INVESTIGATING HOLLAND TYPOLOGICAL THEORY WITH ARMY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTIES

We investigated how well Holland's (1985a) typology can distinguish Ar my occupational specialties and the validity of the congruence-satisfa ction hypothesis in this context. The Vocational Preference Inventory was completed by 154 enlisted men in four representative Army specialt ies. Holland codes for the work environments were based on the enliste d men's Vocational Preference Inventory scores, supervisors' ratings o n the Position Classification Inventory, and the Army's rational codes . The majority of the soldiers were Realistic types, supporting Hollan d's hypothesis that individuals select occupations that are congruent with their type. In a stronger test, Holland codes did a poor job of d istinguishing the occupational specialties, however. Lack of support f or the congruence-satisfaction hypothesis was attributed to several fa ctors, not all of which are unique to the Army context. The study rais ed questions about the ability of Holland's typology to distinguish Re alistic working class occupations in the general economy and about the congruence-satisfaction hypothesis in this context. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.