THE FIT BETWEEN EMPLOYEE ROLES AND MARKET DYNAMISM: AN ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT Purpose: Exploring the fit of employee roles and market dynamism, related to performance. Originality/value: In ecology the term ‘fit’ is used for the relation between organisms and their environment. Similarly, we conceptualized the relation between employee roles and markets: the employee-market connection, which may enhance SME’s strategic fit and performance. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research was conducted at 48 SMEs with 221 respondents from the manufacturing industry (53%) and the service industry (47%) and applied a mixed model analysis. Findings: The employee role-mix is moderated by market dynamism: when market dynamism increases, the impact on performance of internal process roles decreases and the impact of rational goal roles increases. The results enrich the resource-based view with the employee-market-connection: the system is resilient, the roles adapt. A fit between market dynamism and employee roles is positively related to performance.