Discuss John Holland's personality-job fit theory.
Answer: The effort to match job requirements with personality characteristics is best articulated in John Holland's personality-job fit theory. Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a position depend on how well individuals match their personalities to a job. Holland developed the Vocational Preference Inventory questionnaire, which contains 160 occupational titles. Respondents indicate which they like or dislike, and their answers form personality profiles.
The personality-job fit theory describes six personality types. These types are:
a) Realistic: Prefers physical activities that require skill, strength, and coordination
b) Investigative: Prefers activities that involve thinking, organizing, and understanding
c) Social: Prefers activities that involve helping and developing others
d) Conventional: Prefers rule-regulated, orderly, and unambiguous activities
e) Enterprising: Prefers verbal activities in which there are opportunities to influence others and attain power
f) Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and unsystematic activities that allow creative expression
The key points of this model are that (1) there do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals, (2) there are different types of jobs, and (3) people in jobs congruent with their personality should be more satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign than people in incongruent jobs.