Abstract
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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 151-175 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Personnel Psychology |
Volume | 78 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 The Author(s). Personnel Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Keywords
- episodic misfit
- introversion
- trait-incongruent work demands