A person-environment congruence approach to work-leisure relationships

Abstract

<p>Empirical research on work-leisure relations has generally focused on testing the relative merits of the "spillover," "compensatory," and "segmentation" hypotheses. As a departure from this narrow approach, the present research was conducted to determine the interrelationships among personality, job, leisure activity, job satisfaction, and leisure satisfaction using Holland's hexagonal model as a basis for measurement and interpretation. A sample of 371 adults employed in a wide variety of occupations completed a set of four questionnaire measures: the Self-Directed Search, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Leisure Activities Blank, and the Leisure Satisfaction Scale. Using Iachan's method, comparisons of each subject's three-letter Holland (RIASEC) job, leisure, and personality codes yielded quantitative indices of person-job, person-leisure, and job-leisure congruence. Results indicated that job and leisure satisfaction were positively correlated, but this relationship was not moderated by the "fit" between job and leisure activity. Unlike job satisfaction, leisure satisfaction was shown to be significantly related to personality type, job, leisure type, and job-leisure congruence. Although significant levels of person-job, person-leisure, and job-leisure congruence existed, the degree of "fit" between job and personality was unrelated to that between personality and leisure activity. Personality type differentiated levels of person-job and person-leisure congruence, and the degree of fit between subjects' work and leisure was strongly related to the type of work engaged in. These results raise questions about the nature of the congruence construct and the assumed correspondence between the work and "nonwork" realms of life.</p>