Pay Equity Sensitivity and Person-Environment Fit

Most previous studies of Person-Environment fit have failed to use objective measures of the work environment that are independent of the person examined._ This study aims to further develop and improve the operationalisation of Person-Environment fit by investigating objective fit and by marrying concepts from Equity Theory (Adams, 1965). Equity sensitivity was measured as a personality trait by the 16PF (Cattel et al 1987) and group size (obtained from company records) was the objective measure of the work environment. On the basis of data from 257 shop-floor workers in a factory in Wales, UK, results of hierarchical multiple regression generally indicated that the relationship between sensitivity and pay satisfaction are moderated by group size such that the relationship is positive in small groups and negative in large groups.