How Matching Creates Value: Cogs and Wheels for Human Capital Resources Research

Using selection- and adaptation-based logic, we develop a dynamic matching model to describe how employees are matched with positions to enhance human capital-based value creation. Matching, defined as the process by which individuals are dynamically aligned with organizations and the situations (roles, jobs, tasks, etc.) within them, has historically been examined in silos across a broad range of literatures. Consequently, we know little about how seemingly diverse HR activities, such as recruitment, job design, training, promotions, and terminations, might inform each other through the common lens of matching. Emanating from our review, we integrate relevant literatures to develop a comprehensive matching model (termed the “dynamic matching lifecycle model”). Our model extends prior, more static conceptualizations of matching (like attraction, selection, attrition, or ASA) to include four stages: creation, development, reconfiguration, and termination—based on two broad mechanisms—selection and adaptation. Furthermore, we describe how matching contributes to individual and organizational value creation. By evoking human capital theories, we explain how people and organizations engage in matching across the four stages of the model to create human capital-based value. Our model shows that information and information distribution, organization design, and complementarities play important roles in ensuring successful matching. Promising future research directions are discussed.