The moving window of fit: extending person-environment fit research with time

Person-environment (P-E) fit research considers the match between individual characteristics and environmental characteristics (e.g., jobs, organizations, vocations). Most P-E fit research considers person and environment at a moment in time. However, this contemporaneous view overlooks the potential impact of an individual's past and future. We can more meaningfully portray the relationship between P-E fit and outcomes if we consider experiences from the past, present, and future. The inclusion of these three time frames produces a "moving window of fit" that can be developed by incorporating research on the temporal nature of the person, the environment, and well-being. In addition, to determine how these elements of a temporal fit model are related, I consider research on the processes of contrast and assimilation. To conduct an initial test of the temporal P-E fit model, I consider a needs-supplies fit framework that focuses on four job dimensions: autonomy, creativity, pay, and work relationships. Using a sample of 187 working MBA students, I found that P-E fit relationships become more complex when using a temporal context. Namely, how individuals view fit at past jobs and future jobs conditions the effects of current fit. In addition, the impact of several of these relationships depends upon several moderators: temporal focus, temporal distance, and importance. As a result of these findings regarding the moving window of fit, I discuss implications for practice and for future research

The "other" time: a review of the subjective experience of time in organizations

Time—whether objective (“clock”) time or the subjective experience of time—is essential for understanding how individuals, teams, and organizations evolve, grow, learn, and change. Yet most management research and literature reviews typically emphasize objective time to the exclusion of subjective time. Our review focuses on this lesser studied “other” time, beginning with a review of how seminal time articles have historically conceptualized subjective time. From this initial review, we offer an integrative and multilevel definition of subjective time as the experience of the past, present, and future, which occurs as individuals and collectives mentally travel through, perceive, and interpret time. Then, using this new definition to frame the remainder of the review, we examine the literature employing subjective time concepts to address three key questions: what is subjective time, how does it operate, and why does it matter? Our analysis provides new ways for understanding subjective time and the important role it plays in organizational phenomena. We conclude by challenging management scholars to consider three priorities for future research: the fundamental relationship between subjective time and meaning, the unclear nature of event time, and the ways in which objective time is dependent upon subjective time

Fitting as a temporal sensemaking process: shifting trajectories and stable themes

This study identifies several mechanisms and the overall process by which individuals understand their evolving fit with their work environment. Prior person-environment research has emphasized one-time quantitative assessments of fit, primarily as new entrants enter their work environment. In this study, we employed a qualitative approach to investigate the following question: how do long-tenured professionals make sense of fit over time? Three key findings emerged from the fit-related histories we collected. First, we discovered four prototypical fit trajectories, which were constructed from temporal comparisons with past, present, and future fit, and employed to make momentary sense of events occurring in the work environment. Second, we identified two fit processes that played out over time: a slow accumulation journey and a sudden identity-threat journey. Third, we found that individuals’ set of fit experiences was explained by one of four enduring fit themes, explaining their pattern of fit experiences over time and their reaction to misfit. Most surprising was the significant turnover among our long-tenured participants in the year or so following our interviews. Our findings break from traditional thinking about fit as predicting outcomes in the moment, to fitting as both a journey and a retrospective and prospective process of sensemaking. Keywords: person-environment fit, misfit, temporal, time, process, sensemaking, qualitative, identit

Viewing The Interpersonal Mistreatment Literature Through A Temporal Lens

Given increasing awareness of time’s critical role, we assess the current position of time in the workplace mistreatment literature. Focusing on four mistreatment constructs (viz., abusive supervision, workplace bullying, workplace incivility, and social undermining) found in the organizational psychology literature, our search revealed 266 studies that have empirically examined the consequences of these forms of interpersonal mistreatment. We examine and critique these studies, finding that with a few exceptions, most have failed to design and test theoretical relationships in a manner consistent with construct definitions. As interpersonal mistreatment research has neglected the role of time, we conclude that the substantial number of existing studies offer limited insight into the true nature of mistreatment’s consequences over time. We go on to elaborate on the types of theoretical insights that might emerge when a temporal lens (objective time and/or subjective time) is adopted by mistreatment researchers

Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus:the subjective experience of the past, present, and future

Temporal focus is the attention individuals devote to thinking about the past, present, and future, and the concept is important because it affects how people incorporate perceptions about past experiences, current situations, and future expectations into their attitudes, cognitions, and behavior. However, temporal focus has not been clearly defined nor situated in a nomological network of constructs. In addition, existing measures of temporal focus suffer from various shortcomings. In this paper, we advance the concept of temporal focus by critically examining its conceptualization, developing a new measure of temporal focus (Temporal Focus Scale; TFS), and evaluating the validity (i.e., construct, convergent, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity) of the TFS across four studies. We conclude that understanding how individuals focus their attention toward the past, present, and future clarifies their responses to explicit and implicit temporal information, which suggests that a variety of research streams would benefit from incorporating the concept of temporal focus

Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: The subjective experience of the past, present, and future

Temporal focus is the attention individuals devote to thinking about the past, present, and future, and the concept is important because it affects how people incorporate perceptions about past experiences, current situations, and future expectations into their attitudes, cognitions, and behavior. However, temporal focus has not been clearly defined nor situated in a nomological network of constructs. In addition, existing measures of temporal focus suffer from various shortcomings. In this paper, we advance the concept of temporal focus by critically examining its conceptualization, developing a new measure of temporal focus (Temporal Focus Scale; TFS), and evaluating the validity (i.e., construct, convergent, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity) of the TFS across four studies. We conclude that understanding how individuals focus their attention toward the past, present, and future clarifies their responses to explicit and implicit temporal information, which suggests that a variety of research streams would benefit from incorporating the concept of temporal focus.Time Temporal focus Temporal orientation Time perspective Individual difference Construct validation Confirmatory factor analysis