Holland – PowerPoint transcript
Slide 1:
This PowerPoint presentation will outline the key characteristics of John Holland’s theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Holland’s work has been selected because if typifies what is known as ‘trait-factor’, or latterly, ‘person-environment fit’ approaches to career. It also has considerable power and influence in contemporary careers work.
The title of Holland’s theory is worth examining: on the one hand we have vocational personalities, and on the other hand, work environments – here people and environments are brought together – as a matched pair. The analogy of paired, matched items is a useful way of introducing Holland’s work, and trait-factor theory more generally.
Slide 2:
Let’s consider some common paired, matched items. For example, a knife and fork, a pair of shoes. A further example is a child’s shape sorter. Here, shapes are paired, or matched to their respective holes – ‘a square peg in a round hole won’t go’ being the classic phrase. The shape sorter is not just a game of matching items, it also has a diagnostic use – for example, in educational circles, ayoung child’s ability to match the shapes to holes can be taken as a measure of their cognitive development.
Slide 3
The example of the shape sorter serves to introduce two key aspects of Holland’s work – matching, and a diagnostic, predictive aspect. As we shall see, Holland was interested not only matching people to work, but in so doing, predicting the likelihood of their satisfaction and success in such work. Holland was also interested in diagnosing, or more accurately assessing, a person’s ability to make career decisions.
These key aspects of Holland’s work will now be explained in more detail…..
Slide 4:
Holland’s theory is founded on the following propositions:
First, people can be categorised on the basis of six vocational personality types – Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional – these are the shapes of a person’s personality if you will.
Secondly – work environments can be characterised in the same way as persons: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, etc. As such, the shape of a person’s personality can be fitted, or matched, to its environment – an artistic person can be matched to an artistic environment, etc.
Third – Holland suggest that people seek out a good match for themselves – a job that fits their personality.
Fourth – Holland suggests that behaviour – how one undertakes a particular job – is determined by the interaction between personality and environment. Implicit in this statement is the prospect of a good match determining behaviour leading to success and satisfaction in a job; a poor match determining behaviour leading to a lack of success and satisfaction.
Slide 5
The acronym RIASEC is commonly used to summarise Holland’s typology (i.e. Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional)
The following six slides will familiarise you with the key characteristics of each of the RIASEC vocational personality types. As you will see, observable interests and skills take centre stage in defining each type.
Slide 6
First, Holland’s Realistic type:
A Realistic type likes to work with animals, tools, or machines; generally avoids social activities like teaching, healing, and informing others;
A Realistic type has good skills in working with tools, mechanical or electrical drawings, machines, or plants and animals.
A Realistic type values practical things you can see, touch, and use like plants and animals, tools, equipment, or machines.
A Realistic type sees self as practical, mechanical, and realistic.
Slide 7
Second, Holland’s Investigative type:
An investigative type likes to study and solve maths or science problems. They generally avoid leading, selling, or persuading people;
An investigative type is good at understanding and solving science and maths problems, and values science.
An investigative type sees self as precise, scientific, and intellectual.
Slide 8
Third, Holland’s Artistic type:
An Artistic type likes to do creative activities like art, drama, crafts, dance, music, or creative writing. They generally avoid highly ordered or repetitive activities;
An Artistic type has good artistic abilities - in creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art.
An Artistic type values the creative arts - like drama, music, art, or the works of creative writers.
An Artistic type sees self as expressive, original, and independent.
Slide 9
Fourth, Holland’s Social type:
A Social type likes to do things to help people -- like, teaching, nursing, or giving first aid, providing information. They generally avoid using machines, tools, or animals to achieve a goal.
A Social type is good at teaching, counselling, nursing, or giving information.
A Social type values helping people and solving social problems.
A Social type sees self as helpful, friendly, and trustworthy.
Slide 10
Fifth, Holland’s Enterprising type:
An Enterprising type likes to lead and persuade people, and to sell things and ideas. They generally avoid activities that require careful observation and scientific, analytical thinking;
An Enterprising type is good at leading people and selling things or ideas.
An Enterprising type values success in politics, leadership, or business.
An Enterprising type sees self as energetic, ambitious, and sociable.
Slide 11
Finally, Holland’s Conventional type:
A Conventional type likes to work with numbers, records, or machines in a set, orderly way. They generally avoid ambiguous, unstructured activities
A Conventional type is good at working with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way.
A Conventional type values success in business.
A Conventional type sees self as orderly, and good at following a set plan.
Slide 12
As you have seen, each type is defined on the basis of observable, and thereby, measurable interests and abilities. This is also translated in terms of self identity – e.g. a Conventional type seeing themselves as ‘orderly’ and ‘good at following a set plan’.
Here Holland moves us in the direction of skills that can be observed and measured (indeed evidenced – e.g. via a CV or ‘competence-based’ interview).
It is also important to acknowledge that Holland defined vocational personalities on the basis of more than one type – this important aspect of Holland’s work will be outlined in the following slides.
Slide 13
Holland developed his RIASEC typology of personality types in conjunction with what is known as the ‘Hexagon Model’ to produce a powerful framework for the analysis and measurement of individual interests and work environments.
We will now look in more detail at Holland’s ‘Hexagon’
Slide 14
Here, as you can see, each of the RIASEC types is positioned on the six points of the Hexagon. The spatial positioning of the types is significant for the following reasons:
First – it provides the basis for defining a range of personality patterns – e.g. a ‘Realistic and Investigative’, or ‘Artistic and Social’ personality type.
Second, as the remainder of this slide will show, the positioning of the types on the Hexagon is an indicator of consistency of vocational personality. Simply put, the further away the types are on the Hexagon, the lower the degree of consistency.
Slide 15
For example, if a person has a ‘Realistic and Investigative’ vocational personality profile, then, according to Holland, this profile has a high degree of consistency.
Looking back at the RIASEC definitions, we can see that a ‘Realistic’ type sees self as ‘practical, mechanical, and realistic’. Similarly, an ‘Investigative’ type sees self as ‘precise, scientific, and intellectual’. Holland would suggest that these characteristics are consistent with each other.
Conversely, if a person has an ‘Artistic and Conventional’ vocational personality profile, then, according to Holland, this profile has a low degree of consistency.
Looking back again at the RIASEC definitions, we can see that an ‘Artistic’ type sees self as ‘expressive, original, and independent’, whereas a ‘Conventional’ type sees self as ‘orderly, and good at following a set plan’. Holland would suggest that these characteristics are inconsistent with each other.
Slide 16
An important implication of Holland’s notion of consistency is as follows:
A person with a highly consistent vocational personality profile is more likely to find a suitable and satisfying occupation, in comparison to a person with low consistency. Simply put, for an ‘Artistic and Conventional’ person, there may be few occupations to be found that will offer the opportunity to be both orderly and routine and expressive and original.
Slide 17
To summarise – Holland’s Hexagon provides a heuristic – a framework for self-diagnosis. This is reflected in the title of Holland’s famous tool – the Self-Directed Search, or SDS for short.
Holland’s diagnostic system includes, as we have seen, the notion of consistency.
Holland’s other diagnostic indicators are ‘Congruence’, ‘Differentiation’, and ‘Identity’. The following slides provide a summary….
Slide 18
As we have seen consistency, addresses the degree of internal coherence ofan individual’s RIASEC profile.
Consistency is determined by utilising the spatial positioningof the interest types as they appear on the Hexagon.
For example, if an individual scores most highly on ‘Realistic’and ‘Investigative’ then, due to the proximity of these twotypes on the Hexagon, the individual is deemed to have aconsistent profile.
Conversely, a high score on ‘Enterprising’ and ‘Investigative’interests, which appear as opposites on the Hexagon’sperimeter, would be judged as evidence of inconsistency.
Slide 19
The diagnostic indicator of ‘congruence’ is also derived from the Hexagon model. Congruence refers to the degree of fit, or match, between a person’s RIASEC profile and their prospective or actual work environment – for example, an AS individual would be well matched to an AS environment, but poorly matched to an RI work environment. Holland’s approach to the measurement of work environments will be covered shortly.
Slide 20
The diagnostic indicator of ‘differentiation’ refers to the relative strength of a person’s RIASEC profile, as measured via an instrument such as the SDS. A flat profile is indicative of low differentiation, whereas, a peaked profile is indicative of high differentiation.
As with consistency, there are important implications arising from Holland’s notion of differentiation. According to Holland, differentiation can be associated to career decision making – a person with high differentiation (a peaked profile of interests suggesting clear preferences) being well positioned to make career decisions; conversely, a person with low differentiation (a flat profile of interests suggesting no clear preferences) may experience difficulty in making a career decision.
Slide 21
Holland’s concept of Identity brings together the indicators of consistency and differentiation as an overall measure of vocational personality – a person with a highly consistent and differentiated personality profile having, in turn, a high level of clarity about who they are in vocational terms (once again, defined by observable and measurable interests and skills); conversely, a person with an inconsistent, undifferentiated personality profile would have a low level of clarity about who they are in vocational terms.
As such, a person with a clear sense of vocational identity would be well positioned to make career decisions, and vice versa.
Slide 22
So, to summarise…..
The RIASEC typology and the diagnostic indicators of Congruence, Consistency, Differentiation, and Identity, provide the key components of Holland’s theory.
As already indicated in relation to congruence, Holland’s theory goes beyond the measurement of the person to the measurement of the work environment……
Slide 23
In order to measure work environments, Hollandutilised RIASEC to profile people working in particular occupations – he would give a sample of workers an instrument such as the SDS to complete. In so doing, he was able to characterise work environments in the same way as people on the basis of a RIASEC profile. For example, if a consistent Artistic and Social personality profile was obtained from graphic designers, then this occupation would be given an AS profile. It is in this sense that Holland described his theory as ‘elegant’ – there is a particular logic evident here to which we will return shortly.
Slide 24
So, to summarise…..
Occupational environments are classified in a manner similar to the classification of personality types.
A census can be conducted of the percentage of employees of a given type in an organisation - this characterises its ‘personality pattern’ or profile.
Examples of this type of census data can be found in the ‘Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes’.
Further examples are ‘The Occupations Finder’ and ‘The Educational Opportunities Finder’, both of which accompany Holland’s SDS test.
Slide 25
Finally, let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of Holland’s theory…
First - Strengths:
It is easy to administer – for example, the SDS can be undertaken in a short period of time and result in a three letter RIASEC code. This enables a person to measure the degrees of consistency and differentiation in their interests and skills, and lead on to a search for suitable occupations on the basis of congruence.
As Holland himself suggested, it is an ‘elegant’ theory – via RIASEC and the Hexagonit systematically organises the complex world of career for the purposes of matching people to occupations.
The theory has high face validity – RIASEC has been reported in the literature to be a plausible way of defining vocational personalities. There is less support for RIASEC as a means of categorising occupations – simply put, people may see something of themselves in their RIASEC profile, but are less satisfied with the resulting match to occupations via material such as the ‘Occupations Finder’. This is also often the case with RIASEC informed interest inventories such as KUDOS, ADULT DIRECTIONS, and PROSPECTS PLANNER – the resulting list of occupational suggestions can be somewhat of a disappointment for people using this type of material.
Nevertheless, the continued presence and development of KUDOS etc. in contemporary careers work is testament to the power and influence of Holland’s work.
Further weaknesses can be identified as follows:
As already indicated, Holland’s theory focuses exclusively on interests and skills – values and beliefsnot addressed
Material such as the SDS invites a context free (self) assessment of interests – for example, I might state an interest in ‘fixing mechanical things’ but may do this irregularly and/or with a limited degree of competence.
Holland’s approach measures a point in time – career over time, and thereby change and development is not addressed.
It is here that we need to move in the direction of alternative theories.
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