Holland-style Measures of Congruence: Are Complex Indices More Effective Predictors of Satisfaction?

Abstract

We explored the hypothesis that the greater the calculation complexity of a congruence index, the greater the likelihood that the index's scores predict level of job satisfaction. Five Holland-style congruence indices were computed for nine female and seven male occupational samples representing the six Holland types for each gender. Analyses for 12 samples did not identify any significant correlations between satisfaction and congruence. For the remaining four occupations and the composite data set, one to three congruence measures correlated significantly with satisfaction. Results indicated a very small relationship between congruence and satisfaction in these samples, which rendered immaterial comparisons of the efficacy of the congruence indices to predict satisfaction. Possible reasons for the small congruence–satisfaction correlations and other factors influencing satisfaction are discussed.