Entry-level job pursuit intention: assessing person-environment fit in India

PurposePerson-environment (PE) fit theory suggests that value congruence (fit) leads to the job pursuits intention (Cable and Judge, 1996) which is also influenced by cultural norms (Ma and Allen, 2009). Due to stringent job market condition along with its people, as a part of collectivistic culture, having poor self-concept consistency, value congruence may unfold different phenomenon in Indian context. Therefore, the present study intends to explore the existing fit theory on different cultural norms and different job market condition with entry-level job pursuits as participants.Design/methodology/approachThe fit was measured both objectively and subjectively in a mixed method research design. Top 100 institutes ranked in NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) (under Management category) were approached for data collection and 41 institutes agreed to participate. Data were collected in four phases from 2,714 entry-level job pursuits and domain experts based on web-based job advertisements. Krippendorff's alpha was calculated for measuring objective fit, and the subjective fit was measured through quadratic structural equation modeling with response surface analysis.FindingsFindings revealed lack of value congruence objectively; and no influencing role of subjective fit in job pursuits intention. This indicated that neither Indian employers nor entry-level job pursuits were concerned about value congruence. The post-hoc analysis suggested that poor self-concept consistency as a cultural norm led to such atypical findings.Originality/valueThe present study suggests that fit may lead to different phenomena of entry-level job pursuits intention with different contextual and cultural norms.

How gun control policies influence consumers’ service businesses evaluations

Purpose Given the growing prevalence of gun control policies in service settings, this study aims to investigate how the adoption of a gun control policy by a service businesses influences consumers’ evaluations of the service businesses. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted to examine how the adoption of a gun control policy by a service businesses influences consumers’ brand favorability of that service businesses and how value congruence (i.e. the alignment between a consumer’s own personal values and perceptions of the brand’s values) is the underlying mechanism. Findings This study documents several major findings. First, the authors find that the adoption of a gun control policy by a service businesses increases consumers’ brand favorability. Second, the authors highlight a boundary condition to this effect, such that a gun control policy actually decreases consumers’ brand favorability for people high (vs low) in support for gun rights. Third, the authors show that value congruence is the psychological process underlying these effects. Fourth, the authors generalize the focal effects to a real-world brand and demonstrate that the adoption of a gun control policy increases brand favorability for consumers low (vs high) in patronage behavior of the brand. Finally, the authors find that a pioneer brand strategy in the adoption of a gun control policy significantly increases brand favorability, whereas a follower brand strategy in the adoption of such a policy is less effective. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to provide critical insight to service businesseses as to how their position regarding guns influences consumers’ evaluations of the service businesses.

The Effects of Employer Branding on Value Congruence and Brand Love

This study examines the effect of employer brand on employees’ brand love by applying value congruence theory. A survey was conducted with employees of well-known hotel brands in South Korea. The results show that not all employer brand dimensions equally contribute to the formation of brand love. While economic, social, and development values positively influence brand love, interest value and application value did not affect brand love formation. Employees’ value congruence perceptions mediate this effect because employees could infer what values employers care about based on the benefits that a hotel brand offers. This study contributes to the literature by linking value congruence with employer branding and brand love. Based on our findings, hospitality managers can redesign all work activities and apply employer branding principles to reflect employment value to achieve employee’s brand love.

An integrative conceptual two-factor model of workplace value congruence and incongruence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to integrate research conducted on work values, political values and cultural values to develop a new heuristic model of values that can be applied to workplace outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that draws upon the work values, political values and cultural values literatures and the “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion” hypotheses to advocate an integrative conceptual model spanning these constructs. Findings Integrating the three types of values with the underlying hypotheses of “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion”, an internally consistent two-factor model of values is developed. This heuristic model argues that one set of factors causes value congruence and its associated outcomes and a different set of factors causes value incongruence and its associated outcomes. By conceptualizing value congruence and value incongruence as a two-factor theory, the idea is advanced that people do not assess value similarity and value dissimilarity unidimensionally, but these are two separate dimensions supported by different theoretical hypotheses and processes. Originality/value Previous conceptual work on values has isolated different types of values and considered them separately. A contribution is made by integrating the three main streams of values research. The paper is the first to advocate a two-factor theory to values and the first to incorporate the “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion” hypotheses. The model repositions the focus for future research on value congruence and incongruence.

Study from Korea shows strong CSR policies significantly increase job seekers' application intentions

Purpose This study investigated how and when corporate social responsibility (CSR) fosters job seekers’ application intentions. The authors used a “mediated moderation mode” to explore the positive effect of CSR on job seekers’ intention to apply. They considered the moderating role of applicants’ calling and the mediating role of value congruence in the relationship between the person and organization. Design/methodology/approach To test their hypotheses the authors developed a questionnaire and sent it to a sample of 259 college students with a mean age of 22.67 in South Korea. All were either prospective or current job seekers and 55.2pc were female. Two scenarios were developed based on the real-life case of a well-known coffee franchise’s CSR policies. The scenarios were identical except that one had more proactive CSR policies. Findings Results showed that a company’s proactive CSR programs increase job seekers’ intention to apply, which was moderated by their “calling” for the job. The research also demonstrated that “value congruence” between the applicant and the organization fully mediated the interaction between CSR and calling. The results, the authors said, suggested that engaging in active CSR could attract job applicants, providing a potential competitive advantage. Originality/value The authors said their study contributed to the literature as it took the job seeker’s perspective whereas most previous research on calling focused on employees. They said it was the first study to empirically demonstrate the interaction between a sense of calling and CSR.

Revisiting Values and Self-Esteem: A Large-Scale Study in the United States

Person-culture fit perspectives posit that individuals have higher self-esteem when their values match the values of the sociocultural environment in which they live. The current study tested this hypothesis by examining the associations between value congruence and self-esteem in a large-scale sample in the United States ( N = 48,563). Multilevel response surface analyses revealed no evidence of value congruence effects on self-esteem, such that the agreement between individual- and state-level values did not positively predict self-esteem for any of the 10 basic values. Instead, we found positive (stimulation, security) and negative (conformity) linear associations between individual-level values and self-esteem. We also found positive curvilinear relationships between individual-level achievement and tradition values and self-esteem, and negative curvilinear relationships between individual-level self-direction, hedonism, power, benevolence, and universalism values and self-esteem. In addition, state-level values moderated the relationship between values and self-esteem for tradition, universalism, and conformity values. In federal states with stronger endorsement of tradition values, individuals’ tradition values were more positively associated with self-esteem. In contrast, in states with stronger endorsement of universalism values, individuals’ universalism values were more negatively associated with self-esteem. Lastly, individuals’ conformity values were negatively associated with self-esteem, particularly in states with weaker endorsement of conformity values.

Emotions Toward Sustainable Innovations: A Matter of Value Congruence

Public resistance to sustainable innovations is oftentimes accompanied by strong negative emotions. Therefore, it is essential to better understand the underlying factors of emotions toward sustainable innovations to facilitate their successful implementation. Based on the Value-Innovation-Congruence model of Emotional responses (VICE model), we argue that positive and negative emotions toward innovations reflect whether innovations are congruent or incongruent with (i.e., support or threaten) people's core values. We tested our reasoning in two experimental studies (N = 114 and N = 246), by asking participants to evaluate innovations whose characteristics were either congruent or incongruent with egoistic values (study 1) or with biospheric values (study 1 and study 2). In line with the VICE model, we found overall that the more an innovation was perceived to have characteristics congruent with these values, and biospheric values in particular, the stronger positive and the weaker negative emotions they experienced toward the innovation, especially the more strongly people endorsed these values. Emotions, in turn, were related with acceptability of innovations. Our findings highlight that emotions toward innovations can have a systematic basis in people's values that can be addressed to ensure responsible decision-making on sustainable innovations.

When workplace family-support is misallocated: effects of value congruence and fairness perceptions on supervisor family-support

To better manage our work demands and family demands, we often erect mental or physical ‘boundaries’ to help manage our experiences. However, preferences for preserving these boundaries differ across individuals (e.g., some individuals may prefer to segment work/family roles, while others may prefer to integrate these roles) and employees may not always have similar preferences/values as their supervisors. Applying a resource framework from the job demands-resources model (JD-R; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), we explicate the process through which supervisor–employee value congruence reduces work–family conflict, when supervisors provide valuable emotional and instrumental resources through family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB). Furthermore, we find evidence that supervisors can demonstrate adequate FSSB even when having incongruent values with employees by fairly allocating and individually tailoring family-support. With a diverse sample of 815 staff members from four southern US universities, we conduct mediation and moderation analyses to test our hypotheses.