Organizations are dependent on the performance of their people, and people are dependent on their organizations, which provide them with jobs and career opportunities. It is the purpose of this thesis to explore how organizations and people can match to motivate people and increase job performance. This study is the first attempt to investigate empirically how the various types of person-organization fit (hereafter P-O fit) are related to antecedents and outcomes in Korea. And also, based on P-O fit, it examines specifically the relationships between career orientations of R&D professionals and other personal characteristics such as demographic factors, reward preferences, and the effect by having the same career orientations as team leader on job-related outcomes.
The data for this research were collected from a questionnaire survey on 1375 R&D professionals in 15 R&D organizations.
The major findings of this study are as follows:
1) The P-O fit relationship is conceptualized as supplementary fit and complementary fit. The fit between person's value and organization climate (hereafter climate fit), that is supplementary fit, is more related to job attitudes. The fit between person's career orientation and organization's career opportunities (hereafter career fit), that is complementary fit, is more related to job performance.
2) The climate and career fit in the group of R&D professionals with bachelor or master degrees have additive effects on job attitudes. However, the career fit in the group of those with Ph.D. has an effect on job performance.
3) As antecedents of P-O fit, the leader-member exchange has a positive effect on both climate and career fit, the mentoring does on climate fit, and the need for achievement does on career fit, respectively.
4) There are five distinct and independent career orientation dimensions of R&D professionals: technical, manager, project, technical transfer, and entrepreneurial orientations.
5) There is a significant difference between career orientations of R&D professionals in the private and public sectors. The R&D professionals with higher education levels prefer a technical career orientation than those with lower education levels. As R&D professionals are getting older and/or longer tenure, their career orientation toward technical transfer increases.
6) The R&D professionals with same career orientation as their team leader have positive job attitudes. And those with different career orientations show different preferences in reward schemes.
At the end of this study, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for R&D human resource management are discussed.
