Abstract
A large body of work in organizational behavior has focused on the concept of person-organization (P-O) fit which is based on the premise that attitudes, behaviors, and other individual-level outcomes are not results of either person or organizational factors alone, but rather, the interaction of these factors. However, most of these studies have focused on regular employees, not the owner-manager. According to the NFIB, approximately 12 million businesses have owners whose principal occupation is operating and managing those businesses. A significant number of those firms are family owned. In this paper, we examined the association between specific individual characteristics, firm characteristics, and a number of individual psychosocial outcomes including satisfaction, burnout, and intentions to exit the business. Following a contingency approach, we demonstrate how a mismatch between the family business owner's decision-making style and a number of organizational variables lead to negative outcomes.