Welcome to the Third Global e-Conference on Fit

The Future for Fit and Misfit Research

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EXTRA DAY!!

WEDNESDAY 16th DECEMBER 2009

CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE:

www.open.ac.uk/fitconference/  

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Conference Themes

This e-conference is interested in the concept of workplace person–environment fit. This concept is concerned with the relationship between individuals and the organisations that employ them. Over the years we have discovered that higher levels of fit are related to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, staff turnover, intent to leave, stress levels, personnel selection decisions and decisions to join companies. Recent research suggests that people's sense of fit captures how rewarding they find work and how they view the relationship with their employers.

Fit is multi-faceted and appears to be broken down into at least six different forms of fit: Person–Organisation (PO) fit, Person–Job (PJ) fit, Person–People (PP) fit, Person–Group (PG) fit, Person–Supervisor (PS) fit and Person–Vocation (PV) fit. Our approach in this e-conference is to be inclusive of all forms of fit so that researchers working in particular streams might learn from researchers in other fields. In addition, we would like to learn from people in closely related fields such as job embeddedness, stress, job satisfaction and psychological contracts. Insights from all these, and more, will help us understand our own field better.

The theme of this year's e-conference is The Future for Fit and Misfit Research. Recent writings have thoroughly reviewed the current state of the fit literature and have identified fit's conceptual ambiguity and methodological complexity. This is a time of considerable change in the domain and we are uncertain where it will go. It is certainly an exciting time to be doing fit research and two questions force themselves to the fore: Where are we going? Where should we be going? This year we are particularly keen to receive papers that look to the future of fit or which present new perspectives.

In addition to our usual scholarly paper and doctoral zones, this year we are working with Professors Amy Kristof-Brown, University of Iowa and Jon Billsberry, Coventry University, to help in the develoment of their new book New Directions in Organizatonal Fit that will be published by Wiley. Their new edited collection will look at where the organisational fit world may be heading as the book will include innovative and fresh ideas for the field. The first stage of writing process is the production of a short (max. 2000 words) outline of proposed chapters. As the book has an open and competitive call, any one is free to submit outline chapters and we would encourage conference goers to think about contributing. At this conference, outlines will be discussed. If your outline makes the cut, the first drafts are due in on 1st April 2010. 

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Conference Format

The two days will have a similar design. At the start of the day (9.00am GMT), the e-conference will open and all delegates will have the opportunity to read that day's papers. Hopefully, delegates will have questions and a discussion will commence for each paper. The author of each paper will be online at times during the day to join in the discussion. Once open, the papers will stay open throughout the e-conference.

On each day of the conference there will be a keynote 'speech' from one of the leaders in the field. These will go live in the afternoon (GMT) each day. The keynote speakers for this year's conference will all be leading researchers in the field of organisational fit that all delegates will surely know of. Last year, our keynote speakers were Helena Cooper-Thomas (University of Auckland), Jeff Edwards (University of North Carolina) and Tim Judge (University of Florida). At the first conference, they were Amy Kristof-Brown (University of Iowa), Ben Schneider (Valtera & University of Maryland), Cheri Ostroff (University of Maryland) and Annelies Van Vianen (University of Amsterdam).

We hope that the e-conference will be more than the presentation and discussion of research-oriented papers. We hope to include workshops, expert panels and symposia in addition to the paper sessions. There will be a teaching and learning zone to provide ideas for people who want to communicate fit-related ideas to students and also a noticeboard where fit-related matters will be publiised. And, of course, there will be Fit Island where delegates can catch-up, renew acquaintances, and form new friendships over their virtual coffee and doughnuts.

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Key Note Speakers

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Call for Papers

Please refer to the Call for Papers tab to see details. As in previous years, we will be looking for papers on any aspect of fit. This year we plan to include three sections:

• Scholarly papers (max. 2000 words; deadline 30th October 2009 to allow refereeing)
• Doctoral zone (max. 1000 words; deadline 30th October 2009)
• Outlines (of chapters for New Directions in Organizational Fit; max. 2000 words; deadline 10th November 2009)

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Sign-Up

This e-conference is completely free to anyone who wishes to sign-up. All we need is your name and email address. Once you supply us with these details, we will keep you informed about the e-conference, the itinerary, the papers and the 'speakers'. It doesn't commit you to anything; it just keeps you informed about the e-conference (and it helps us judge interest). Please note that if you subscribed to last year's conference, you do not have to subscribe again. Please click on the following link to sign-up:

CLICK HERE for free registration

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Conference Committee

Jon Billsberry, Coventry University Business School, Coventry University (Chair)

Karen Jansen, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia

Amy Kristof-Brown, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa

Cheri Ostroff, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland

Dannie Talbot, Open University Business School, The Open University

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Acknowledgement

This e-conference has been funded by The Fit Project, which is based at The Open University in the UK. Please visit www.fitproject.co.uk for more details about the sponsor.