The purpose of this paper is to (a) develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between person–environment (PE) fit and employee engagement by shedding light on their intervening mechanisms; (b) represent how different types of PE fit and employee engagement interact; and (c) establish a comprehensive theoretical framework to guide future research based on the empirically examined constructs and their relationships. An integrative literature review of 51 empirical papers which analyzed the relationship between PE fit and employee engagement suggests that the antecedents of the relationship exist at the organizational, group, and individual levels and can be conceptualized as socialization, relationship building, and personal character, respectively; values–supplies fit, needs–supplies fit, and demands–abilities fit act as intervening mechanisms in the relationship; the relationship is temporal, reciprocal, and facilitated by human agency; and various outcomes result from the relationship. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

This research aims to reveal how and under what conditions service-oriented high-performance human resource practices (HR) influence employee service performance (ESP). Data were gathered from full-time hotel employees and line managers. In total, 1,525 questionnaire forms were acquired. While respondent employees had filled in the questionnaire form containing independent, mediator, and moderator variables, line managers filled in the questionnaire form containing the dependent variable. The research results demonstrate that HR attributions, trust in the organization, and affective commitment serially mediate the relationship between service-oriented high-performance HR practices and ESP. In addition, the results point out the moderating roles of person–supervisor fit and person–vocation fit. As a result, the current research contributes to the literature by way of revealing how and under what conditions the service-oriented high-performance HR practices affect ESP.

The present study investigated the role of temporal flexibility on three conceptualizations of person–environment fit and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 320 full-time employees in Canada and America. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that temporal flexibility was directly related to increased job satisfaction and indirectly related to job satisfaction through supplementary fit, demands–abilities fit, and needs–supplies fit. Moreover, supplementary fit and demands–abilities fit were influential on perceptions of needs–supplies fit, although we acknowledge that additional research is required to further explore our novel findings of the relative relationships between the three conceptualizations of person–environment fit. The present research supports the idea that giving employees greater control over their schedule increases their autonomy, thus helping to satisfy a core psychological need. Organizations that provide employees with the opportunity to choose their own schedules may be more likely to retain satisfied and committed people who believe they fit well with their employer.

The preference of older people when it comes to ageing in place may be modified by levels of frailty. The aim of this research is to characterise the relationship between frailty and ageing in place, and to identify differences in neighbourhood characteristics supporting ageing in place missed by frail and non-frail older people. A concurrent nested mixed-methods approach was used. For quantitative evaluation, a sample of 945 independently living older adults residing in four districts of Rotterdam were asked to complete a questionnaire in 2013 (response rate = 62%; N = 558). In addition, 32 interviews were conducted with frail and non-frail older people. Results showed that gender, age and especially frailty were related to missed neighbourhood characteristics. People displayed awareness of their increasing frailty and often acknowledged that it increased the need for neighbourhood characteristics enabling them to age in place. We can conclude that dependence on neighbourhoods varies with frailty status. This relationship is dynamic; with frailty, older people become more dependent on their neighbourhood. However, expectations regarding neighbourhood characteristics seem to dissipate with advanced age and increasing frailty.

The recent growth in self-employment has sparked scholarly interest in why individuals choose and remain in self-employment. Yet, relatively little is known about how self-employed workers enact their daily lives and what this means for their work–life interface. Self-employment is often presented as a means to enhance life choice and as enabling work and nonwork activities to be combined more satisfactorily. However, extant evidence on how self-employment is experienced is mixed, with some studies reporting long and irregular working hours and high levels of stress. Furthermore, the way in which self-employment is experienced may be influenced by national context – economic, institutional and cultural factors. In this paper, we develop a multi-level model which extends existing work on the Person–Environment Fit by incorporating factors relevant to self-employment. The model assists us to understand how contextual factors create both opportunities and tensions which impact the work–life interface of self-employed workers.

During the 1970s, American gerontologist M. Powell Lawton and colleagues saw the person–environment system as fundamental to defining the quality of later life. They proposed the environmental docility hypothesis that weighed whether the more competent the person, the less dependent they are on environmental circumstances. This work was later advanced to show that environmental pro-activity, including adaptation, could reinforce control and autonomy. While that theoretical development focused on the micro-environment of accommodation, it can be applied to the macro-environment of community living. This paper, which utilises data from an empirical study ‘Environment and Identity in Later Life’, examines both the micro and macro scales, develops the theoretical content of the person-competence model, considers the complexity of person–environment interaction, and argues that over time some people find that their attachments to particular environments are compromised by declining competence or changes in the environment, or both. The point at which change impacts on an individual's independence and wellbeing is reached when adaptive behaviour cannot rebalance the macro- and micro-environmental press. This point, termed ‘option recognition’, leads to a range of strategic responses including: modification of behaviour or environment; structural support using formal and informal services; and relocation; all of which impact on self-identity.

Research on person–environment fit theory has largely developed within the context of people and organisations in urban settings. There has been little research of this kind within organisations in isolated and confined contexts. The purpose of this article was to examine the implications of person–environment fit theory within the context of the complementary fit and supplementary fit paradigm (Muchinsky & Monahan, 1987), for people working in isolated and remote organisational settings. Using a sample of Antarctic personnel, this study examined the extent to which psychological need fulfilment and subjective fit with Antarctic station culture were equally important in predicting individual attitudes, including satisfaction with being an expedition member, intent to return and willingness to recommend the Antarctic to others. Results showed that gender and subjective fit with Antarctic station culture predicted satisfaction with station membership. Results also showed that subjective fit predicted willingness to recommend the Antarctic as a good place to work, while psychological need fulfilment was not a predictor of any of the outcome variables examined. Results suggest that outcomes such as intention to return (or to stay) may be less relevant in such settings because of the unique and temporary nature of the experience and the work. Results also attest to the need for further development of organisational theories, including person–environment fit theory, using data collected from organisations in isolated, confined and extreme environmental contexts.