The effects of personal-organizational fit on employee’s positive work attitudes: An entrepreneurial orientation perspective

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has become a critical characteristic for individual career advancement and the development of corporate entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the connection between personal-organizational fit regarding EO and the working attitudes of employees remains underexplored in the existing literature. This paper explores the impact of alignment between organizational entrepreneurial orientation (OEO) and individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) on employee’s positive work attitudes, focusing on affective commitment (AC) and organizational identity (OI). The foundation of research resides in the personal-organization fit theory, as well as social information processing theory. To rigorously evaluate our proposed hypotheses, we implemented a research design that incorporates polynomial regression with surface response analysis, sourcing our data from 292 valid survey replies gathered from personnel employed by private sector organizations in China. Results reveal a positive correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and positive work attitudes, but also a “too-much-of-a-good-thing” effect, where excessive alignment between IEO and OEO can lead to diminished positive work attitudes. These findings highlight the need for a balanced approach to aligning entrepreneurial values during recruitment and underscore the importance of supporting entrepreneurial employees in highly entrepreneurial organizations.