Introversion and Trait Incongruent Work Demands: Episodic Misfit at Work

Even if individuals are in a job or organization that is generally a good fit for them, they can still experience misfit with specific work demands. This study examines the proximal experiences of trait-incongruent work demands among highly introverted individuals, offering a novel episodic and trait-specific perspective on workplace misfit. Through narrative surveys and semi-structured interviews, we identify four broad trait-incongruent work demands that spur episodic misfit at work for introverts. We introduce an integrated process model that reveals how individuals’ reactions to introversion-incongruent work demands evolve in the time proximal to the work demand. We build theory about (1) how individuals navigate and cope with introversion-incongruent work demands before, during, and after they occur (and how these adaptations affect immediate and subsequent reactions); (2) why reactions of individuals are sometimes amplified or attenuated across various experiences of trait-incongruent work demands; and (3) how subsequent exposure to these work demands (i.e., experience) plays a role in repeating this cycle. We offer new insights into how and why individual reactions to episodic misfit evolve before, during, and after a specific situation, and factors that may moderate these reactions—a topic that has received scant attention in the person-environment fit literature. We provide propositions for future research and practice-related implications.