Human resource management practices and person-organization fit towards nurses’ job satisfac- tion

Article history: Received: March 18, 2020 Received in revised format: May 3


Introduction
In the pursuit of an organisation's effectiveness pertaining to its rising demands and ever-increasing cost, organisations resort to cost cutting strategies, subsequently, accumulating an increased workload and to perceived deteriorating of working conditions on nurses (Aiken et al., 2012). A growing body of extant literature has been associated with poor nursing work atmosphere to poor nurse consequences (Institute of Medicine, 2004). Shortages of nurse have endured to be a universal challenge for some time, and it is anticipated to get worse owing to longer life expectancies and more people living with lingering illness in several countries (Lo, et al., 2018). With a doubt high quality patient care is considered as a fundamental provision for which adequate staffing or nurses in hospitals are pivotal, resultantly, improving patient outcomes (Cho et al., 2015). On the contrary, poor nursing work environment is associated with inferior patient care, increased incidence of nurse exhaustion, rising job dissatisfaction and intention to leave present nursing employment (Maryyan, 2019). There is no doubt that nursing is a demanding profession. It is also believed that often nurses' work demands surpass their job and personal resources making them susceptible to various adverse consequences on both their physical and mental health (Bernal et al., 2015). Which further exacerbates the shortage of nursing staff (Flinkman & Salantera, 2015). Shortages of nurses now exist in several countries around the world (MacLean et al.,2014) and regarded as a global menace (Johnson et al., 2016;Tabiu et al., 2016). According to an estimate by government organisations and researchers that In United States alone, there will be shortage of nurses from 300, 000 to 1 million in 2020 (Juraschek et al., 2012). Similarly, nurses' turnover in Europe is also very alarming. According to Palese et al. (2015), 34 percent or nurses planned to withdraw from the current working hospital within one year after getting hired and 43.8 percent of them had already filled in the transfer request. Similarly, in the context of this research i.e. Jordan, like other countries, also faces the scarce supply of nurses. This challenge is more serious for the private hospitals since in addition to the nurses' movement to other regional or overseas countries, internally scenario clarify that the nurses generally prefer employment in public hospitals because of the higher salaries and benefits, as well as more job security comparative to private hospitals ). According to Al-Hamdan et al. (2017) this inadequate supply of nurses in Jordan could be precisely due to high nurse migration rate to countries with favourable human resources management practices and working condition in both developing and developed countries. Hayajneh et al. (2009) proclaimed the nurse turnover rate may be as high as 36.6 percent. With reference to World Bank statistics, Jordan is categorised as small and middle-income country, situated in the Middle East with the total population of 9.7 million people. Jordan has one of the most modern health care infrastructures in the Middle East and is known for high-quality healthcare (Nazer & Tuffaha, 2017). The health sector in Jordan is combination of both private and public sector hospitals. There are total of 111 hospitals in Jordan, out of which 47 are public hospitals and 64 are privately owned hospitals (Ministry of Health, 2018).
The contemporary health care system in Jordan is embracing new challenges such as increased attention on technology and quality and cost linked to health care (Dunn et al., 2005). To cater these changes many hospitals have increased their use of administrative techniques, introducing incentive system and performance measurement to foster efficiency (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2008). Resultantly, affecting the human resource practices (Chow et al., 2011). In order to effectively manage the healthcare workforce in Jordan and to reduce the nurse dissatisfaction and turnover, it is suggested that HRM practices need to shift from a theoretical to a practical perspective (Saif & Sartawi, 2013). HRM practices are substantial mechanisms through which employees obtain information about their organisation through mirror the organisation's strategy and values, and therefore transfer vital information about organisational features and values, aims, beliefs, and desired employee behaviours to employees (Kooij & Boon, 2018). Accordingly, HRM practices will drive to greater levels of fit between employees and their organizations which will, in turn, lead to improve the employees' outcomes (e.g. attitudes and behaviours), and also the employees will experiencing high levels of well-being (Mostafa, 2015). According to Turek and Wojtczuk-Turek (2015), a central mechanism by which the HRM system affects the employee and organizational outcomes is the P-O fit. Since the employees' work attitudes and behaviours are formulated by how their personal goals and values align with those of their work environment (Jin et al., 2018). As result of the previous debate, it is predicted that the relationship between HRM practices and employee outcomes will be mediated by P-O fit (Mostafa, 2015;Rawashdeh, 2018).
Published empirical studies have established that job satisfaction is a significant predictor of nurses' turnover and intention to leave . Therefore, to attain the purpose of incessant enhancement of patient care quality, healthcare organisations all around the world, particularly in Jordan, must always monitor and promote the health and satisfaction of all the people who are involved in the care process (Al-Abri & Al-Balushi, 2014). Considering the alarming turnover of nurses in Jordan, this research will be investigating the role of HRM practices on nurses' job satisfaction through P-O fit.This study developed the framework using social exchange theory which helps us to understand how HRM practices influence worker job attitudes such as job satisfaction (Andreassi et al., 2014). Studies of mediation frequently employed social exchange theory to provide a descriptive framework (Alfes et al., 2013a). Social exchange theory is founded on norms of reciprocity within social relationships. Balanced social exchange relationship may imply a better fit between employees and their organizations (Lv. & Xu., 2016). Employees viewed HRM practices as a "personalized" pledge to them by the organization which automatically will be reciprocated to the organization by positive attitudes and behaviour (Alfes et al., 2013a).
This study contributes in several ways. Firstly, there is dearth of empirical studies in the domain of human resource academic world which have focused on P-O fit. Very few studies have investigated the relationship between the HRM practices and their association on P-O fit, especially in the context of Jordan, therefore, fulfilling the research gap, this study will be unique especially in the context of Jordan. Secondly, increasing the horizon of the research, this study will contribute in expanding the body of knowledge by providing deeper insights about the association between the application above mentioned HRM practices, P-O fit and nurses' job satisfaction in private hospitals of Jordan. Subsequently, this addition in the body of academic literature will further be beneficial to the other types of hospitals in Jordan (e.g. public, military and teaching hospitals) as well to the similar context in different countries. Similarly, the findings of this study will highlight which HRM practices to focus upon in order to improve organisational strategies and to reduce turnover behaviours among nurses by making robust business models based on strong HRM practices.

Literature Review
Job satisfaction is defined as the degree of positive or negative feelings towards one's job (Spector, 1985). Similarly, Spector (1985) also mentioned facets of measuring job satisfaction such as pay, contingent rewards, fringe benefits etc. Job satisfaction is a significant nursing outcome for managers to progress nurses' retention which is influenced by standard of the work atmosphere (Boamah et al., 2018). Nurses' yields more productivity and creativity when they are satisfied with their organisations. Plethora of published empirical research is conduct in regard to job satisfaction and linked job satisfaction with nurse work environment (Alotaibi et al., 2016;Alsaraireh et al., 2014). However, the element of job dissatisfaction still prevails among nurses (Hayes et al., 2010;Lu et al., 2012). Research has also found that job satisfaction is highly impacted by several work-related characteristics such as pace of the work, relations with colleagues' and the ability to meet patient needs (Cicolini et al., 2014;Hayes et al., 2010). In general job satisfaction is regarded as a psychological characteristic of an individual's feelings which is echoed towards his work. Moreover, when an employee aptness of his skills and abilities is more or equal to the work, he/she performs, resultantly, increases his job satisfaction. Job Satisfaction is also regarded as a personal condition which is the effect of an inference grounded on an evaluation of what an employee obtains from his work compared to what is anticipated, expected and believed of as appropriate (Sageer et al., 2012). This shows that perception of job satisfaction is result of the human interaction with work environment (Karamanis et al., 2019;Zakaria et al., 2018;Loan et al., 2020).

Hypotheses Development
Recently, a number of studies have started to examine the relationship between combination of several HRM practices on employee's perception, P-O fit and job satisfaction. Their findings support the notion that HRM practices have an influence on P-O fit and job satisfaction (Kooij and Boon, 2018;Mustafa and Gould-Williams, 2014;Gould-Williams and Gatenby, 2010). It is believed that the perception of HRM practices is more proximal predictor of the organisational outcomes (Boon et al., 2011;Jiang et al., 2017). According to Boon et al. (2011) HRM practices such as performance appraisal, recruitment and selection and etc are one of the foremost factors that help match employees with their organisations. The application of HRM practices constantly disseminate organisational beliefs and expectation to employees, resultantly, facilitate better P-O fit (Boon et al., 2011). As a result, employees who perceive HRM practices to be present are likely to have a clear view regarding the organisation's values, demands and expectations, and desired behaviours. P-O fit takes place when an individuals and organizations fulfil common requirements and share essential characteristics. Prior research has demonstrated that positive perception of HRM practices result in desirable outcomes such as diminish turnover intention (Alfes et al., 2012), and task performance (Alfeset al., 2013b;Jebreel et al., 2020). According to Boon et al. (2011) who investigated the relationship between employee perception of HRM practices on employee outcome through P-O fit and empirically concluded that employee perception of HRM practices has a positive effect on P-O fit, and their relationship will further be strengthened by the continuous supply of such HRM practices to employee. Similarly, in the study by Kakar et al. (2019) the authors used bundle of HRM practices such as training and development in organisation and established that academic's perception of HRM practices is positively related to P-O fit. Similar results were achieved by Kooij and Boon (2018) who also used combination of several HR practices such as recruitment and selection and performance appraisal to examine the perception of HR practices and their relationship with perceived P-O fit over time. Therefore, based on the above discussions, this leads to the making of following hypothesis: Previous investigations in several work environments have proposed that P-O fit is linked to several positive outcomes for employees at work, including job satisfaction. Empirical consequences of the present literature commonly support the positive effect of P-O fit on employees' working attitude and behaviour (Ellis et al., 2017). Jin et al. (2018) in their study conducted in the public higher education setting, which proposed that perceived fit may affect an employee's turnover intention through its influence on job satisfaction and followership. Further study targeting nurses revealed that nurses' perceived P-O fit is a significant predictor of general job satisfaction (Risman et al., 2016). Similarly, Chaturvedi and Dubey (2016) in their seeking to investigate this relationship they used sample of 400 nurses working in different public and private hospitals in India, were the result indicated that P-O fit of nurses was positively correlated with and significantly predicted job satisfaction. Hence, following theoretical and empirical reasoning, we presume that: H4: P-O fit has positive significant influence on nurses' job satisfaction.
One of the key objects of HRM practices is matching employees with the organisation, it can explained as, when the organization applying HRM practices, which will function as message that the organisation cares about its employees and is ready to invest in their development (Kooij & Boon, 2018). In turn, the step which taken by the organization will be reciprocated by employees through positive attitudes such as job satisfaction (Jeanine et al., 2014). On the basis of social exchange theory, once employees hold positive assessment on the actions of the organization, employees who touch high-level P-O fit may remark their organization to be supportive (Lv. & Xu., 2016). In turn, the increased sense of belongingness that employees with high P-O fit experience will lead to increased affective commitment toward the organisation (Kooij & Boon, 2018).
Based on the above debates, the effect of HRM practices on employee outcomes (job satisfaction) might be mediated by P-O fit (Boon et al., 2011). There are very few studies which investigated the mediation effect of P-O fit between HRM practices and job satisfaction. For example, Boon et al. (2011) investigated the relationship between employee perception of HRM practices and employee outcome as satisfaction through the indirect effect of P-O fit and empirically conclude that HRM practices are mediated by P-O fit in creating a better outcome from the employees. Similarly result was revealed by Mostafa and Gould-Williams (2014) when they investigated the HPHRP-Job satisfaction relationship through P-O fit among employees of the public sector in Egypt. Thus, the current study predicts that the relationship between HRM practices (recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal) and job satisfaction mediated by P-O fit.
H5: P-O fit mediates significantly the relationship between recruitment and selection and employee job satisfaction. H6: P-O fit mediates significantly the relationship between training and development and employee job satisfaction. H7: P-O fit mediates significantly the relationship between performance appraisal and employee job satisfaction.

Research Model
The current study explores the relationship between the HRM practices i.e. recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal on nurses' job satisfaction mediated by performance-organisation fit. Fig. 1 illustrates the research model that is used in this paper.

Measure of Constructs
This study is cross-sectional in nature and a survey questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. The constructs used in this study were adapted from the existing literature and were modified to meet the objective of the study. The items of three HRM practices used in this study namely recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal were adapted from Tessema and Soeters (2006), Boon et al. (2011) and Takeuchi and Takeuchi (2013), respectively. The scales of P-O fit were adapted from Alniacik et al. (2013). Finally, the items of employee jobs satisfaction were adapted from Zeffane and Melhem (2017). The current research used multiple-item scales to measure each variable. All the constructs such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and person-organisation fit were measured using a seven-point Likert scale that ranged from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree, except for employee job satisfaction which measured using a five-point Likert scale that ranged from (1) strongly disagree to (5)

Data collection and sample
This study adopted a structured questionnaire to collect data for each variable. Convenience sampling was used, and respondents were invited to voluntarily participate in the survey. For data collection all 43 private hospitals in Amman, Jordan were contacted to get the approval for collecting the data from nurses, out of these 43 private hospitals only 16 responded affirmatively. Nurses were then asked to fill up the survey form comprising of their demographics, perception about recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, P-O fit and job satisfaction. Around 500 questionnaires were distributed, only 281 were returned to the researchers (response rate of 56.2 percent). All the returned questionnaires were thoroughly scrutinized, and 274 were fit for data analysis. Female respondents (65 percent) were significantly larger than the male respondents (35 percent). The majority of the respondents falls in the age group of 25 to 34 (51.1 percent). Most of the respondents in this study were bachelor's degree holders (75.9 percent). Most of the respondents had experience with their current hospital in the range of 1 to 5 years, where this category shaped 44.2 percent from the total number of the study' respondents. Almost half of the respondents were married with 54 percent (see Table 1). Moreover, as the data was collected from the single source, therefore, common method bias (CMB) was a concern. Beside implementing the procedural remedy

Recruitment and Selection
Training and Development

P-O Fit Job Satisfaction
Performance Appraisal to cater the CMB, statistical approach was also adopted by applying Harman's single factor test. The total variance in this study was below the threshold level of 50 percent. Thus, CMB was not an issue in this study.

Data Analysis: Partial Least Squares (PLS)
This study employed partial least squares (PLS) technique to test the hypothesised relationships. Following Hair et al.'s (2019) recommendation, the model of the current study was tested in two steps. In the first step, the measurement model was examined to establish the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Later, in the second step, the hypotheses of the study were tested using the bootstrapping technique.

Measurement Model
To assess the measurement model, it is necessary to indicate convergent validity and construct validity (Hair et al., 2019). To determine convergent validity, the loading of each item on its associated variable, average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR) were employed (Hair et al., 2019). Table 2 shows that all the items exceeded the recommended value of 0.7. Furthermore, to assess construct validity, CR higher than 0.7 (Chin, 2010) was determined. Table 2 shows that values were acceptable. The heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) was tested to assess discriminant validity (Zailani et al., 2019). The HTMT ratios were consistently lower than the most restrictive threshold of 0.85 (Kline, 2016). Thereby indicating satisfactory discriminant validity properties. Therefore, the measurement model results show that the validity and reliability criteria were met and that constructs developed for this measurement model are useful in testing the structural model and associated hypotheses.

Structural Model Evaluation
In examining the structural model R 2 , beta and the corresponding t-values are involved (Hair et al., 2014). To get the t-values, a bootstrapping process with 5000 resamples was applied. First, we look at the predictors of HRM practices. Recruitment and selection (β =0.366, p < 0.05) is positively related to P-O fit, hence, H1 was supported. Training and development (β= .093, p > 0.05) is not significantly related to P-O fit subsequently, H2 was rejected. Next, performance appraisal (β =0.286, p < 0.05) is positively related to P-O fit, hence, H3 was supported. Second, we look at the relationship between P-O fit and job satisfaction. H4 was supported in this study which illustrates that there was positive relationship between P-O fit and job satisfaction (β = 0.622, p < 0.05). The results are shown in Table 4. Testing the mediating effect of P-O fit is another objective of this study. This section explains the mediating effect of P-O fit in the relationship between perceived HRM practices (e.g. recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal) and job satisfaction. In this concern, Hayes (2009) and Preacher and Hayes (2008) estimation of the mediation effect for SEM with the bootstrap test was used as it considered more suitable than the concept of (Baron & Kenny, 1986) about mediation. In this study, the indirect effect of training and development on nurse job satisfaction via P-O fit was found to be insignificant, therefore, H6 was not supported. Whereas, the indirect results of P-O fit between (1) recruitment and selection, (2) performance appraisal, and nurses job satisfaction were found to be significant, thus, both H5 and H7 were supported. The results of the mediation effect were shown in Table 4.

Discussion and Conclusion
The main goal of this study was to bridge and enhance the P-O fit and HRM literature through providing empirical evidence from Jordanian context. This study also provided a specific insight about which HRM practices are the most fit to the hospitals from the perception of the nurses. Resultantly, this study fills the gap by adding the body of knowledge pertaining to health care related research in Jordan and other countries in the area (Nazer & Tuffaha, 2017). The finding indicates that out of three human resource management practices used in this study only two were found to have a significant effect on P-O fit i.e. recruitment and selection, and performance appraisal. Similarly, P-O fit was also found to have a significant impact on nurses' job satisfaction. Evidence was also found for a mediating role P-O fit in the relationship between perceived HRM practices and nurses' job satisfaction. The result revealed that there was no mediating effect of P-O fit between training and development and job satisfaction, however a positive and significant mediating relationship of P-O fit was found between the remaining practices and job satisfaction. This finding is consistent with the rationale of social exchange theory (Lv & Xu, 2016), the findings of previous research (e.g. Boon et al., 2011;Mostafa et al., 2014). Furthermore, the nurses in the early stages of work (having 1-5 years' experience) were found to have significant perceptions of HRM practices resultantly leading to better P-O fit comparing to the nurses in the advance stage of their careers (6-10, 11-15, 16-50, and above 20 years), this assumption is moderately supported by previous study' finding, which conducted in the western context (e.g. Kooij & Boon, 2018). Moreover, the study findings work as evidence about the new realization among the Jordanian organization about the importance of adaption the HRM practices which is averse to the previous evidence from the previous findings (e.g. Aladwan et al., 2014). Furthermore, the current study statistics also highlight a new trend between the age of the respondents and their perceptions about HRM practices. According to this study statistics, majority of the respondents were between 25-35 years age (51.1%), which led the researches to believe that the younger nurses are keener to claim better HRM practices from their hospitals, subsequently, generating a better P-O fit, as compared to other age groups. This shows the increasing interest of Jordanian organizations (e.g. hospitals) in adopting HRM practices in the last decade.

Theoretical and Practical Implications
This study contributes to the HRM literature by providing a deeper insights and association with P-O fit. No other study particularly in the context of Jordan has applied P-O fit. By focusing on nurses' perceptions of HRM practices, it elaborates how these perceptions will impact their level of fit with their organizations and job satisfaction. The findings of this study indicate that P-O fit can help human resource managers identify the inconsistencies between the staff and the organisation to reduce dissatisfaction and turnover. By investigating the nurses' perceptions, it can reflect the perceptions of the hall employees in this industry, since the nurses are Jordan's largest group of health professionals. Further it can aid in lessen the existing problem of nurses' job satisfaction in Jordan specifically and in many developing countries (Zhang et al., 2017). From the practical aspect, as this study target only one category of the health bodies in Jordan (private hospitals), this to avoid any overlapping in the findings. The current study' finding can be utilised by these private hospitals to formulate more effective policies to optimize the nurses job satisfaction. Furthermore, the practices that are offered are similar to all employees, which give indications that the findings relatively can be applicable to the other working categories in the private hospitals. Finally, the findings of this paper propose that nurses' perceptions of HRM practices are strongly related to their attitudes as well as their feeling of fit with the hospitals.

Limitations of the study and path for future research
This present study has its own limitations that ought to be considered or manage by future research. To begin with, the researchers have communicated 43 hospitals in Amman, Jordan to get their approvals to participate in this study, out of the 43 hospitals only 16 were response positively. This figure can be clarified due to the limited understanding of the important of this study findings for the hospitals in shade of the scarce research in related to this study mechanism, accordingly the findings of the current study will work as a blueprint for the future researches to simplify their studies motivations. Furthermore, future studies may wish to examine the feasibility of extrapolating the findings presented here across other Jordanian public and private sector organizations. Future work should also focus on the behavioural outcomes (e.g. organizational citizenship behaviour as a dimension of employee performance). In additional the level of experience and age stage can be appointed as a control variable in the future studies. Finally, future study can examine additional HRM practices such as employee empowerment, job design, compensation and etc, in order to provide wide range of evidence about the most fitting practices to the Jordanian organizations.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.