Person-Environment Congruence in Relation to Career Change and Career Persistence

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Journal of Vocational Behavior 68 (2006) 504–515 www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb Person-environment congruence in relation to career change and career persistence Ross Donohue * Department of Management, Monash University, Caulfield, Australia Received 3 June 2005 Available online 21 February 2006 Abstract This study examined Holland’s theoretical proposition, that personality-work environment congruence influences career stability and change, with a sample of 212 career changers (respondents who expressed an intent to change career and had engaged in preliminary career change activity) and 249 career persisters (respondents who indicated an intent to remain in their current career). Independent groups ANCOVA (controlling for age and current career tenure) indicated that career persisters scored higher on congruence than career changers, however, the effect size was within the small to medium range. Repeated-measures ANCOVA indicated, with a medium effect size, that career changers moved towards careers that were more congruent with their personality profiles than their current careers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. Ó 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Congruence; Career change; Career persistence 1. Introduction Holland’s (1997) theory proposes that people are attracted to work environments that conform to their personality orientation. Holland referred to the alignment between personality and work environment, as congruence. He proposed that individuals, whose personalities are poorly matched to their work environments, are more likely to change careers than their congruent counterparts. Additionally, Holland hypothesized that when * Fax: +61 3 9903 2718. E-mail address: ross.donohue@buseco.monash.edu.au. 0001-8791/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2005.11.002 R.

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