Congruence as a predictor of occupational stress

Congruence as a predictor of occupational stress

[Abstract]: This study examined the relation among nine measures of Holland's concept of
congruence and the relation of these measures and occupational stress. Holland's
Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1985b) and the Occupational Stress Inventory
(Osipow & Spokane, 1987) were administered to 154 fully-employed adults. Two
correlated factors accounted for the pattern of correlations among the congruence
measures. The first factor was defined by measures which made use of the hexagonal
arrangement of types and the second was based simply on discrepancies between the
letters representing the person's type and the job environment. A number of markers
for the second factor were related to stress and strain. Iachan's M index (Iachan,
1984;1990) was the best predictor, accounting for seven percent of variance on total
stress scores and nine percent of variance on total strain scores. It is suggested that the
relation between congruence and stress, like the relation between congruence and job
satisfaction (Spokane, 1985), is significant but rather small and dependent on the
measure of congruence used.