| The match between individuals and their work environments has been studied extensively with regard to vocations, organizations, and jobs. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to examine the nature of person-environment fit in work teams, termed here person-team fit. In particular, two fundamental dimensions of teamwork---interdependence and social interaction---guided an examination of the alignment of individual characteristics and basic attributes of work team environments.; Three studies were conducted to test the influence of person-team fit on six individual outcomes: satisfaction, performance, reported cooperative behaviors, reported conflict, commitment to the team, and reported cohesion. The first study involved 353 undergraduate students who participated in a laboratory experiment. The second and third studies consisted of field surveys in which 457 and 243 responses were collected from employees at two large organizations.; Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that person-team fit is a useful predictor of individual outcomes in work teams. Each of the six measured outcomes was significantly predicted by person-team fit in at least one of the three studies. These conclusions are subject to limitations, however, due to several newly created measures characterized by sub-optimal reliability.; These results imply that future person-environment fit researchers may do well to account for the match between individual characteristics and attributes of team settings. Moreover, improved human resource management practices may arise from the consideration of individual preferences regarding teamwork and their alignment with the central features of team environments. |
