Fits About Fit

The paper argues that two traditions have dominated research on person–environment fit, the individual differences tradition and the organisational psychology tradition. I briefly review these traditions using the present set of papers as exemplars of these traditions. Then the inclusion of national cultural issues in person–environment fit research, stimulated by two papers in this issue, is introduced and I suggest that this should be the start of a new tradition. Finally, I note that there has been little conceptualisation of, and research on, the environment in person–environment research. This is especially true with regard to the role of people in making environments, and environmental effectiveness outcomes for person–environment fit. I conclude with the thought that fits over fit are healthy because fit is usefully conceptualised and operationalised from so many different interesting perspectives.