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The article “Does HRM fit really matters to citizenship and task performance” authored by Chandrakumara (2007) was chosen for this critical analysis exercise due to its relevance to chapter seven of Jackson, Schuler and Werner’s (2009) book.
Chapter 7 specifically addresses the need for human resource departments to recruit and train employees who fit the job specification and the greater organization’s needs. The HR article is based on a combination of literature review and questionnaire-based interviews specifically meant to gauge the effect of HRM fit in selected Sri Lankan manufacturing companies.
Chandrakumara (2007) introduces the concept of HRM fit by explaining that it “denotes a harmonious relationship between an individual employee and his or her environment, and the extent to which the individual is fitted to the environment and vice versa” (p. 612).
He further observes that the concept of HR fit has also been referred to as value congruence, goal congruence, demand-abilities fit, need-supplies fit, and personality-climate fit. Whatever the terms used to explain the concept, however, Chandrakumara (2007) argues that the concept refers to an organization’s capabilities to match the skills and competencies of the workforce to the needs and characteristics of an organization.
Specifically, the author observes that the level of HRM fit in any workplace determines the citizenship performance as well as task performance that each employer portrays towards his or her job-related tasks.
Chandrakumara (2007) defines citizenship performance as the individual efforts by employees that are unrelated to their primary tasks in the organizations, but which are necessary for shaping the social, organizational, and psychological environment in the workplace. Task performance, on the other hand, is defined as employee’s proficiency in performing their official tasks.
In the research article, Chandrakumara (2007) explores how HRM policies interact with employees’ preferences and the effect that the interaction has on citizenship and task performance. In relation to Chapter 7 of Jackson, Schuler and Werner’s (2009) book, the article addresses how recruitment and employee selection affect workplace behavior and the overall employee performance.
Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2007) argue that employee selection is one of the effective ways that organizations can obtain capable workforce that fits the job requirements as well as the higher organizational needs.
Chandrakumara (2007) echoes Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009) argument by stating that HR practices such as “training, selection, socialization, training and development…” (p. 616) are the antecedents that determine employees’ behavioral and personality outcomes in any organization.
Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009) suggest that the selection process should assess job applicant to determine whether they are competent and efficient; motivated; able and ready to adopt behaviors that would lead to customer satisfaction; and capable of buying into and implementing an organization’s strategy.
On his part, Chandrakumara (2007) sums the selection process as an exercise that the HRM personnel should use to gauge if the applicant’s skills and preferences indeed fit into existing HRM policies. The author further simplifies this concept by introducing the person-organization (P-O) fit, which he says is determined by an employee’s interaction with his or her workplace environment.
Using the P-O fit concept, Chandrakumara (2007) indirectly suggests that the employee selection process should consider how well the individual job seeker and the organization can “contribute to the fulfillment of need of [each] other” (p. 616), and the degree to which the individual job applicant and the organization share comparable characteristics. Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009) also hold similar views.
They suggest that apart from employee selection contributing to an organization’s strategic capabilities; it also affects managerial competencies since the organization’s business undergoes changes either through new employee acquisition or through related growth.
Once the HR department introduces new and competent employees into the firm, existing employees feel the urge to perform well in order to match or even surpass the new talents brought to the organization. As Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009) observe, most employees need to be good corporate citizens and will hence work to their level best in order to meet the firm’s expectations.
Through designing a P-O fit strategy as well as specific-behavioral outcome measures, Chandrakumara (2007) hypothesizes that HRM policies can serve to ensure that individual employee preferences are matched to existing HRM practices in a firm in order to enhance employees’ citizenship and task performances.
Though Chandrakumara does not directly mention it, one gets the impression that the ideal recruitment juncture to match the HRM policies with a potential employee’s preferences is during the employee selection phase.
Overall, the research article reveals that task performance is determined by formal job roles related to rewards and control systems, rather than measures related to the P-O fit concept. The Research, however, notes that P-O fit influences employees’ behaviors thus affecting citizenship performance.
Chandrakumara (2007) has also noted that existing employees tend to put a lot more effort in their formal duties in the hope that the personnel working in the human resource departments would recognize their efforts and hence promote them to managerial positions.
While this may not necessarily stand out to the HRM personnel, one gets the impression that the HR department should give existing employees a first priority to apply for available job vacancies.
Internal recruitment, especially for managerial positions, would make it easier for the HR department to assess the job applicant’s personal history and background based on their previous performances in the organization (Jackson, Schuler and Werner 2009).
Main points put forth by the author
Though not solely addressing employee selection as identified by Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009), Chandrakumara (2007) has covered the subject though not directly by addressing the effect of P-O fit on employees’ citizenship performance and task performance.
Ideally, every employer looks for an employee who not only has the relevant skills and competencies required for the job, but also one who has the motivation needed to use his or her skills and talents for the greater good of the firm.
The implication of such reality on HR departments is contained in the realization that skills and competencies are just part of the considerations necessary when selecting people to fill a job vacancy in the firm. The potential employee’s attitude and perceptions also matter a great deal and should, therefore, be assessed using specifically designed selection tests as identified in Jackson, Schuler and Werner’s (2009) HR triad.
The research article by Chandrakumara (2007) further argues that in cases where existing employees do not benefit from the relationship (fit) between them and their employer, there is bound to be an increase in their citizenship performance ensuing from the negative relationship between the two parties.
An ideal example is where existing employees have expressed their interest in an internal job opening, only to be ignored by the management or HR personnel who prefer an outside job applicant. In such a case, existing employees are likely to engage in citizenship behaviors like deliberately slowing down on their job performances or seeking better job prospects elsewhere.
Third on Chandrakumara’s (2007) list of points is the finding that differences between existing HRM practices and employees’ preferences do not necessarily affect citizenship and task performance. This, however, seems to be a contentious observation, especially since Chandrakumara (2007) declares that the research findings documented in the article are not representative of both the services and industrial sectors in Sri Lanka.
Further, the author notes that with Sri Lanka being a developing country, the results of the survey could be different in developed countries especially considering differences that exist between developing and developed countries in relation to availability of labor, and employment vacancies.
As noted by Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009), employee selection requires the participation of line managers, HR professional as well as existing employees in coming up with selection devices that will ensure that the best candidates for an existing job are recruited.
One of the outstanding roles of the selection procedures is to ensure that the person selected and the organization make a perfect fit, as noted by Chandrakumara’s (2007). Admittedly, it is hard to fathom a situation where the selection procedure guarantees a perfect P-O fit between newly recruited employees and every aspect of the job.
Chandrakumara’s (2007) detailed focus on the P-O fit as the basis upon which organizations should judge potential citizenship and task performance, therefore, appears partial. Notably, Chandrakumara’s (2007) seems to have neglected addressing, or even mentioning other considerations that could affect a new employee’s capability to fit into specific job requirements or serve the greater organization needs.
Such considerations include person-vocation fit, person-job fit and even person-group fit. As has been noted by Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009), “when applicants take jobs that do not fit their skills or meet their expectations for career advancement, their performance and morale are likely to suffer” (p. 211).
Despite the noted deficiency, Chandrakumara’s (2007) article remarkably addresses the transferability of human resource management practices. As such, HR personnel can use the article as a vital resource in developing assessment tests that would help them determine how existing HRM practices would affect new employees’ ability to fit into organization’s culture.
Specifically, Chandrakumara (2007) observes that the research findings have possible effects on employers, which include informing HR practitioners about the need to incorporate HR plans and control system specifically designed to enhance the person-organization fit. This is especially essential during the “selection, development, and the design of HRM systems” (Chandrakumara, 2007, p. 611).
The article goes further and recommends that contemporary HRM practices should consider using the person-organization fit to gain better insight into potential employees’ emotional, attitudinal, and mental states. More so, the P-O fit has been suggested as a viable tool to use in gaining knowledge regarding employees’ perception on fairness, justice, trust, job satisfaction, organization support and job involvement.
More to this, Chandrakumara (2007) recommends that organizations should use the P-O fit concept to get a better understanding of not only task and citizenship performance but also commitment behaviors as portrayed by employees in a workplace setting.
Through the insight gained from using the P-O fit concept, human resource departments in contemporary organizations would then develop HRM policies that would not only communicate the organizational expectations to job applicants but also policies that would shape the applicant’s perception about their levels of involvement in the job (Chandrakumara, 2007).
Monitoring citizen onsite behavior and its effects on HR policies
Citizen on-site behavior in an organization is characterized by work-related behaviors that are not categorized as part of the routine duties prescribed in an employee’s job description (Jackson, Schuler and Werner, 2009). More to this, the citizen on-site behaviors cannot be measured using formal evaluations.
According to Chandrakumara (2007), activities such as employee’s willingness to help others in the workplace, willingness to get involved in unpaid company activities, punctuality and usage of time in the workplace characterize employee citizenship behaviors.
Some of the viable monitoring tools proposed by Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009) include analyzing job performance for individual employees, their commitment to the job, absenteeism, and turnover statistics. The HR department can also conduct surveys to determine job satisfaction among employees, role and fairness perceptions, among other things.
Based on the results of the monitoring exercise, the HR departments can then develop HRM policies that would address the undesirable aspects of citizenship on-site behavior, while retaining the desirable aspects (Chandrakumara, 2007).
Conclusion
In pages 255 to 256 of Jackson, Schuler and Werner’s (2009) book, the authors acknowledge that the job applicant’s perception regarding the selection and recruitment processes is vital for the employee’s future performance and retention.
Specifically, employees’ perception regarding fairness in the content, process and the results of the selection and recruitment exercise determines the type of mindset they form regarding the employer.
This, therefore, raises the need for HR departments to design and use recruitment processes that are not only effective in identifying and recruiting the ideal candidates for a job, but also processes which the job applicants can perceive as fair and non-discriminative.
Overall, Chandrakumara’s (2007) article scores highly in bringing to light the effects that P-O fit could have in the selection and recruitment procedures of industrial sectors in developing countries like Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, the limitations of the article as acknowledged by the author makes it hard for readers to understand whether the P-O fit concept as identified in the research article is applicable in developed countries, or even in the services sectors in both developed and developing countries.
Regardless of this shortcoming, however, the article could be of valuable use to HR departments who find the advice relevant to their specific situations. To a non-professional reader, however, the complex explanations offered by the author can be intricate to the point of one losing concentration. To the interested scholars or HR practitioners, the article makes an informative, albeit a boring read.
References
Chandrakumara, A. (2007). Does HRM fit really matter to citizenship and task performance? Employee Relations, 29(6), 611-639.
Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2009). Managing human resources through strategic partnerships (10/E Ed.). Cincinnati, OH: South Western Publishing.
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