The Concept of Congruence
A relative degree of congruence, consistency, or "fit" exists between each pair of organizational inputs. The congruence between two components is defined as "the degree to which the needs, demands, goals, objectives, and/or struc• tures of-one component are consistent with the needs, demands, goals, objectives, and/or struccures of another component."
Congruence, therefore, is a measure of how well pairs of components fit together. Consider, for example, two components—the task and the individual. At the simplest level, the task presents some demands on individuals who would perform it (that is, skill/knowledge demands). At the same time, the set of individuals available to do the tasks have certain characteristics (their levels of skill and knowledge). Obviously, if the individual's knowledge and skill match the knowledge and skill demanded by the task, performance will be more effective.