A critical review of Korman's self-consistency theory of work motivation and occupational choice

Abstract

On the basis of a review of research testing Korman's self-consistency theory, chronic self-esteem and situational self-esteem appear to be important determinants of performance, choice, and satisfaction. Further, the findings of some studies support Korman's predictions that high self-esteem persons will perform more effectively and show higher correlations between task liking and success, between reward expectancy and performance, between need fulfillment and satisfaction, and between self-implementation and occupational choice. However, one cannot conclude on the basis of this research that “man is self-consistent and not self-enhancing,” since self-enhancement theory is a viable alternative explanation for most of the findings. A major source of ambiguity is that researchers have not tested the crucial self-consistency prediction that low self-esteem persons would seek consistency even at the cost of a dissatisfying occupation, failure, and other negative consequences. Several methodological and conceptual improvements are suggested for future applications of self-consistency theory to work motivation.