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Careers in crisis: The relationship between person-environment fit and job satisfaction

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Date Issued:
2001
Summary:
Archival data collected from a private-practice career counseling center was analyzed to evaluate the extent to which situational constraint measures can be applied as moderators of person-occupation congruence. Demographic, personality, and career interest inventory responses, particularly those for the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), the 16PF, and the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, served as the primary units of analyses. Data was collected by career counselors over a ten-year period for 202 clients (125 men and 77 women; M age = 36.9). Difference score measures were calculated for clients by comparing SH scores to normative means for the general reference sample of the SH and appropriate occupational samples. Situational constraints such as age, income, marital status, having children, time spent in one's career field, and time spent in one's job were hypothesized to be positively associated with seeking career counseling for less voluntary reasons (i.e., terminations or lay-offs) than those who sought counseling for other reasons (i.e., career change, relocations, reentry, or resignation). Although situational constraint hypotheses were not supported, career counseled clients were highly incongruent with the occupational interests of their occupations. The magnitude of this finding exceeds that of those typical of the career-interest congruence literature. Despite clients' incongruence with the interests most commonly associated with their occupations, clients were more congruent on those interest dimensions when scores were compared to general reference sample means. That is, through selection practices or socialization, clients have achieved a minimal degree of congruence yet do not completely match the characteristics of the majority of others in their occupations. The results of this study suggest there is a maximum level of incongruence expected of interest congruence studies. Career-counseled clients in this sample spent considerable sums of money to find work situations that would improve their level of work satisfaction. Further research is necessary to verify whether the inclusion of career counseled clients provides a ceiling for the measurement of congruence-satisfaction relationships. Although situational constraint measures were not identified as effective moderators, their inclusion in future nonarchival studies may yield more sensitive tests of situational constraint hypotheses.
Title: Careers in crisis: The relationship between person-environment fit and job satisfaction.
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Name(s): Jackson, Craig Campbell
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Department of Psychology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2001
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 129 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Archival data collected from a private-practice career counseling center was analyzed to evaluate the extent to which situational constraint measures can be applied as moderators of person-occupation congruence. Demographic, personality, and career interest inventory responses, particularly those for the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), the 16PF, and the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, served as the primary units of analyses. Data was collected by career counselors over a ten-year period for 202 clients (125 men and 77 women; M age = 36.9). Difference score measures were calculated for clients by comparing SH scores to normative means for the general reference sample of the SH and appropriate occupational samples. Situational constraints such as age, income, marital status, having children, time spent in one's career field, and time spent in one's job were hypothesized to be positively associated with seeking career counseling for less voluntary reasons (i.e., terminations or lay-offs) than those who sought counseling for other reasons (i.e., career change, relocations, reentry, or resignation). Although situational constraint hypotheses were not supported, career counseled clients were highly incongruent with the occupational interests of their occupations. The magnitude of this finding exceeds that of those typical of the career-interest congruence literature. Despite clients' incongruence with the interests most commonly associated with their occupations, clients were more congruent on those interest dimensions when scores were compared to general reference sample means. That is, through selection practices or socialization, clients have achieved a minimal degree of congruence yet do not completely match the characteristics of the majority of others in their occupations. The results of this study suggest there is a maximum level of incongruence expected of interest congruence studies. Career-counseled clients in this sample spent considerable sums of money to find work situations that would improve their level of work satisfaction. Further research is necessary to verify whether the inclusion of career counseled clients provides a ceiling for the measurement of congruence-satisfaction relationships. Although situational constraint measures were not identified as effective moderators, their inclusion in future nonarchival studies may yield more sensitive tests of situational constraint hypotheses.
Identifier: 9780493413594 (isbn), 11973 (digitool), FADT11973 (IID), fau:8890 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Adviser: Thomas C. Monson.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2001.
Subject(s): Psychology, Industrial
Psychology, Personality
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/11973
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.