Fitting in: Different Types of Person-Environment Fit as Drivers of Career Self-management in Kuwait

Contributing to emerging efforts to integrate the understudied career self-management (CSM) with person- environment fit research, this study aims to assess the unique effects of person-organization, person-coworkers and needs-supplies fits on employees’ deployment of career advancement strategies. A questionnaire was completed by 548 highly educated young Kuwaitis and self-initiated expatriates (Arab and South Asian) working in medium and large Kuwaiti organizations. The simultaneous effects of the three types of fits is assessed and the findings demonstrate that an increase in person-coworkers fit and decrease in person-organization and needs-supplies fits consistently encourage the deployment of career advancement strategies concerning accessing influential networks, self-promotion, competence building and psychological boundaryless. A relatively more robust effect of person-coworker fit has been detected. It is attributed to the Arab collectivistic culture and to the construct being a career competency and a contextual factor as per the “intelligent career” theory. Interventions should be mindful of the differential effects of different types of fit on CSM. Developing organizational ‘standards of fit’ and CSM skills are essential for individual career development and organizational success. The study provides unique information about the understudied constructs of CSM and person-environment fit in a traditional and high inequality Arab Middle Eastern country, and infers the causes of the inconsistent effects of contextual factors reported by previous studies.