Measuring Person-Organization Cultural Fit

The goal of this study is to explore the relations between individual needs and organizational demands. Toward this goal, an Italian version of the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP – O’Reilly, Chatman & Caldwell, 1991) has been used. Assuming that the same cultural values have different meanings and evaluations whether they’re referred to the self or to the organization, we expect that responses to OCP could be explained by fifteen first-order factors and two uncorrelated second order factors, called ‘Individual Needs’ (8 first-order factors) and ‘Organizational Demands’ (7 first-order factors). Two CFAs tested the factor structure of ‘Individual Needs’ and ‘Organizational Demands’ (respectively: χ2/df=4.84/4.12; RMSEA=.077/.068; RMR=.343/.287; GFI=.805/.830). Then, an all-inclusive CFA estimated no covariation at all between these two second order factors (χ2/df=3.5; RMSEA=.062; RMR=.381; GFI=.723), whereas the solution with only one second order factor fitted the data too poorly. These results confirm that equivalent values have different meanings depending on whether they belong to the self, as an expression of individual needs, or to the organization, as an expression of its demands. Canonical correlations between the two sets of measures showed that P-O fit is a function of the relationships between different values, in particular between organizational demands of performance orientation, flexibility and innovation and the individual needs of social support and certainty about future employment.