitude and behaviors to address the misfit. This is also supported by empirical
research.
The conceptualization and measurement of the Person-Organization Fit are dependent on
two crucial factors (Caplan, 2015, p.125). First, both the organization and the person must be
considered together and the corresponding units of measurement must be used in the analysis.
For example, the measurement units used to estimate the properties of both the person and the
organization must be scaled in the same way so that a direct comparison is possible. Secondly,
the characteristics of the person and the organization will be measured so that they match
appropriately. If the needs of the individual are mapped, the tools offered by the organization
must be measured in the same way (Caldwell, Chatmen & O'Reilly, 2014).
When the individual skills are measured, the corresponding organizational requirements
must be mapped. Time, effort and money are spent to get a diploma. However, a large proportion
of the employees fail to complete their first year successfully. According to the figures from the

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Flemish government of the exploratory projects year 2007-2008, the pass rate for the Faculty of
Psychology and Project teams Sciences is approximately 64%. The average exploratory project
success at Ghent Supervisory is approximately 60%. The first year at the supervisory or
freelance is important for many reasons. There is both a major learning process and a cognitive
development. Employees must acquire new difficult learning material and also learn to deal with
new complex situations within the exploratory projects context. During the first year, there will
be a basis for the rest of exploratory projects success. Working at the supervisory or freelance is
an experience that offers many opportunities for employees to develop, both at personal and
professional level. For a lot of employees, this new learning environment is a major adaptation
that ensures that a development process continues. Each employee has its own "range" of
demographic, personal and exploratory projects characteristics and experiences. These traits
affect various aspects of their exploratory projects career. How the employee feels in his team
projects can have a big impact on his / her motivation, performance and satisfaction. It is
important to exploratory project which factors will contribute to the employee's success in his
team projects as well as the factors that will facilitate the adjustment process.
Research Approach
Measuring Instruments
The study has used an Arabian-language questionnaire that was compiled using the
various variables and their scales. This measuring instrument was selected because of the already
proven strengths of previous research. Below are the credibility (Cornbrash’s alpha) of the
recorded variables of this research. Then a factor analysis is performed to investigate the internal

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structure of each measuring instrument. The factor analysis was a principal axis factoring with a
varimax rotation.
D-A misfit as independent variable
The D-A misfit was measured using Cable & De Rue's questionnaire (2002). This
questionnaire was adapted to the project teams’ context instead of the working context. Job items
are answered both in terms of the requirements and the 'abilities' to find out the D-A misfit. Each
item therefore contains both components. The part of the 'demands' peels to the required skills
required to accomplish a particular activity while the part of the "abilities" will examine its own
competence regarding the execution of that activity. The items that meet the DA are: "There is a
very good match between my training and my personal skills.", "My own skills are well adapted
to the requirements of my field of study." And "My personal skills today ensure a good match
with the requirements my expectations expect from me ". Each item was asked to rate it on a
scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). The D-A items apply, the higher the score, the better the
fit. The lower you score, the greater the misfit. The factor analysis showed a one-factor structure
with a reliability of .91.
Research Methodology
The study has used the statistical analysis method of linear regression to test the different
hypotheses. After the analysis was carried out, the F-test was further examined. There, the ΔR²
indicated whether the addition of model predictors offers added value over the original model.
Subsequently, the non-standardized regression coefficients b of the recorded predictors were also
studied. In order to minimize the multicollinearity between the main effects and the interaction

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term in the moderated regression analyzes, the variables were centered first to create the
interaction term. With the total sample size of this study (N = 555) and a statistical power of .80,
a small effect size (f²) of .014 could be observed (which approximately corresponds to an
increase of .014 for R2) for the linear relations regression. In the case of the moderated
regression equation, when using the same alpha, an effect of .80 could be observed with a power
of .80. These effect sizes were calculated using the statistical tool G * Power 3.1.2. The results
will be discussed in the text below.
Findings and Discussion
The exploratory analysis
From the tested hypotheses in this study, there appear to be no significant Relationships
are found from the D-A misfit and the S-V fails with innovative work behavior. In the literature,
it is found that a P-E lacks meaningful relationships exhibits many variables, including proactive
behavioral strategies. Thus, Devloo found (2008) in his thesis research at the UGent has a
significant effect on the extent Misfit plays a significant role in the increasing use of proactive
behavioral strategies ("seeking feedback"). Make sure it's interesting to investigate whether other
proactive behavioral strategies have an impact on the D-A misfit and the S-V misfit an
explorative analysis is performed. An exploratory analysis is based on existing data at hand and
will test new hypotheses that were not originally investigated. The discovery of the new
relationships seeks to add value to this research, thus attempting to deepen the hypotheses
already tested. Attempts are being made to track certain patterns from the data collection. Here
again, the data analytical method of regression analysis is used again. It is predicted to find
significant relationships with personal initiative, creative self-efficacy and learning orientation as

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a dependent variable in the analyzes because these are proactive behavioral strategies. Need for
closure is expected to show no significant relationships because NFC is considered a stable
personality line that will not change by changing the context.
The purpose of this study was to examine the differential impact of the S-V misfit and the
D-A misfit on dealing with proactive behavioral strategies such as innovative work behavior
among UAE Space Agencies. Furthermore, it is investigated under what circumstances this
relationship is strengthened. In this way, an effort is made to contribute to the existing fit
literature. The literature focuses on the positive effects of experiencing a fit. This also followed
the ASA model of Schneider (2015), stating that a fit between the person and the job leads to
positive consequences and a misconduct to negative consequences such as more stress, more
turnover, and less satisfaction. The current study takes a unique view by saying that the
experience of a misfit can lead to positive purposes because it actively addresses its environment
rather than taking a passive role. The study uses both types of fit, both the 'demands' -' abilities'fit
and the 'supplies' - values'fit (Krist or, 2016). The measurement is based on the Cable & DeRue
questionnaire (2002) questionnaire, where the experienced D-A fit and the S-V fit match. The
starting point of this study is the assumption that in a situation of misconduct, the effect of
proactive behavior (innovative work behavior) will increase. Furthermore, the influence of the
four moderator variables (target orientation, Need for Closure, Personal Initiative, and Creative
Self-Efficacy) was studied, which, according to the hypotheses, would have an enhancing effect
on direct relationships.
Implications and Future Research