The role of personal projects in the relationship between job fit and satisfaction

Abstract

One of the most common measures of employee well-being is job satisfaction. Person-job fit, the degree to which an individual perceives their fit to their job, is one of the strongest known predictors of job satisfaction. However, the idea of fit does not necessarily capture whether a job fulfills one's requirements for a meaningful life. Under Free Trait Theory, people can act in ways that do not fit their personality when situations are sufficiently important. One characterization that may determine a situation's importance is its relevance to an individual's projects. This suggests that person-job fit could be potentially less relevant to satisfaction when their job satisfies the needs of their personal projects. The present study investigated the role of work- related personal projects in the relationship between job fit and satisfaction.

Participants (n=195) were asked about their perceived person-job fit (Person-Job Fit Scale), job satisfaction (Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire), and personal projects (Little's personal project analysis methodology) for their current (or most recent job) and for one previous job. Most participants reported having work-related personal projects that were important to them. There was a strong positive relationship between person-job fit and job satisfaction for both current (or most recent) jobs (r=.71) and for previous jobs (r=.60). The importance and the number of work-related personal projects did not contribute to predictions of job satisfaction. They did not moderate the relationship between person-job fit and job satisfaction. These results contribute to the literature on job fit and satisfaction. Specifically, they suggest that any contribution of personal projects to job satisfaction was, in fact, relatively stable across a variety of job situations and people.