Revisiting Person–Environment Fit in Mainland China: Replicating and Extending a Chinese Cultural Model

This study revisits person–environment (PE) fit by examining the portability and contextual evolution of a Chinese cultural model of fit in contemporary mainland China. Building on Chuang et al.’s five-dimensional model developed in Taiwan, we conducted qualitative interviews with 60 mainland Chinese employees to assess the model’s portability and to identify contextual extensions within contemporary urban China. While participants affirmed dimensions such as competence, harmony, cultivation, and realization, they also articulated additional emphases that extend the original model. In particular, fit was frequently constructed in instrumental terms, defined by performance, utility, and functional alignment and less by emotional attachment or value congruence. Participants also described psychological detachment, strong work–life separation, and fit as a socially situated performance of appropriateness guided by role expectations and relational norms. These findings illustrate how a culturally grounded model of PE fit retains coherence while shifting in salience over time and setting within a shared Confucian tradition. By documenting both continuity and contextual evolution, the study contributes to a more context-sensitive understanding of fit and informs broader theoretical debates about how PE fit is constructed, enacted, and reweighted across organizational and career contexts.