Person–Organization Fit and Friendship from Coworkers: Effects on Feeling Self-Verified and Employee Outcomes

This study examined how person–organization fit and friendship from coworkers combine to affect people’s self-verification, and how self-verification ultimately relates to employee outcomes (job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). Based on a sample of 117 employee–supervisor pairs, multilevel analyses revealed a positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of person–organization fit and self-verification, and also showed that the relationship was facilitated by friendship from coworkers. Specifically, person–organization fit and self-verification perceptions were positively related when friendship from coworkers was high, but nonsignificant when friendship from coworkers was low. In addition, employees’ self-verification perceptions were positively and significantly associated with job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Our research suggests that enhancing person–organization fit and promoting friendship from coworkers in the workplace organizations can satisfy the basic human impulse to feel self-verified, and thus enhance employees’ positive work behaviors.