Occupational level and Holland's theory for employed men and women

Abstract

The main concern of this study was to investigate occupational level differences among men and women employed in Enterprising environments using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and SDS were administered to 84 male and female workers at high (insurance managers) and low (route salespersons) occupational levels. All workers were employed in Enterprising environments. The findings showed that high occupational level workers tend to be more differentiated and more masculine than low occupational level workers. In addition, the results revealed that the employed men and women tend to respond differently to the VIP and the SDS. Finally, the evidence indicated that all of the occupational groups obtained mean scores on the Enterprising scale of the two inventories that were consistent with Holland's theoretical predictions.