Holland's Inventories Self-Directed Search (SDS), Exercises of Decision Making

Download Holland's Inventories Self-Directed Search (SDS) and more Exercises Decision Making in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Counseling for Business & Industrial Holland’s Inventories Self-Directed Search (SDS) 3.1 History - Theoretical Background John Holland’s theory was developed in 1966 and continually improved in 1973, 1985 and 1992. The theory of vocational choice was an immediate success because it provided professional Counselors with a comprehensible and easy to apply conceptual framework, whereas clients entering the social and work life understand how personal and environmental factors interact, and ultimately how this process facilitates decision making. Two instruments support the application of Holland’s theory: Vocational Preference Inventory: VPI (1985) and Self-Directed Search: SDS (1994). The essence of Holland’s and his collaborators’ theoretical development consists in the fact that making vocational choices is “an extension of the personality” of any individual, who finds in the particularities of career development the road to self- assertion through interests and values. Thus, the distinct way of structuring in the personality of any individual a system of interests and attitudes shapes the direction of career guidance. The degree of compatibility between interests and a certain career choice awards personal satisfaction regarding the tasks of one’s own profession.” (Jigau, 2001). Holland states that we can speak of the presence or absence of satisfaction in work to the extent that a number of personality traits match several aspects of the same work environments. In other words, if the Realistic personality type, for instance, matches several factors in the Realistic vocational field, we can anticipate the professional satisfaction of individuals belonging to this type. Holland concludes that:  individuals have different combinations of specific individual traits;  certain traits become relatively stable after adolescence (recent research has confirmed the fact that the process of building interest patterns become stable by the age of 25); 2  choosing an occupation is a way of self-expression;  the members of the same activity field have similar personality structures and histories;  professionals in certain fields who have similar personality structures will react in the same way in similar work situations;  satisfaction, stability and professional status depend on the congruence between one’s own personality and the work environment;  the majority of individuals can be grouped into six personality types and as many work types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional; individuals aspire to those work environments and activities that allow them to capitalize on their qualities and personal values;  success in an occupation / profession requires certain combinations of traits / characteristics on the part of individuals; these combinations (of aptitudes, interests, temperamental aspects, attitudes, values) are relatively similar for people in the same profession;  the results of evaluation through psychological tests of traits / characteristics and the analysis of the set of factors leading to success in a certain occupation for those who are already performing it, may represent a basis to identifying the suitable occupation for someone or the right person for the job and, implicitly, a means of anticipating the success at the workplace and personal satisfaction. Holland’s theory regarding the vocational choices represents the conceptual background of the SDS Inventory. The privileged categories of relationships: “trait-factor” or “matching the person to the environment” are supported by a series of hypotheses targeting the existence of distinct personality categories and as many specific work environments. In these terms, it is estimated that people will seek those positions which they believe will enhance personal and professional success, satisfaction and advancement, self-expression and sharing of the values they believe in. The “trait and factor” theory stems from the premise that there is a strong connection between people’s system of interests and their operational aptitudes. The choice of a profession (job) is thus a specific process reflecting a characteristic 5 people, so as to inform, counsel, help, instruct, educate, train, take care of; can use language creatively to this end. The behaviour of Social clients: oriented towards social exchange, explicitly express the aspirations to relate socially in an altruistic manner, enjoy group activities, cooperation, informal activities; offer to help the Counselors in their activity; they are on occasion too garrulous. Enterprising (E) - The Enterprising environment: leads and persuades people to act in order to attain the purposes of an organization, financial or economic as a rule; such environments offer power, high social status and prosperity. The Enterprising personality type: self-confident, assertive people who enjoy taking risks, persuading, leading and influencing people for the attainment of purposes of an organization, be it their own businesses, reaching important social positions and wealth; they prefer leading to being led. The behaviour of Enterprising clients: dominantly affirmative, they express their feelings and intentions (when socially accepted), moreover they rather persuade others to act according to their own convictions instead of helping them; on occasion they overestimate themselves and inaccurately value their competences and skills; they are exceedingly competitive and often clash with their peers, anxious to reach key positions in organizations. Conventional (C) - The Conventional environment: it implies organization and planning, work is usually done in offices and concerns keeping evidence, making statistics, drawing up reports; work with documents of any nature is orderly, any activity is predictable and conforms to a routine, indications come from superiors or coordinators. The Conventional personality type: enjoy working with numbers, data and information, meticulously, accurately, in a detailed and systematic manner; do not mind receiving instructions from other people; prefer to be in control, not improvise in critical situations or make decisions. The behaviour of Conventional clients: behave conventionally, are orderly, systematic, with a sense of hierarchy, and trust; they are less willing to approach the possibility of occupational alternatives and poorly structured working environments; their need for order can show its worth in fields such as finance, banking, organization of educational activities, conferences, accounting, data processing. 6 In order to have a synthesis image of the characteristics attached to the personality types defined by Holland it is useful to consult the following lists of traits specific to the categories these inventories operate with – RIASEC (also useful as a self- evaluation instrument): Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional conformist analytic complicated persuasive adventurous conformist franc cautious disorderly cooperative Ambitious diligent honest critic emotional friendly preoccupied careful humble curious expressive generous dominating conservative material independent idealistic helpful energetic inhibited natural intellectual imaginative idealistic impulsive submissive persistent introvert impractical perspicacious optimistic orderly practical methodical impulsive kind pleasure- driven persistent modest modest independent responsible popular practical timid precise intuitive sociable self-confident calm stable rational nonconformist tactful sociable unimaginative calculated reserved original understanding garrulous efficient 3.4 The Holland Code There are very few cases of “pure” personality types and work environments; more often we encounter combined types. This is precisely why “The Holland Code” employs three letters to describe each personality type and work environment (e.g.: EIA, ISE, CAS); these letters are the initials of the categories described above (R, I, A, S, E, C). For instance, a library worker (Sharf, 1997) will not be labeled with C (conventional) alone; he or she could be Conventional (C) firstly, but Investigative (I) second, and Social (S) third; in sum, the code will be CIS. For a counselor, the Holland personality code could be SAE (type S – Social is dominant, with two additional types: A – Artistic and E – Enterprising). Three supplementary concepts complete the conceptualization of the “trait and factor theory”; they are: congruence, difference and consistence. Congruence - Congruence refers to the relation between the personality type and the type of work environment; the closer the codes, the more congruent the relation. For instance, if a Realistic type works in a Realistic environment, it is said that the relation between the personality type and the type of work environment is congruent; on the other hand, if a Social type is employed in an Artistic environment, the relation is incongruent, and the person will be relatively frustrated and unsatisfied. 7 A person to whom we can attribute the code RSI will have a high degree of satisfaction if the work environment is also RSI (case of high congruence) and a lower degree of satisfaction if the work environment is RSA (less congruent). Consequently, an RCA type environment will be less congruent with the personality type RSI (mentioned above) and totally incongruent with the type AEC, for example. These concrete situations are frequent in counseling and if we take into account the congruence factor we greatly enhance adequate counseling to the system of interests and values of the client; it is the counselor’s task to evaluate and assist clients in finding the appropriate (congruent) work environment, in accordance with the beneficiaries’ personality structure. Difference - Difference refers to the relation between types and their relative importance. People and work environments differ in that they belong to one or several types. There are people who fully conform to some of the Holland codes, whereas others seem to have characteristics from all six types; the same can be for the work environments they prefer. People who like to do some things and dislike others can be easily distinguishable by interests; similarly, there are people who can perform any activity well and consequently they will not be differentiated in the Holland’s approach. A high score in any type indicates a differentiated profile, while a non- differentiated profile comes from low scores. Just like types of people vary in terms of difference, so do the work environments. This is precisely why some types of people can find professionally satisfying categories of activities (congruence) in various work environments (incongruence), because work environments vary with respect to the degree of difference. People undifferentiated as type may encounter difficulties in decision-making with respect to selecting a career. The counselor’s role in these situations is supporting clients in identifying interests more accurately and setting priorities, that is “differentiating” themselves and thus becoming more likely to select a work environment suited to their structure of interests and aptitudes. Consistency - Consistency refers to the level of similarity between types when compared. It has been found that certain personality types have more in common with certain others. Work environments can also be judged in terms of consistency: a Realistic and a Social environment are inconsistent (RS), whereas a Social and an Enterprising