Investigating the role of goal orientation in job seekers’ experience of value congruence

There is still limited understanding of how goal orientations influence the association between value congruence (VC) and organisational attraction for job seekers. We address this issue by investigating the impact of individuals’ goal orientations on the VC–attraction relationship. Our investigation using different measurement approaches to congruence across two studies also allowed us to examine the implications of different methods to operationalising VC in job search contexts. Two prominent types of goal orientation in job search—learning‐approach goal orientation (LAGO) and performance‐avoid goal orientation (PAGO)—were hypothesised to moderate the relationship between VC and organisational attraction. In study 1, value congruence based on direct molar perceptions displayed a stronger positive relationship with attraction among low LAGO individuals. Study 2, using separate atomistic judgments of person and organisational values, also demonstrated that LAGO moderates the effects of VC on attraction. However, the form of moderation effects varied across different types of work values (i.e., relationships and security). These findings demonstrate the need to contextualise the study of job seekers’ VC within a goal‐striving context, where different ways of operationalising VC can also shed more light on the psychological processes underlying judgments of congruence.Accepted versio

The mediating effect of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on self-reported performance: more robust evidence of the PSM—performance relationship

Public service motivation (PSM) has been linked to various outcome variables, but as more and more public administration research is devoted to improving performance, the possible link between PSM and performance is increasingly of interest. The current study contributes to this literature by investigating whether this relationship is present in a dataset of Belgian civil servants. The results corroborate the general thesis and demonstrate a mediation effect (to some extent) of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on this relationship. By doing so, the present study partly unveils the mechanisms upon which the PSM—performance relationship is based

Mismatching of persons and jobs in the Netherlands: Consequences for the returns to mobility

Contains fulltext : 72906.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)This article answers three questions.To what extent do Dutch workers voluntarily change employers or positions within the firm, do objective and subjectively experienced job characteristics influence voluntary mobility, and does voluntary mobility result in changes in these job characteristics? Analyses show that voluntary mobility occurs quite often. Objective job characteristics do not predict the odds of voluntary mobility. The subjective evaluation of aspects of the job, such as for instance the job in general, the income, the job content and colleagues, and workload, however, do. The stronger this mismatch of persons and jobs, the more likely one is to be voluntarily mobile. Panel analyses furthermore show that this voluntary mobility improves objective job characteristics such as income and status, and reduces an unfavourable evaluation of the person—job fit. Clearly, an unfavourably experienced person—job fit pushes workers out of their jobs, and on average this step brings positive returns.22 p