Does the effect of power distance moderate the relation between person environment fit and job satisfaction leading to job performance? Evidence from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Gul, Habib; Usman, Muhammad; Liu, Yuxin; Rehman, Zahid; Jebran, Khalil Article Does the effect of power distance moderate the relation between person environment fit and job satisfaction leading to job performance? Evidence from Afghanistan and Pakistan Future Business Journal Provided in Cooperation with: Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Future University Suggested Citation: Gul, Habib; Usman, Muhammad; Liu, Yuxin; Rehman, Zahid; Jebran, Khalil (2018) : Does the effect of power distance moderate the relation between person environment fit and job satisfaction leading to job performance? Evidence from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Future Business Journal, ISSN 2314-7210, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Vol. 4, Iss. 1, pp. 68-83, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbj.2017.12.001 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/187963 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. 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Evidence from Afghanistan and Pakistan Habib Gul a , Muhammad Usman a , Yuxin Liu a , Zahid Rehman a , Khalil Jebran b,⁎ a Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China b School of Accounting, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China Received 3 July 2017; received in revised form 23 November 2017; accepted 28 December 2017 Available online 8 January 2018 Abstract This study examines the relation between person-environment (P-E) fit with job satisfaction and job (task) performance. This cross-national study is based on faculty members of universities from Kabul (180) and Islamabad (270). Data is collected through self administered questionnaires and is tested following the Baron and Kenny (1986) moderation and mediation procedures. The studycontend that power distance moderates the relationship between P-E fit and job satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, power distance does not moderate the hypothesized relationship. This study finds that individual's satisfaction from high power distance culture depends on their cultural norms because they give more preference to cultural norms than their own needs and demands. Moreover, results show the direct relationship of P-E fit with job performance in Afghanistan (Kabul) and Pakistan (Islamabad). We compared the results of hypothesized model cross-nationally and find some variation regarding employee's job satisfaction. Job satisfaction partially mediates the relationships between P-E fit and job performance in Kabul, while in Islamabad job satisfaction fully mediate the relationship between P-E fit and job performance. By asserting the role of culture, this study developed practical implications for both theorists and practitioners. &2018 Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Future University. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Keywords: P-E Fit; Power distance; Job satisfaction; Job performance; Afghanistan; Pakistan 1. Introduction The selected countries (i.e. Afghanistan and Pakitan) labor market is facing serious challenges such as, lack of knowledge, skills, and abilities because of the political instability, the insurgencies, law and order situations from the last three decades specially Afghanistan is affected more than any country in the world. The lack of unskilled or misfit have serious detrimental consequences both for the organization and the employees (Lee & Ramaswami, 2013). Therefore, a match or compatibility between the environment and the situation is essential. Person environment (P-E) fit is a construct that has achieved a lot of consideration from scholars and practitioners to understand the attitudes and behaviors at workplace since last two decades (Bednarska, 2017;Lee & Antonakis, 2012;Edwards, 1991;Kristof, www.elsevier.com/locate/fbj https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbj.2017.12.001 2314-7210/&2018 Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Future University. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (K. Jebran). 1996;Nolan & Morley, 2013). Psychological theory of work adjustment proposed that the congruence between employee's attributes and those of the workplace leads to attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984). The fundamental concept of P-E fit is the psychological mechanism of compatibility that has been mimicked from similarity and need fulfillment (Kristof-Brown & Guay 2010). Thus the psychological development plays a significant role to enhance culture (Lehman, Chiu, & Schaller, 2004). P-E fit can vary from culture to culture; there is still a debate among researchers to explain this extant effect of P-E fit on numerous attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The construct of P-E fit is appealing for examining the cultural effect over a decade (Schneider, 2001). However, there are limited empirical studies about the generalizability and the validity of P-E fit across cultures (Kristof-Brown & Guay, 2010). Hence, one of the major objectives of the current study is to generalize the concept of fit. In line with previous studies suggestions, the current study has taken power distance as a moderator between the relationship of P-E fit and job satisfaction, which is consistent with the studies of Lee and Antonakis (2012). They found that employees in a higher power distance culture will be happy if they get what they desire. However, if their preferences are not fulfilled according to the social norms and values beside a high level of fit the individual will be dissatisfied. Moreover, based on the previous findings we assumed that culture might play a significant role between P-E fit and job satisfaction in a novel context. These findings are generally failed to report for the effects of cultural values on psychological mechanism that ultimately effect on employee behaviors (Lehman et al., 2004). In addition, we found an interesting analogy for our assertion on the moderating effect of power distance as below. P-E fit research, especially with its focus on personal affective outcomes, is definitely a western tradition, dominated by an emphasis on the individual and on personal satisfaction. These are clearly not universal values and so at least one other the equation environmental variable, national culture, must enter the equation for P-E fit research. It must but has not (Schneider, 2001. p. 148). Job satisfaction is defined in many different ways. However, the most authentic definition is that of Locke (1969) “Job satisfaction is a positive or pleasurable reaction resulting from the appraisal of one's job, job achievement, or job experiences”(p.317). The employees’job performance is the consequence or result of the individual's behavior (Sonnentag and Frese, 2002). Furthermore, Bartram (2005) found that employee's having good knowledge of their job are expected to perform their job successfully. The plethora of research supported the notion that a good fit between employees and their environment have positive consequences for the individual and the organization. For example, this notion is lately confirmed from the meta-analysis of (Oh et al., 2014;Kristof‐Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005) that P-E fit is strongly associated with individual outcomes described by prospective employees. Similarly, empirical analysis found that employee's are found satisfactory, committed with their jobs because of a mutual fit between the characteristics of his own and requirements of the organization (Oh et al., 2014;Mulky, 2012). Triandis (1994) emphasized on the cross-cultural perspectives of the research and described that, the theories that are presented in western developed countries which make 30% of the world population and findings of these theories are implementing on the remaining world 70% population. Addressing the need for cross-cultural studies on P-E fit notion, Lee and Ramaswami (2013) described that "efforts to provide a cultural perspective on fit are rather scant or invisible" (2013). To address this cross-cultural issue in fit research, the current study examined the relationship between P-O fit and P-J Fit and job satisfaction leading to job performance, and further it explain why this particular relationship occur. Perception of P-O Fit and P-J fit are essential for enhancing employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (Cable & DeRue, 2002), therefore in this model P-O fit and P-J fit enhancing employee job satisfaction and job performance in a novel context. To examine this particular proposed relationship, we tested the model by using teachers samples from Afghanistan (n¼180) and Pakistan (n¼270). The Afghanistan and Pakistan have mostly similar culture practices but are mostly neglected in organizational research. This difference between the cultures has the vantage points for understanding the proposed model of fit. First, as according to Aycan et al. (2000) Pakistan is under research country, whereas Afghanistan is considered among the least research countries. So the main objective of the study is to analyze the level of fit and its relationship with attitudinal and behavioral outcomes among the university teachers of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Secondly, the universities are providing a high level of education to the community so there is a need to have congruence between a high level of fit between the teacher and their job and also with their organization. According to MOHE Afghanistan (2013) less than 2% of the current university teachers have Doctoral degrees and 36% have MS/MPhil. This may affect the capability of individuals to deliver the forecasting accepted results due to lack of misfit(Aris, 2007). Thirdly, the differences in culture between the two countries are indicated in the results in organizational settings (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005), it can effect on the fit- H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–83 69 outcome relationships. A meta analysis of Oh et. al. (2014) suggests that P-J fit and P-O fit effects are stronger then East Asian context. However, person-group fit and person-supervisor fit (relational fit) have stronger effect in East Asian context. So in a high power distance culture where people give preference to relational fit, which dimension of P-E fit is more salient in Asian context. Results concerning fit on job performance are less clear in such context. Furthermore, this study is focusing on the question that "how P-E fitinfluences job satisfaction and job performance in high power distance cultures". Prior studies found that teacher's knowledge, abilities and interest are pre-conditions for professional development and their prospective, job satisfaction and job performance (Nye, Su, Rounds, & Drasgow, 2012;Swanson, 2012;Kristof-Brown & Guay, 2011). Nevertheless, considering teacher's P-E fit at workplace requires essential personal characteristics, but this is also an objective of every organization to have a maximum mutual congruence. Therefore, the fundamental assumption is that both employees and the organization will be more triumphant, if the characteristics of individual's and those of the organization are highly congruent with each other's (Ostroff, 1992). By examining the consequences of P-E fit in academia, this may help not only in extending the psychological studies in higher education institution but it will also help for the organization effectiveness. We hope that this study will also fulfill the call by Schneider (2001) who recommended that "the inclusion of culture should be the start of a new tradition" (p. 141) in the fit research. In addition, examining this proposed model of fit cross-nationally contributes both to the generalizability of the fit research in South Asian context as well as extending culture, job satisfaction and job performance literatures. 2. Theoretical underpinning and hypothesis P-E fit has been defined as "the compatibility between an individual and a work environment that occurs when their characteristics are well matched" (Kristof-Brown & Guay, 2010). Prior studies on fit distinguished between personorganization (P-O) fit and person-job (P-J) fit. P-O fit refers to the congruence between individual's values and that of organization's culture, while P-J fit refers to the congruence between an individual's knowledge, skills and abilities and the requirements of a job (Kristof‐brown, 2000). According to Carless (2005) P-E fit is the combination of P-J fit and P-O fit. Later on Edwards (2008) suggested that P-O fit and P-J fit are the two major representative dimensions of P-E fit. These two dimensions are useful when the focus of the study at workplace is in-role behavior as mentioned in job description (Cable & DeRue, 2002). In addition from an organizational perspective, these two dimensions under the umbrella of P-E fit are considered as important because it stresses on the evidence that successful individuals must be fit with organization and their job (Iplik, Kilic, & Yalcin, 2011;Kristof‐brown, 2000;Lauver & Kristof-Brown, 2001). 2.1. P-J fit Examining the interaction between the employees and their workplace is prominent in P-E fit model ( D’Amato & Zijlstra, 2008). P-J fit refers to the "job or the certain set of functions required for a given position. If a person has the abilities necessary to perform the requisite tasks effectively or the job meets that individual's needs, then a good P-J fit exists" (Kristof-Brown, Jansen, & Colbert. 2002, p.985). Edwards (1991) quantified into need-supply fit and demand ability fit, the prior refers to "employee desires and job supplies available to meet those desires" (Edwards, 1991, p.285), while the later has been defined as the "job demands and employee abilities available to meet those demands" (Edwards, 1991, p.285). P-J fit is based on the assumption both theoretically and empirically that P-J fit leads to employee job performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Ostroff, Shin, & Kinicki, 2005;Bartram, 2005;Edwards & Shipp, 2007). Later on other studies also found that P-J fit is positively correlated with employee-job satisfaction (Li & Hung 2010;Saks & Ashforth, 1997). Furthermore the strength of this proposed model has the ability to explain human behavior as a product of association between employees and environment (Lewin, 1935,Kristof, 1996). Similarly according to psychological theory of work adjustment, Dawis and Lofquist (1984), which assumed that if the psychological needs, desires, and preferences are fulfilled in a better way, this will result in a favorable attitudinal and behavioral outcome for the organization. So based on aforementioned theoretical findings, the study has proposed the following hypothesis: H1. :There is a significant positive relationship between P-J fit and employee job performance. H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–8370 H2. :There is a significant positive relationship between P-J fit and employee job satisfaction. 2.2. P-O fit P-O fit refers to the match between an employee values and organizational values or culture (Boxx, Odom, & Dunn, 1991). Previous studies explained various conceptualization of P-O fit, however the two most frequently used dimensions of P-O fit are goals and values (Piasentin and Chapman, 2006). Research on P-O fit shows that a congruence between the focal person and the organization leads to many positive outcomes and they rely upon the concept of "supplementary" fit(Ostroff, Shin, & Feinberg, 2002). The reason behind this positive relationship is that an employee desires to have a job that strengthens his self-concepts. Therefore, values matter a lot through which individual perceive situation and examine acceptable behavior, while achieving value congruence is the basic instrument for successful adaptation in the organization (Adkins, Ravlin and Meglino, 1996). The attraction-selection-attrition framework proposed that employees are concerned about other individuals in the particular organizations having relevant goals or they help in the accomplishment of their own goals (Schneider, 1987). So, obtaining goal congruence leads to motivational outcome (Locke, 1976) and positive affective outcomes (Edwards and Cable, 2009). These goals influencing individuals interest to align with organizational interests, thus working for common interest. Employees with high P-O fit are highly concern to align their day to day activities with those of the organization (Schein, 1992). Based on the above findings, it has been hypothesized that: H3. : P-O fit is significantly and positively related with job performance. H4. : P-O fit is positively and significantly related with job satisfaction. 2.3. Job satisfaction as a mediator between P-E fit and job performance Job satisfaction has been defined as "a positive or pleasurable reaction resulting from the appraisal of one's job, job achievement, or job experiences”(Locke, 1969, p.317). Similarly, Dawis and Lofquist (1984) defined job satisfaction as "a pleasurable affective condition resulting from one's appraisal of the way in which the experienced job situation meets one's needs, values, and expectations" (p.72). These definitions combined two separate characteristics of attitudes, the first characteristics focus on employee affective reaction towards the job, and the second described the evaluation of the employee desires from the job (Olson & Zanna, 1993). As described previously, Locke (1969) suggested that job satisfaction is the outcome of the employee evaluation of the job values and these values, what employee actually want to attain. P-E fit effects employees numerous outcomes positively (Verquer, Beehr, & Wagner, 2003). These outcomes are categorized into three main areas, the first category is attitude (Dawis and Lofquist, 1984); the second category mental and physical (Edwards, Caplan, & Harrison, 1998); and the third category includes job performance and contextual performance (Dawis and Lofquist, 1984). Hence this study focused on the first and third outcome of P-E fit. According to Goodhue and Thompson (1995), performance is the degree of an individual's ability to perform a specific task. As from the first definition of Edwards (1991), it has been observed that an individual knowledge, skills, and abilities congruent to their job are expected to a successful performer and will produce positive work outcomes. Researchers on organizational psychology described that a job which the employee is attached, that provide him some values are considered to be satisfied. In contrast, when the job value does not match with the values of the employee, he will be dissatisfied from their job (Cable and Judge, 1997). A plethora of research supported significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. This common relationship is named as the "Holy Grail" by the industrial organizational psychologists (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). The relationship between employee job satisfaction and job performance is higher and constant. Researchers also described that happy employees perform bitterly then unsatisfied employees (Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003;Ziegler, Hagen, & Diehl, 2012). Therefore, based on the above findings it is hypothesized that: H5. : Job satisfaction is positively associated with job performance. H6. : P-J fit and job performance is positively mediated by job satisfaction. H7. : P-O fit and job performance is positively mediated by the job satisfaction. H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–83 71 2.4. Power distance In the context of cross-national fit, the present study focused to answer the question that how culture moderates the relationship between P-E fit and job satisfaction. Prior studies found that relational fit are more influence on employee outcomes in East Asia then in North America whereas rational fit are more salient in North America (Oh et al., 2014). However there are limited research available in the aforementioned context on moderating role of culture, high power distance, is rather ambivalent. Further there is a huge difference between the levels of fit regarding the high qualification of teachers between the two countries. Thus we examined high power distance dimension empirically. Culture is a composite phenomenon. Anthropologists defined culture in more than hundred different ways (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952). A comprehensive definition is that of (Tylor,1958) who define culture as "that composite whole which includes knowledge, art, morals, law, belief, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society" (p.1). Culture too effects on organizational performance. The attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of the employee's vary from culture to culture based on the values the employee's have at workplace (Odom, Boxx, & Dunn, 1990). In a culture where power distance is low the organizations are less hierarchical, the employees are given free choice, and they have more autonomy as compared to high power distance culture, and they are pleased when their preferences are fulfilled from the organization (Lee & Antonakis, 2012). Peterson et al. (1995) found that employees in high power distance culture are “context-sensitive”and they are found as more loyal to authority, also they are not too much jealous about value choices. P-O fit should be more correlated with organization specific outcomes e.g., turnover intentions and organizational outcomes. Based on the above findings, culture moderate the relationship between P-E fit and job satisfaction, thus it is hypothesized that. H8. : P-J fit and job satisfaction is significantly moderated by the power distance. H9. : P-O fit and job satisfaction is positively moderated by the power distance. 2.5. Theoretical framework The theoretical relationship between P-J fit, P-O fit, power distance, job satisfaction, and job performance is represented in Fig. 1. 3. Methodology 3.1. Population and sample The population of the present study is the faculty members in Afghanistan (Kabul) and Pakistan (Islamabad). At the time of data collection there are forty two universities thirty eight are from private sector and four of them are from public universities in Kabul whereas in Islamabad a total of fourteen universities with their head offices, out of which ten from public sector and four from private sector universities. The total populations of the faculty members are unknown as there are no official data available regarding the numbers of faculty members. Beside that the existing of different kind of faculty members like permanent, visiting, internees and contract faculties in every universities made the exact population difficult. So, a non-probability sampling technique, a convenient sampling, is used to collect the data. Fig. 1. Theoretical framework. H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–8372 The target sample of this study is faculty members, teaching in universities because of the ease the data collection from the university teachers in both sample and the lack of fit regarding their position. In a cross-national study, it is necessary to create sample size that is comparable (Sekaran, 1983). In Kabul, initially 235 questionnaires are circulated and 180 useful feedbacks are received. The response rate is 67%. In Islamabad, 320 questionnaires are circulated and 270 are received back. The response rate is 84%. 3.2. Instrumentations The questionnaires for P-J fit are adopted from Lauver and Kristof-Brown (2001). These are five items. A three item scale is adopted from Cable and Judge (1996) to measure P-O fit. The moderating variable, power distance is measured through six items scale developed by Dorfman and Howell (1988). Job satisfaction is measured using a three items scale developed by Tsui, Pearce, Porter and Tripoli (1997). Supervisor (Head of the Department/Dean) rated job performance scale is adopted from Williams and Anderson (1991). The scale includes seven items. The sample items consist of "Adequately completes assigned duties' and 'fulfills responsibilities specified in the job description". All the responses from the participants are achieved on a five point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly disagree" (5). 3.3. Reliability analysis of scales To identify the inner problems in the questionnaire as well as the standard practice in survey research (Groves, 2004). A pilot study is conducted to assess the reliability of the scales used in this study and to find out deficiencies that may occur to disturb the original data. The instruments used in the survey shows satisfactory coefficient alpha more then (0.7) for all the items. In addition the Table 1 represents the reliability analysis of the scales used in this study. The reliability of the scales is examined using Chronbach's alpha. It is the degree of internal consistency and reliability. The coefficient alpha value must exceed the minimum standard of 0.70 levels to provide good estimates and to retain the items (Nunnally, 1994). The results of reliability analysis reveal that the value of Chronbach's alpha for all scales is greater than 0.7, which reveals that the scales are reliable for analysis. 4. Empirical results 4.1. Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics is carried out to examine the essence of responses. The results for Kabul and Islamabad are reported in Table 2. As the participants were asked to respond on a five-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly disagree" (5). The descriptive statistics of Kabul showed that mean values of P-J fit and P-O fit are 4.5111 and 4.4315 respectively, which shows that most of the respondents agreed with existence of P-E fitin their organizations. The mean value of power distance is 1.48, which shows that respondents disagreed with existence of power distance in an educational sector of Kabul. The mean values of job satisfaction and job performance are 4.5037 and 4.4384 respectively, which shows that respondents are agreed with existence of job satisfaction and job performance in an educational sector of Kabul. The data of P-J fit, P-O fit is positively skewed, while data of power distance, job satisfaction and job performance is negatively skewed. The common rule of thumb for normal distribution values for kurtosis is ranging from -2 and þ2(Landau and Everitt, 2004), while the skewness value more Table 1 Reliability analysis of Kabul and Islamabad. Variable Items Kabul Islamabad Person Job Fit 5 0.796 0.800 Person Organization Fit 3 0.747 0.760 Power Distance 6 0.833 0.833 Job Satisfaction 3 0.898 0.901 Job Performance 21 0.868 0.867 H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–83 73 than twice of its standard error show a departure from the symmetry. So, in our case the Kurtosis value in Kabul as shown in Table (2) are at the range of -1.408 to - 0.850. In case of Islamabad as shown in Table (2), the Kurtosis value range from -1.405 to -.860. The skewness values are not more than twice of its standard error in both the table. The descriptive statistics of Islamabad showed that all the variables are found significantly in the studied area. The mean values of P-J fit and P-O fit in Islamabad are 4.4963 and 4.4173 respectively, which shows that respondents are agree with existence of P-E fit in this organization. The mean value of power distance is 1.4981, which shows that the respondents are disagree with existence of power distance in an educational sector of Islamabad. The mean values of job satisfaction and job performance are 4.4852 and 4.4226, which shows that respondents are disagree with existence of job satisfaction and job performance. 4.2. Correlation analysis The results of correlation among the variables in samples of both Kabul and Islamabad are reported in Table 3. The correlation results for Kabul indicates that P-J fit is positively correlated with P-O fit(r¼0.723**, po0.01) and negatively correlated with power distance (r ¼-0.681**, po0.01). Moreover, P-O fit is negatively associated with power distance (r ¼-0.644**, po0.01). Power distance is negative related with job satisfaction (r ¼-0.440**, Table 2 Descriptive statistics. Variables N Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Kurtosis Kabul Person-job fit 180 4.5111 .38183 0.075 -1.408 Person- Organization fit 180 4.4315 .43110 0.016 -1.376 Power distance 180 1.4861 .36738 -0.013 -1.322 Job Satisfaction 180 4.5037 .45326 -0.098 -1.821 Job performance 180 4.4384 .40147 -0.121 -0.850 Islamabad Person-job fit 270 4.4963 .38201 0.143 -1.405 Person- Organization fit 270 4.4173 .43155 0.081 -1.399 Power distance 270 1.4981 .36653 -0.075 -1.311 Job Satisfaction 270 4.4852 .45398 -0.021 -1.831 Job performance 270 4.4226 .39641 -0.028 -0.860 Table 3 Correlation analysis. Variables 1 2 3 4 5 Kabul 1.Person-job fit1 2. Person-Organization fit .723** 1 3.Power distance -.681** -.644** 1 4.Job Satisfaction .514** .732** -.440** 1 5.Job performance .474** .523** -.458** .671** 1 Islamabad 1.Person-job fit1 2.Person-Organization fit .733** 1 3.Power distance -.680** -.652** 1 4.Job Satisfaction .540** .708** -.464** 1 5.Job performance .483** .528** -.467** .670** 1 Note:** indicates po.01. H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–8374 po0.01) and with job performance (r ¼-0.458**, po0.01). But contrary to expectations the values showed negative relationships with power distance. These results are consistent with previous findings that some kinds of fit (rational) are more preferable in western cultures while others kinds of fit like, relational, are more stronger in East Asia (Oh et al., 2014). In addition, Hofstede (1980) dimensions have also some limitations which he equated nation states with culture so the possible negative association may be due to unclear theorizing of culture at all (Baskerville, 2003). Job satisfaction is positively correlated with P-J fit(r¼0.514**, po0.01), P-O fit(r¼0.732**, po0.01), and with job performance (r ¼0.671**, po0.01). Job performance is positively correlated with P-J fit(r¼0.474**, po0.01) and P-O fit(r¼0.523**, po0.01). These results are consistent with findings of Kim, Aryee, Loi & Kim (2013), Lee and Antonakis (2012), Chuang, Hsu, Wang, & Judge (2015). Table 4 Main effect, moderated & mediated regression analysis of PJF, PD, JS & JP of Kabul. Predictors Mediator JS Dependent JP βR 2 ΔR 2 βR 2 ΔR 2 Main effect: PJF Step1 Control variables 0.081 0.077 Step 2 PJF 0.582*** 0.313 0.232 0.476*** 0.275 0.198 Moderator Analysis PD Step 1 Control variables 0.081 Step 2 PJF 2.363*** 0.395 0.314 PD 1.875*** Step 3 PJF ×PD 0.021 ns 0.397 0.002 Mediation JS Step1 Control variables 0.077 Step 2 JS 0.589*** 0.483 0.407 Step 3 PJF 0.178* 0.504 0.021 Notes: age, gender, education, experience and marital status were control variables. PJF is person-job fit, PD is power distance, JS is job satisfaction, JP is job performance. n¼180. ***,**,* indicates po0.001, 0.01, 0.05 respectively. H. Gul et al. / Future Business Journal 4 (2018) 68–83 75 Fisher, C.B. (2003). 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