Employee Misfit

Theories, Perspectives, and New Directions

Jon Billsberry, Danielle L. Talbot

$385.95 $308.92

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Springer Nature Switzerland AG
25 December 2025

Business strategy; Business ethics; Personnel & human resources management; Organisational theory & behaviour; Neurology & clinical neurophysiology

This book is about employee misfit. Misfit is the feeling of being alienated from other people, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or being out of step with your employer, colleagues, supervisor, or job, or the sense that you do not fit in with other people. These misalignments, disaffections, and estrangements are thought to be deleterious to individuals, associated to stress and depressive states, and people are known to make strenuous efforts to alleviate themselves of it.

This book collects the latest knowledge and thinking about misfit. The authors come from universities across the globe, and their insights inform our understanding of what misfit is, how misfit changes with age and over careers, how misfit relates to neurodiversity, and how misfit should be measured. Although definitions have been elusive in the misfit literature, this book brings much needed clarity to the field and sets agendas for many lines of future research into the construct. This book will be a vital resource for misfit researchers who want to get the latest thinking about misfit and also those researching person-environment fit. It will also be invaluable to practitioners who want to prevent misfit occurring in their workplaces and combat it when it emerges.

The chapters in this book focus on four key themes: employee misfit, person-job misfit, misfit and neurodiversity, and the measurement of misfit. Through the chapters we get a clear sense that misfit is a complex tapestry of perceptions, experiences, people, and situations, which may be viewed through different philosophical and research lenses. By looking at the different facets and strands of the tapestry in each of the chapters, we come to understand that having a broad understanding of the richness of misfit is perhaps the most valuable lesson for both researchers and practitioners.

Edited by: Jon Billsberry, Danielle L. Talbot
Imprint: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Country of Publication: Switzerland
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm,
ISBN: 9789819682072
ISBN 10: 981968207X
Pages: 265
Publication Date: 25 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Employee Misfit.- Person Job Misfit.- Misfit and Neurodiversity.- Measuring Misfit.

Jon Billsberry is an Adjunct Professor in the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC) at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and an Honorary Research Fellow at Eva Burrows College, which is part of the University of Divinity in Australia. Previously, he was Senior Professor of Leadership and Management at the University of Wollongong, Chair in Management at Deakin University, and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Coventry University. He gained his Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, UK. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the British Academy of Management, and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM). He has chaired the Management Education and Development division of the Academy of Management and served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Management Education. His main research areas are organizational fit and misfit, socially constructed approaches to leadership, implicit leadership theory, constructionist psychology, innovative pedagogy in leadership and management, and institutional issues in management education. Jon’s research has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Psychological Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, and Academy of Management Perspectives. Danielle L. Talbot is a Professor and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Business and Law, Anglia Ruskin University, in Cambridge, United Kingdom. She gained her Ph.D. from the Open University and won the Association of Open University Graduates (AOUG) Vice-Chancellor Professor Brenda Gourlay Award for the most outstanding final year doctoral student at the Open University in 2010. Before joining Anglia Ruskin University, she held appointments at Liverpool John Moores University, the Open University, Coventry University, and the University of Greenwich. Her main areas of research are person-environment fit, misfit, and belongingness and diversity on boards. Dannie’s research has been published in Academy of Management Journal, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Gender, Work and Organization, and Personnel Review.