Job interview

Person-environment fit

Person-environment fit is often measured by organizations when hiring new employees. There are many types of Person-environment fit with the two most relevant for interviews being Person-job and Person-organization fit. Interviewers usually emphasize Person-job fit and ask twice as many questions about Person-job fit compared to Person-organization fit. Interviewers are more likely to give applicants with good Person-job fit a hiring recommendation compared to an applicant with good Person-organization fit.

An applicant's knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes (KSAOs) are the most commonly measured variables when interviewers assess Person-job fit. In one survey, all interviewers reported that their organization measures KSAOs to determine Person-job fit. The same study found that all interviewers used personality traits and 65% of the interviewers used personal values to measure Person-organization fit.

Despite fit being a concern among organizations, how to determine fit and the types of questions to use varies. When interview fit questions were examined, only 4% of the questions used in interviews were similar across the majority of organizations. 22% of questions were commonly used by recruiters in some organizations. In contrast, 74% of the questions had no commonality between organizations. Although the idea of fit is similar in many organizations, the questions used and how that information is judged may be very different.

Person-job fit and Person-organization fit have different levels of importance at different stages of a multi-stage interview proves. Despite this, Person-job fit is considered of the highest importance throughout the entire process. Organizations focus more on job-related skills early on to screen out potentially unqualified candidates. Thus, more questions are devoted to Person-job fit during the initial interview stages.^[32][33] Once applicants have passed the initial stages, more questions are used for Person-organization fit in the final interview stages. Although there is more focus on Person-organization fit in these later stages, Person-job fit is still considered to be of greater importance.

In a single-stage interview, both fits are assessed during a single interview. Interviewers still put more weight on Person-job fit questions over the Person-organization questions in these situations as well. Again, Person-job fit questions are used to screen out and reduce the number of applicants.

Potential applicants also use job interviews to assess their fit within an organization. This can determine if an applicant will take a job offer when one is offered. When applicants assess their fit with an organization the experience they have during the job interview is the most influential.

Applicants felt that they had highest fit with an organization when they could add information not covered during the interview that they wanted to share. Applicants also liked when they could ask questions about the organization. They also when they could ask follow up questions to ensure they answered the interviewer's questions to the level the interviewer wanted. Interviewer behaviors that encourage fit perceptions in applicants include complimenting applicants on their resume and thanking them for traveling to the interview. Applicants like to be given contact information if follow-up information is needed, the interviewer making eye contact, and asking if the applicant was comfortable.

The Interviewer can discourage fit perceptions by how they act during an interview as well. the biggest negative behavior for applicants was the interviewer not knowing information about their organization. Without information about the organization, applicants cannot judge how well they fit. Another negative behavior is not knowing applicants’ background information during the interview. Interviewers can also hurt fit perception by being inattentive during the interview and not greeting the applicant.

There are some issues with fit perceptions in interviews. Applicants’ Person-organization fit scores can be altered by the amount of ingratiation done by the applicants. Interviewers skew their Person-organization fit scores the more ingratiation applicants do during an interview. By applicants emphasizing similarities between them and the interviewer this leads to a higher Person-organization fit perceptions by the interviewer. This higher perception of fit leads to a greater likelihood of the candidate being hired.