Culture in context: the association between fit at work and staff outcomes

Organisational and workplace cultures are important factors in health systems through their capacity to influence outcomes, both for patients and employees. One potentially promising method of studying organisational and workplace cultures in health care is through the lens of person-environment fit, which examines the individuals' perceptions of if, and in what way, they are compatible with aspects of their work context. This thesis focuses on fit in relation to two contextual aspects: the person's work group and their organisation (termed person-group (P-G) fit and person-organisation (P-O) fit,respectively). A two-part method was used to study the associations between fit and staff outcomes, including job satisfaction, burnout and work stress in primary mental health facilities across Australia. In Part 1, an online survey was developed and validated using confirmatory factor analysis, prior to hypothesis testing. Part 2 consisted of follow-up interviews analysed using thematic analysis. Part 1 yielded two valid and reliable sub-scales. The subsequent multiple regression analyses indicated that P-O fit accounted for asignificant proportion of variability in all staff outcomes, but the P-G fit results were less conclusive. Results of Part 2 provided a more holistic description of the associations between different components of fit and their relation to staff outcomes. Ultimately, this thesis contributes a deeper understanding of fit in the context of a workplace and organisation.