Stressing academia? The importance of person-organization fit between individual needs and organizational supplies

Incongruences between the individual and the organizational work context are potential stressors. The present study focuses on the relationship between a complementary need-supply fit and Danish researchers’ self-perceived job stress. Strain is expected to increase as organizational supplies fall short of individual need while high degrees of fit will mitigate stress. The analysis is based on a stratified random sample including 2127 researchers at 64 Danish university departments and covering all main areas of research and all academic staff categories. The results show that fit with regard to “soft” dimensions as freedom and independence in the job, personal and professional development at work, and receiving peer recognition is highly significant for the researchers’ self-perceived stress-level. The better the fit is the lower stress-levels the researchers’ on average report. On the other hand, the fit on “hard” dimensions as salary, financial rewards and career opportunities is found to be unrelated to the researchers’ self-perceived stress-level. The fit with regard to job security is an important exception, however.