CHAPTER 2
The Theory of Work Adjustment

JANE L. SWANSON¹ AND MADALYN SCHNEIDER²

¹Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL

²Saint Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute, Chesterfield, MO

The theory of work adjustment (TWA) is considered a model of person–environment vocational fit, as is Holland's vocational‐personality typology (see Nauta, Chapter 3, this volume). Both theories evolved from earlier trait‐and‐factor counseling (Su, Murdock, & Rounds, 2015), which, in turn, was based on Parsons's (1909/1989) social reform efforts at the turn of the twentieth century. Further, both TWA and Holland's theory (as based on Parsons's) may be described as “matching models” (Betz, 2008), in which vocational choice is maximized by specifying important characteristics of the individual and the environment and then attempting to find the best match or fit between individual and environment. The characteristics of individuals and environments that are considered to be important vary by theory. An additional component of matching models is that the degree of fit is quantified in some manner, and fit may then be used to predict central outcomes, such as the person's satisfaction or tenure.

Both TWA and Holland's model evolved within the discipline of vocational psychology yet share a conceptual foundation with the broader study of person–environment psychology. This perspective is built on the assumption that there is a reciprocal relationship between people and their environments: People influence their environments, and environments influence the people in them (Walsh, Craik, & Price, 2000). Work is but one of many environments in which people interact—others include school, family, intimate relationships, living environments—all of which influence and are influenced by the individuals in them. Vocational psychology—its science and its practice—has embraced the tenets of person–environment psychology (Swanson & Chu, 2000), as evidenced by the TWA and Holland models of person–environment fit. In addition to being a model of person–environment fit, TWA may be considered a model of person–environment interaction (Dawis, 2005): The concept of fit describes the degree of similarity between a person and an environment, whereas the concept of interaction reflects the reciprocal influence between a person and an environment.

CORE CONCEPTS OF THE THEORY OF WORK ADJUSTMENT

The theory of work adjustment, as reflected in its name, has as its primary focus the process of adjustment within work environments, but it also can be used to help people make vocational choices (to be discussed in a later section of this chapter). In the original presentation of the theory and throughout its continued development, TWA has been characterized by careful attention to the structural characteristics of theory building. For example, Dawis and Lofquist (1984) presented 17 formal propositions and associated corollaries, which have guided subsequent work related to the theory. These propositions are presented in paraphrased form in Table 2.1.

As a theory of person–environment fit, TWA focuses on the process of individuals' adjustment to their work environments, including the characteristics of individuals that predict their satisfaction with the work environment, as well as their level of satisfactoriness within the work environment. TWA embodies two models: a predictive model and a process model (Dawis, 2005). The predictive model focuses on the variables that explain whether individuals are satisfied with their work environments and whether they are satisfactory to their work environments, which in turn predicts individuals' tenure in their work environments. The process model focuses on how the fit between individuals and their environments is attained and maintained. Thus, TWA has a structural component, describing characteristics of individuals and environments at a given point in time, and a dynamic component, describing how individuals and environments are actively engaged in maintenance and adjustment behavior (Bayl‐Smith & Griffin, 2015; Dawis & Lofquist, 1984).

PREDICTIVE MODEL: PREDICTING WHETHER WORK ADJUSTMENT OCCURS

The predictive model comprises the core of TWA and is reflected in Propositions I through IX in Table 2.1. TWA proposes two sets of parallel characteristics. First, an individual has a set of needs and values that may (or may not) be met by rewards available in the work environment. Second, the work environment has a set of job requirements that may (or may not) be met by the skills and abilities that the individual possesses. Each of these intersections of an individual and his or her environment is described by the term correspondence or its lack, discorrespondence.

TABLE 2.1 Summary of Formal Propositions of the Theory of Work Adjustment

• Proposition I: Work adjustment at any time is indicated by the concurrent levels of the person's satisfaction and satisfactoriness.
• Proposition II: A person's satisfaction is predicted from the correspondence between his or her values and the environment's reinforcers, provided that there is also correspondence between the person's abilities and the environment's ability requirements.
  
  • Corollary IIA: A person's values may be inferred from knowledge of his or her satisfaction and the environment's reinforcers.
  • Corollary IIB: An environment's reinforcers may be inferred from knowledge of a person's values and his or her satisfaction.
• Proposition III: A person's satisfactoriness is predicted from the correspondence between his or her abilities and the environment's ability requirements, provided that there is also correspondence between the person's values and the environment's reinforcers.
  
  • Corollary IIIA: An environment's ability requirements may be inferred from knowledge of a person's abilities and his or her satisfactoriness.
  • Corollary IIIB: A person's abilities may be inferred from knowledge of an environment's ability requirements and the person's satisfactoriness.
• Proposition IV: Prediction of a person's satisfaction is moderated by his or her satisfactoriness.
• Proposition V: Prediction of a person's satisfactoriness is moderated by his or her satisfaction.
• Proposition VI: The probability that a person will leave an environment is inversely related to his or her satisfaction.
• Proposition VII: The probability that an environment will fire a person is inversely related to his or her satisfactoriness.
• Proposition VIII: A person's tenure is predicted from his or her satisfaction and satisfactoriness. Given Propositions II, III, and VIII:
  
  • Corollary VIIIA: A person's tenure is predicted from the correspondence between his or her values and the environment's reinforcers, and the correspondence between his or her abilities and the environment's ability requirements.
  • Corollary VIIIB: A person's tenure is predicted from the correspondence between person and environment.
• Proposition IX: Person–environment correspondence increases as a function of a person's tenure.
• Proposition X: The correspondence between a person's style and the environment's style moderates the prediction of the person's satisfaction from the correspondence between his or her values and the environment's reinforcers, and the prediction of the person's satisfactoriness from the correspondence between his or her abilities and the environment's ability requirements.
• Proposition XI: A person's flexibility moderates the prediction of his or her satisfaction from the correspondence between his or her values and the environment's reinforcers.
• Proposition XII: An environment's flexibility moderates the prediction of a person's satisfactoriness from the correspondence between his or her abilities and the environment's ability requirements.
• Proposition XIII: The probability that a person will engage in adjustment behavior is inversely related to his or her satisfaction.
  • Corollary XIIIA: A person's flexibility threshold may be determined from knowledge of this probability associated with his or her satisfaction.
• Proposition XIV: The probability that an environment will engage in adjustment behavior is inversely related to the person's satisfactoriness.
  • Corollary XIVA: An environment's flexibility threshold may be determined from knowledge of this probability associated with the person's satisfactoriness.
• Proposition XV: The probability that a person will quit an environment is inversely related to his or her perseverance.
  • Corollary XVA: A person's perseverance threshold may be determined from knowledge of this probability associated with his or her quitting the environment.
• Proposition XVI: The probability that an environment will terminate (fire) an individual is inversely related to its perseverance.
  • Corollary XIVA: An environment's perseverance threshold may be determined from knowledge of this probability associated with the environment terminating a person.
  • Given Propositions VIII, XV, and XVI:
• Proposition XVII: A person's tenure is predicted jointly with his or her satisfaction, satisfactoriness, and perseverance, and the environment's perseverance.

Note. The propositions are adapted from Dawis (2005) with slight alterations in wording; the original numbering is preserved.

If a person's needs are met by his or her work environment, then the person and environment are in correspondence; if not, then they are in discorrespondence. Likewise, if the work environment's requirements are met by the person, then the person and environment are in correspondence; if not, then they are in discorrespondence. The former situation determines the individual's level of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with the work environment; the latter refers to the individual's level of satisfactoriness (or unsatisfactoriness) to the work environment. Said another way, an individual has needs, and the work environment has rewards; if needs and rewards (or reinforcer patterns) correspond, then the individual is satisfied. Likewise, an individual has abilities, and the work environment has ability requirements; if abilities and ability requirements correspond, then the individual is considered satisfactory. These relationships are illustrated in the left side of Figure 2.1. It should be noted that, in the recent literature (e.g., Bayl‐Smith & Griffin, 2015, 2017; Dahling & Librizzi, 2015), some of the original terminology of TWA has been supplanted. For example, the correspondence between needs and rewards is sometimes referred to as needs–supplies (or N–S) fit and the correspondence between abilities and ability requirements as demand–ability (or D–A) fit; in other words, correspondence, a single TWA term used to denote two different points of intersection between a person and his/her work environment, is explicitly separated into two different terms. These updates may be prompted by the parallel literature in industrial–organizational psychology, as well as an effort to avoid the confusion of a single term used to describe two separate processes.

FIGURE 2.1 Prediction of work adjustment.

Source: Adapted from A Psychological Theory of Work Adjustment, by R. V. Dawis and L. H. Lofquist (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984) p. 62, 1984 University of Minnesota Press.

TWA emphasizes the measurement of abilities and values to facilitate the match of individuals' characteristics with the characteristics of the work environment (the assessment of these concepts is discussed in a later section). In the parlance of TWA, abilities are “reference dimensions of skills” (Dawis, 2005); that is, abilities are the more general dimensions underlying specific skills. For example, verbal ability is the general dimension underlying demonstrated reading comprehension and vocabulary. In a similar fashion, values are the general dimensions underlying specific needs. TWA includes six core values: achievement (using one's abilities and having a feeling of accomplishment), comfort (feeling comfortable and not feeling stressed), status (achieving recognition and being in a dominant position), altruism (being of service to others and being in harmony with others), safety (having a stable, ordered, and predictable work environment), and autonomy (being independent and having a sense of control) (Dawis, 2002).

If an individual is both satisfied and satisfactory (or if both the individual's needs and the work environment's demands are met), then the individual and his or her environment are in a state of harmonious equilibrium, and work adjustment has been achieved. If, however, the individual is dissatisfied, unsatisfactory, or both, then a state of disequilibrium exists. This disequilibrium serves as a motivational force, propelling some type of change to occur. The specific type of change depends on a number of other factors, to be discussed later. Thus, dissatisfaction serves a central motivational role in TWA. Dissatisfaction of either party—the person or the environment—represents a disequilibrium in the person–environment system and serves as the impetus for some type of adjustment to occur.

Disequilibrium is an uncomfortable state that motivates actions leading to reestablishment of equilibrium. As Dawis (1996) noted, “Satisfaction motivates ‘maintenance’ behavior; dissatisfaction motivates adjustment behavior” (p. 87). Adjustment behavior may take one (or more) of four avenues (Dawis, 2002): Two of the options are present when individuals are dissatisfied with their environments, and two of the options are present when individuals are unsatisfactory (and therefore the environment is dissatisfied with them). The ideal state is when a person is satisfied and satisfactory, leading to maintenance behavior. However, a person could be satisfied yet unsatisfactory, dissatisfied yet satisfactory, or both dissatisfied and unsatisfactory. These latter three states lead to adjustment behavior.

If people are dissatisfied, they have two possible choices: attempting to change the environment or change themselves. They may be able to influence the environment to change the number or kinds of reinforcers that it provides, for example, by requesting a salary increase or a change in work tasks. Alternatively (or in conjunction with environmental change), workers could change the number or kind of needs that they require, such as changing their expectations about salary or rethinking how they interact with a difficult coworker. Ultimately, individuals must decide whether to stay in the current work environment or leave for another environment.

If individuals are unsatisfactory, they have two possible choices: increasing their level of skill or expanding their skill repertoire to meet the requirements of the environment or attempting to change the environment's expectations. Moreover, the environment has several possible actions, with the ultimate outcomes of retaining or terminating the individual.

Although TWA focuses on both the individual and the environment, the theory clearly emphasizes what the person experiences: The term satisfaction refers to an individual's satisfaction with his or her job (needs–supplies fit), whereas the term satisfactoriness refers to an individual with whom the work environment is satisfied (demand–ability fit). Tenure occurs when an individual is both satisfied and satisfactory (Dawis, 2005) (see the center portion of Figure 2.1). In addition to these basic predictions, TWA proposes a number of moderating relationships and variables. As depicted by the dotted X in the center of Figure 2.1, the processes of correspondence, satisfaction, and satisfactoriness influence one another. That is, workers' level of satisfaction with their work environment is predicted to influence their level of satisfactoriness to the work environment; if workers are satisfied, then they are more likely to perform at a satisfactory level, whereas if they are not satisfied (i.e., if their needs are not being met), then they are less likely to perform at a satisfactory level. Conversely, if individuals are performing at a level that the environment judges to be satisfactory, then they are more likely to be satisfied than if they are performing at an unsatisfactory level.

Another type of moderator variable included in TWA is personality style, which describes how individuals characteristically interact with their environments. TWA proposes four styles: celerity, pace, rhythm, and endurance. Celerity describes how quickly one responds or the speed with which an individual initiates interaction with the environment. A person with high celerity responds quickly to the environment, perhaps even impulsively, whereas a person with low celerity moves slowly in interacting with the environment. Pace refers to how intensely one responds to the environment. Once an individual chooses to act on the environment, then pace describes the rate of interaction, such as high or low energy. Rhythm is the pattern of the pace of one's response, such as steady, cyclical, or erratic patterns, and endurance refers to sustaining the pattern of response to the environment, namely, how persistently one responds.

These four personality style variables help explain why individuals with similar values and abilities exhibit different behaviors within the same work environment (Swanson & Fouad, 2020). These style variables also can be used to describe the environment, thus leading to a description of the correspondence between an individual and his or her environment. For example, an individual with a high degree of celerity would be in greater correspondence with an environment that requires a similar level of celerity than an environment with low celerity. Although the four style variables are not included in the model in Figure 2.1, these variables and the level of person–environment correspondence they produce are important to consider.

PROCESS MODEL: PREDICTING HOW WORK ADJUSTMENT OCCURS

The process model adds to TWA's ability to predict work adjustment by focusing on how adjustment occurs and how it is maintained. Recall that discorrespondence between people and their environments serves to motivate behavior; the process portion of TWA defines the parameters and outcomes of that motivational force. Recall, too, that discorrespondence refers to either the individual being dissatisfied with the work environment, the individual being unsatisfactory to the work environment, or both. TWA proposes that individuals' adjustment styles characterize how they react to the occurrence of discorrespondence, as illustrated in Figure 2.2.

Adjustment style consists of four variables: flexibility, active adjustment, reactive adjustment, and perseverance. Flexibility refers to how much discorrespondence people will tolerate before they reach a threshold of dissatisfaction that leads to some type of adjustment behavior. Individuals vary in the amount of flexibility that they will exhibit before their mismatch with the environment becomes too great, but eventually discorrespondence may exceed their tolerance and individuals move into an adjustment mode. Once an individual's flexibility level has been exceeded, adjustment behavior can be characterized as either active or reactive.

In active adjustment, the individual acts on the environment in an effort to decrease discorrespondence (such as by trying to change the available rewards and/or trying to change what the environment requires). In reactive adjustment, the individual acts on himself or herself to reduce the amount of discorrespondence (such as by changing his or her own needs and/or skills). Activeness and reactiveness are not mutually exclusive; rather, an individual might use both modes of adjustment. Finally, perseverance refers to the length of time that an individual is willing to persist in a discorrespondent environment after engaging in adjustment behavior. An individual who quits the job after a brief attempt at change is characterized as low in perseverance, whereas an individual who persists despite repeated or lengthy attempts at change is considered high in perseverance.

FIGURE 2.2 Relationships between adjustment‐style dimensions in Essentials of person environment correspondence counseling, by L. H. Lofquist and R. V. Dawis (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991) p. 19.

Reprinted with permission.

Adjustment styles are relevant to the environment, too. Environments differ in how much discorrespondence they will tolerate between an individual's abilities and the environment's ability requirements before judging the person as unsatisfactory (flexibility). When an environment's flexibility threshold is exceeded, it engages in either active (e.g., provide additional training to improve the person's abilities) or reactive adjustment (e.g., move the person into a more ability‐correspondent position). Some environments may fire a discorrespondent employee more quickly than others (perseverance).

All four of these adjustment style variables are hypothesized to vary among individuals and work environments and are important factors in predicting adjustment behavior. The concepts of active and reactive adjustment modes and of flexibility and perseverance are thus useful in predicting what an individual is likely to do when he or she is dissatisfied with a job. The active and reactive adjustment modes can also provide options for counselors and clients to consider in order to improve clients' levels of work satisfaction. Flexibility and perseverance are viewed as fluctuating characteristics: An individual may be flexible and able to tolerate discorrespondence on one day but then be unable to tolerate it the next, thus entering into adjustment mode. Despite fluctuations, an individual is likely to develop a characteristic adjustment style over time, which may be evident in multiple arenas of his or her life.

The illustration of adjustment behavior in Figure 2.2 demonstrates the influence of the four adjustment style variables. The vertical line in the center of the figure represents the range of discorrespondence that an individual (or an environment) might experience, with zero discorrespondence at the bottom of the line and extreme discorrespondence at the top of the line. Moving up the center line represents an increase in discorrespondence, as that amount begins at an acceptable or tolerable level. As the increase in discorrespondence exceeds an individual's level of flexibility—or becomes intolerable or unacceptable—then he or she embarks on adjustment behavior, either active or reactive. The individual continues with adjustment attempts until he or she has reached the limit of his or her perseverance, at which point the amount of discorrespondence has become unmanageable, and he or she will leave the environment.

For example, a woman who has a strong desire for autonomy is dissatisfied by the level of close monitoring provided by the supervisor in her new job, yet she is flexible in tolerating this discorrespondence because she believes her supervisor will reduce monitoring after a training period. However, her supervisor continues close monitoring even when she has demonstrated her skill, and the employee experiences dissatisfaction. When the employee's dissatisfaction reaches an intolerable level, she will then attempt to make an adjustment. She may choose to talk with her supervisor about her frustration (active adjustment) and/or decrease her feelings of dissatisfaction by changing how she interprets her supervisor's behavior (reactive adjustment). If she is successful, then she will feel satisfied (achieve correspondence and restore equilibrium). If, however, her supervisor continues to closely monitor her work, and she continues to feel dissatisfied, she will need to decide whether to persevere in her job or leave for another position (either in the same organization or at a different organization).

The concepts found in the predictive model interact with those in the process model. According to TWA, people's levels of satisfaction mostly depend on how their values correspond to the reinforcers provided by the environment (or, needs–supplies fit). However, workers' levels of satisfaction also depend on their satisfactoriness as well as on their personal flexibility. In other words, if a person is unsatisfactory (the environment is dissatisfied with the individual), the individual's satisfaction can no longer be predicted as well by the correspondence between his or her values and the environment's reinforcers. Further, the greater an individual's flexibility, the easier it is for the environment to satisfy the individual (Dawis, 2002).

In a similar fashion, an individual's satisfactoriness depends mostly on how his or her abilities correspond to the requirements of the environment (or, demand–ability fit). However, an individual's satisfactoriness also depends on his or her level of satisfaction, as well as the flexibility of the environment. In other words, if a person is dissatisfied, then the individual's satisfactoriness can no longer be predicted as well by the correspondence between his or her abilities and the environment's requirements. Further, the greater the environment's flexibility, the more tolerant it will be with a lower level of correspondence between an individual's abilities and the environment's requirements.

ASSESSMENT OF TWA CONSTRUCTS

A strength of the theory of work adjustment is the amount of attention that its authors devoted to developing psychometrically sound measures of its central constructs. Unfortunately, many of these measures are not widely available and so have not been adopted by career practitioners. However, as Dawis (2005) noted, the theory is not wedded to use of these specific measures, and, in fact, using measures developed outside of a theoretical framework may provide more robust evidence of the theory's validity and practical utility. Indeed, because TWA focuses on the correspondence between person variables and environmental variables, any measures that provide a way to quantify that correspondence may be used within the context of TWA constructs. In this section, we briefly discuss the measures developed by Dawis and his colleagues, as well as other measures.

Needs and values.  Assessing work‐related needs and values is frequently an important part of career counseling (see Rounds & Leuty, Chapter 16, this volume). Within the context of TWA, the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ; Rounds, Henley, Dawis, Lofquist, & Weiss, 1981) was developed to measure an individual's needs and values. Although the MIQ is no longer available for administration and scoring, the test booklet and manuals are available through the Vocational Psychology Research website at the University of Minnesota (http://vpr.psych.umn.edu). Because the MIQ formed the basis for the O*NET's Work Importance Locator (WIL) (to be discussed later), it is useful to describe it briefly.

The MIQ measured 20 work‐related needs and produced scores on six values: (a) Achievement, consisting of ability utilization and achievement; (b) Altruism, consisting of coworkers, social service, and moral values; (c) Autonomy, consisting of creativity and responsibility; (d) Comfort, consisting of activity, independence, variety, compensation, security, and working conditions; (e) Safety, consisting of company policies, supervision (human relations), and supervision (technical); and (f) Status, consisting of advancement, recognition, authority, and social status. The MIQ profile provided two different types of information: intraindividual (ipsative) scores on the 20 needs and six values plotted relative to one another, and comparisons between an individual's values profile and patterns of reinforcers empirically derived for a variety of occupations, resulting in a list of occupations in which a person is likely to be satisfied.

A currently available option for assessing an individual's values is the WIL (McCloy et al., 1999), available via O*NET, the online occupational information database of approximately 1000 occupations developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (www.onetonline.org). The WIL may be downloaded as a card sort or as a paper‐and‐pencil inventory, and produces results on six values—achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support, and working conditions—that correspond to the six MIQ values. The O*NET provides links to its database of occupations on the basis of the six values; for example, one can browse occupations that match a specified set of work values, such as achievement and independence, or search for a specific occupation and then determine the characteristic needs and values of individuals in that occupation (see also Rounds & Leuty, Chapter 16, this volume).

Measures of work‐related values other than the MIQ and the O*NET's WIL include Super's Work Values Inventory (Nevill & Super, 1986; Zytowski, 2006). Another method of addressing work‐related values within career counseling is a values card sort. A card sort consists of a set of cards, each imprinted with a work‐related value, which clients place into categories according to their importance. Because a card sort is completed during a career counseling session, it provides a mechanism for in‐session discussion of the client's important values, the origin of these values, and how values are related to other career‐related information, such as interests and skills.

Work satisfaction.  In TWA, “satisfaction” is conceptualized as resulting from the correspondence between an individual's values/needs and the reinforcers offered by the environment. In some ways, satisfaction in TWA is a derived variable that can be inferred from the match between an individual's values and an environment's reinforcers. For instance, good correspondence between values and reinforcers implies satisfaction. However, satisfaction can also be measured directly by asking individuals about the degree to which they like their work environments, either overall or specific aspects (see Lent & Brown, Chapter 23, this volume).

Early in the evolution of TWA, the researchers developed a measure of work satisfaction, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ; Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). The MSQ provides scores on 20 facets of job satisfaction, as well as three summary scores (intrinsic, extrinsic, and general satisfaction). The 20 facets parallel the scales on the MIQ (with the exception of the MIQ Autonomy Scale). This measure has been used primarily in research and is not generally used in practice settings. It, too, is available through the Vocational Psychology Research website (http://vpr.psych.umn.edu).

More generally, the study of job satisfaction has received substantial attention within the domain of industrial/organizational psychology (Eggerth, 2015; Fritzsche & Parrish, 2005; Swanson, 2012; Zedeck, 2011), where a main focus is the organizational antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction (Landy & Conte, 2016). By contrast, there is a relative lack of attention to job satisfaction within vocational psychology. Lent (2008) examined job satisfaction from the perspective of vocational psychology. He noted that job satisfaction “may be viewed as an integral part of work adjustment and overall mental health” (p. 462). Lent defined job satisfaction as “people's cognitive constructions of their work enjoyment” (p. 463), highlighting the cognitive and affective components that constitute satisfaction. Lent and Brown describe how organizational psychology research on job satisfaction can be used to inform career counseling practice (Chapter 23, this volume). They have also developed a social cognitive model of job satisfaction within vocational psychology (see Lent, Chapter 5, this volume).

Many measures of job satisfaction have been developed for use in a variety of settings, focusing on both global (overall feelings about a job) and facet (specific aspects of a job) satisfaction (Fritzsche & Parrish, 2005). For example, the Job Descriptive Index (JDI; Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1985) consists of 72 items that measure satisfaction with five aspects of a job (work, pay, promotions, supervision, and coworkers). Lent and Brown (Chapter 23, this volume) describe this and other measures of job satisfaction more fully.

Satisfactoriness.  Another measure developed as part of TWA, the Minnesota Satisfactoriness Scales (MSS; Gibson, Weiss, Dawis, & Lofquist, 1970), was designed to measure 28 facets of job satisfactoriness and is completed by an individual's work supervisor. The MSS yields scores on five scales: performance, conformance, dependability, personal adjustment, and general satisfactoriness. The MSS is available from the Vocational Psychology Research website (http://vpr.psych.umn.edu). Although the MSS as originally designed would not often be used as part of a career intervention, it or another measure of job performance could be used as a self‐assessment tool. For example, clients and counselors could use the MSS in session to assess how clients perceive their performance on these five dimensions of satisfactoriness and to facilitate discussion of the accuracy of clients' perceptions.

RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR THE THEORY OF WORK ADJUSTMENT

Dawis (1996) and Dawis and Lofquist (1984) provide thorough overviews of the early research support for TWA. Their reviews will be briefly visited here, followed by a review of more recent research on TWA constructs and propositions, as well as areas in which further research support is warranted.

GENERAL SUPPORT FOR TWA PREDICTIONS

General research on person–environment fit has served as a foundation for the study of work adjustment. In TWA specifically, the primary concepts include those defined earlier: person–environment correspondence, satisfaction, satisfactoriness, and tenure. Some of the variables receiving research attention include work personality variables (e.g., abilities, values, personality style), work environment variables (e.g., reinforcer systems, ability requirements, environment style), indicators of work adjustment (e.g., satisfaction and satisfactoriness), and correspondence between personality and environment. Although there have been instruments constructed specifically for use with this theory, such as the MSS, other instruments have also been used to support the theory and its applicability to real people and places of employment (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984).

Much TWA research, using both TWA‐specific measures and other more general measures of person–environment fit constructs, has focused on the prediction of satisfaction, satisfactoriness, work adjustment, and tenure. Results have indicated strong support for the interactions between these constructs, which maps well onto the first eight formal propositions of TWA (Dawis, 1996; see Table 2.1). For example, Dawis (1996) described the studies supporting the hypotheses that satisfaction and satisfactoriness are predicted by person–environment correspondence (Propositions II and III). Although this first set of TWA propositions has received empirical support, the second set (Propositions X through XVII), geared toward the roles of personality style, adjustment style, and flexibility of both the individual and the environment, remains in need of research attention (Dawis, 1996).

Recently, researchers have examined the correspondence between an individual's personality style and his or her work environment, in terms of celerity, pace, rhythm, and endurance, pertaining to TWA's Proposition X. Bayl‐Smith and Griffin (2015) developed an instrument to measure the four styles, the Active Work Style (AWS) scale, concluding that four sub‐scales corresponding to the styles could be described by a second‐order factor reflecting a generalized level of work activity and effort. Work style was related to conscientiousness and work engagement, but not to work‐related stress (Bayl‐Smith & Griffin, 2015). Measurement of work style via the AWS may provide a mechanism to advance research into individuals' personality styles, person–environment work style fit, and other predictions from TWA.

The role and type of adjustment behaviors used to maintain demands–abilities fit (satisfactoriness) were examined by Bayl‐Smith and Griffin (2018). The researchers proposed that the fit between an individual's work style—their activity and effort over time—serves as a boundary condition for adjustment behaviors to be successful. Adjustment behaviors included negotiation behaviors (active adjustment) and career initiative behaviors (reactive adjustment), and contributed to an increase in demands–abilities fit, but only if work styles fit was high. If work styles fit was low, then demands–abilities fit decreased with time, suggesting that adjustment behaviors were not as effective at re‐achieving fit in the absence of strong work styles fit.

In addition to research directly testing TWA propositions, other researchers have used TWA as a framework for conceptualizing work‐related decisions, such as work adjustment among cancer survivors (Clur, Barnard, & Joubert, 2017) and women leaving the engineering field (Fouad, Chang, Wan, & Singh, 2017). Other recent work has combined TWA with other theoretical approaches, such as attachment theory in predicting turnover intentions (Dahling & Librizzi, 2015), social cognitive career theory in predicting satisfaction of retirement‐age workers (Foley & Lytle, 2015), Maslow's theory and the psychology of working theory (Blustein, Kenny, Autin, & Duffy, 2019) in describing experiences of Latinx immigrant workers (Eggerth & Flynn, 2012), and organizational support theory in predicting work outcomes and mental health among women of color (Kurtessis et al., 2017).

TWA also has served as the basis for a retirement transition and adjustment framework (RTAF; Griffin, 2015; Hesketh, Griffin, Dawis, & Bayl‐Smith, 2015; Hesketh, Griffin, & Loh, 2011). In this model, the TWA outcome of tenure is replaced with the RTAF outcome of positive aging, which is predicted by coping performance and adjustment, and satisfaction with retirement. The RTAF represents a promising adaptation of TWA given the substantial changes in the late‐career stage of work in the last two decades (Griffin, 2015). It also may be a model for how TWA could be extended or adapted for other situations or individuals.

RESEARCH PERTAINING TO DIVERSE POPULATIONS

In addition to personality styles and flexibility, research on the use of TWA with diverse populations (e.g., sex, race, ethnicity, and culture) remains another area in which expansion is needed. A few studies have shown support for the use of TWA with culturally stigmatized groups, such as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals (Lyons, Brenner, & Fassinger, 2005; Velez & Moradi, 2012), African American employees (Lyons & O'Brien, 2006; Lyons, Velez, Mehta, & Neill, 2014), Latinx immigrant workers (Eggerth & Flynn, 2012; Flynn, Eggerth, & Jacobson Jr., 2015), women of color (Velez, Cox Jr., Polihronakis, & Moradi, 2018), late‐career workers (Bayl‐Smith & Griffin, 2017), and individuals with intellectual disabilities (Chiocchio & Frigon, 2006).

Using a measure of perceived person–job and person–organization fits developed by Saks and Ashforth (1997), Lyons et al. (2005) found that perceived correspondence predicted satisfaction and the probability of remaining in the current work environment for LGB individuals. This support held true even in the presence of informal heterosexism in the workplace, which is an example of a unique barrier that stigmatized populations' experience in workplaces. Results of the study indicated that the persons' perception of correspondence between their values and work environment reinforcers mediated the relationship between workplace heterosexism and job satisfaction (Lyons et al., 2005). That is, the experience of heterosexism resulted in lower levels of satisfaction because it tended to reduce employees' sense of fit with the work environment. In another study (Velez & Moradi, 2012), inclusion of two workplace contextual variables indicated that LGB‐supportive climate, but not perceived heterosexist discrimination, predicted person–organization fit for LGB employees. Climate also demonstrated a link to job satisfaction and turnover intentions, indirectly through person–organization fit.

Several studies examined the use of TWA with African American employees. Lyons and O'Brien (2006) reported that perceived person–environment fit explained 43% of the variance in job satisfaction and 17% of the variance in intentions to quit. Perceived racial climate, however, did not moderate or mediate the relationship between fit and satisfaction or turnover intentions, supporting the primacy of perceived person–environment correspondence. Further, qualitative analyses coded for TWA values and racial climate indicated the TWA value of comfort was cited most often as contributing to job satisfaction, whereas racial climate was cited least often. In a sample of economically distressed African Americans, Lyons et al. (2014) tested two competing models of the role of perceived racial climate in TWA predictions. As hypothesized, supportive racial climate and person–organization fit were positively correlated with job satisfaction and negatively correlated with turnover intentions. However, there was an indirect link between person–organization fit and turnover intentions, through job satisfaction, which depended on the level of perceived racial climate. With an unsupportive racial climate, the relationship between person–organization fit and turnover intentions was not significant, whereas with a moderately supportive racial climate, the relationship was significant (Lyons et al., 2014).

Using TWA in conjunction with organizational support theory (Kurtessis et al., 2017) with a sample of employed women of color, Velez et al. (2018) examined the connections among womanist attitudes (often called intersectional feminism), self‐esteem, person–organization fit, perceived organizational support, work outcomes (burnout and turnover intentions), and psychological distress. Workplace discrimination was directly and indirectly (via the mediating role of self‐esteem) associated with higher psychological distress, indirectly associated with poor work outcomes (through mediating roles of perceived P–O fit, perceived organizational support, and self‐esteem). Although not directly testing theoretical propositions from TWA, workplace discrimination could be conceptualized as contributing to lack of correspondence between an individual's needs and the organization's rewards, and this discorrespondence leads to negative outcomes.

Chiocchio and Frigon (2006) also demonstrated support for the use of TWA in a sample of adults with mental retardation, for whom both satisfactoriness and satisfaction together predicted a tenure of 16 weeks after starting a job. These studies suggest the usefulness of TWA in explaining the work experiences of culturally diverse groups of people.

While research on the process model (e.g., on the roles of personality styles, adjustment styles, flexibility, and perseverance) has expanded in recent years, there remains room for additional understanding of how various individual factors influence the TWA models. Several writers have suggested that attention to personality factors might enhance TWA by providing a more holistic picture of what the individual brings to the interaction between the person and environment. Hesketh and Griffin (2005), for example, suggested that such factors as mental health, general well‐being, knowledge, as well as skills, abilities, and higher‐order needs or values need to be considered to more fully understand the adjustment strategies that people employ to enhance career success across diverse populations (Renfro‐Michel, Burlew, & Robert, 2009). Although additional research is warranted (especially on the process model and the validity of TWA in culturally diverse populations), TWA's theoretical concepts offer potential benefit for practitioners. In the next section, we discuss some of the applications of TWA.

APPLICATIONS OF TWA

The TWA can be applied to better understand current work trends, stages of career development, and career adaptability for culturally diverse populations. As Griffin and Hesketh (2005) discuss, it is common, or even expected, that contemporary organizations will experience environmental change. These changes will have an effect on everyone involved in the workplace. Environmental change may lead to organizational expansion, reduction, or shifts in power or resources. These changes are likely to alter the reinforcements and requirements that characterize the environment. Therefore, the environment may no longer correspond with what the individual employee originally brought to the interaction.

On the other side of the coin, shifts occurring for the individual (e.g., life changes such as a medical diagnosis, having a child, or a variety of other events or shifts in values or priorities) may render reinforcers that were previously valued by an individual much less reinforcing. When such discorrespondence occurs, the workplace or the individual will be required to adjust to restore satisfaction (needs–supplies fit) or satisfactoriness (demand–ability fit). Adjustment may consist of active, reactive, or tolerant behavior by either the organization or the individual (Griffin & Hesketh, 2005). TWA may be a useful framework within the current career climate to enhance understanding of the continuous change process and how it impacts individuals, the environment, and the interaction between the two.

TWA also intersects with the positive psychology movement, which has natural connections to the broader field of vocational psychology. This movement includes a greater focus on mental health, well‐being, and life satisfaction. It is widely recognized that job satisfaction is closely interconnected with overall life satisfaction (Lent, 2008; Lent & Brown, Chapter 23, this volume; Swanson, 2012). With satisfaction as one of TWA's key components, there is an inherent connection between TWA and positive psychology (e.g., Eggerth, 2008). TWA depicts how environmental reinforcers, satisfactoriness, and other factors feed into a person's job satisfaction, which in turn may have an impact on individuals' overall levels of life satisfaction and mental health. Thus, the application of TWA for persons experiencing dissatisfaction at work may at the same time alleviate psychological distress and promote greater life satisfaction and well‐being, one of the goals of the positive psychology movement.

CAREER ISSUES THROUGHOUT THE LIFE SPAN

As one of the primary theories of person–environment fit, TWA can be useful in the early stages of career exploration and development to help individuals identify an array of occupational possibilities in which they may achieve satisfaction and success in the future. According to TWA, an effective strategy with adolescents and young adults is to identify their major work‐related needs, values, skills, and abilities, as well as occupational possibilities that correspond with their values and abilities (Dawis, 2005), which should promote more satisfying and satisfactory choices. Attention to person–environment fit during initial entry into a career field may also lead to higher‐quality employment experiences (Saks & Ashforth, 2002).

By focusing on work adjustment, TWA can also be useful in counseling persons who are currently dissatisfied with their work environments or who are judged as unsatisfactory in their current jobs. TWA provides some clear hypotheses about sources of dissatisfaction (lack of needs–supplies fit) and unsatisfactoriness (lack of demand–ability fit) that can provide directions for counseling. For example, a practitioner familiar with TWA would explore with dissatisfied clients their major work‐related values and how well these are being met in their work environments. Should need–reinforcer discorrespondence be identified, the client could then explore and implement different active and reactive strategies to achieve greater correspondence. Should these strategies fail, then the counselor might work with the client to identify more value‐correspondent jobs or occupations. Additionally, clients' levels of flexibility would also be considered. Clients who are characteristically inflexible are likely to report dissatisfaction with seemingly minor levels of discorrespondence and may require close attention to value–reinforcer correspondence in exploring future job or occupational possibilities.

Similarly, in working with clients who are judged to be performing poorly at work (unsatisfactory workers), TWA would suggest an exploration of the clients' abilities and the degree to which these abilities match the ability requirements of their current jobs. Again, should discorrespondence be evident, counselors could explore with clients different active and reactive strategies that may be employed to achieve greater satisfactoriness. Counselors would also help clients explore and identify alternative jobs or occupations in which the client is more likely to achieve satisfactory performance. Lent and Brown (Chapter 23, this volume) provide some additional suggestions about how TWA and other theories can be applied in working with clients experiencing problems of job satisfaction and satisfactoriness.

As noted earlier, recent work has explored the applicability of TWA to promoting adjustment to retirement (Foley & Lytle, 2015; Griffin, 2015; Harper & Shoffner, 2004; Hesketh et al., 2011, 2015). For individuals reaching the age of retirement, a process of adjustment is inevitable. No matter what life after retirement will look like, there are likely to be differences from the world of work that the individual currently experiences. The ultimate goal for most individuals is to achieve satisfaction in their postretirement lives. Thus, TWA could be used in working with individuals who are planning for retirement or experiencing difficulties in adjusting to retirement by exploring how their major needs and values are being satisfied in their postretirement lives and how they might implement their abilities in this new developmental stage.

USING TWA WITH DIVERSE CLIENTS

As mentioned in the previous section regarding research support for TWA, several recent studies provide empirical data on the application of TWA to diverse populations. Moreover, there are several examples of applying TWA concepts with specific groups, drawing on authors' experiences as career practitioners. TWA has been used to conceptualize career issues for people who have HIV/AIDS (Dahlbeck & Lease, 2010), symptoms of anorexia nervosa (Withrow & Shoffner, 2006), and the specific challenges experienced by lesbian women (Degges‐White & Shoffner, 2002). Each of these authors discussed the dynamic nature of the person and the environment, as well as their interaction. For example, chronic health status issues for persons living with AIDS/HIV may affect previous levels of abilities and skills and lead to a reevaluation of needs and values; TWA would be useful in framing related work adjustment issues.

Withrow and Shoffner (2006) described the personality and behavioral characteristics of women with disordered eating symptoms as leading to “precarious person–environment correspondence” (p. 366), in which the achievement of job satisfaction and satisfactoriness exacerbates eating disorders. In applying TWA to lesbians, Degges‐White and Shoffner (2002) described the relationship between being “out” in the workplace and four critical aspects of TWA: job satisfaction, person–environment correspondence, the importance of workplace reinforcers, and abilities. These unique challenges may also be apparent for gay, bisexual, and transgender workers. Research discussed earlier (Lyons et al., 2005) suggested that the experience of heterosexism in the work environment might have a significant impact on LGB workers' perceptions of fit and, therefore, their satisfaction with their jobs.

Analysis of the challenges to successful career choice and adjustment of unique groups of individuals such as those just discussed highlights the usefulness of TWA tenets. The central concepts of TWA—that person–environment correspondence leads to favorable outcomes and that discorrespondence leads to adjustment behavior—provide a core framework that can be used to understand and work with diverse clients encountering difficulties with work adjustment.

Career counseling from the TWA perspective addresses the two aspects of correspondence: the client's satisfaction (needs–supplies fit) with his or her job or occupation and the client's satisfactoriness (demand–ability fit) within his or her work environment. Counselors using TWA as a theoretical framework would begin by identifying the needs and abilities of the client. These characteristic needs and abilities are unique starting points, and so counselors would explore the specific nature of the client's abilities and needs, as well as the degree of satisfaction and satisfactoriness resulting from the degree of fit between a client and his or her environment. Counseling from the perspective of TWA is primarily focused on the resolution of clients' discorrespondence with their environments through career choice and adjustment.

Lofquist and Dawis (1991) suggested several questions to guide a counselor's work with clients within the framework of TWA. First, what is the match between clients' abilities and the ability requirements of their jobs? Clients' abilities may be too high or too low for the position. Second, what are clients' subjective evaluations of their abilities and the discorrespondence they are experiencing with requirements of the work environment? Is there a discrepancy between self‐estimated and actual abilities or between the perceived and actual environmental requirements? Third, what is the match between clients' needs and the rewards offered by the environment? Fourth, are clients actually both satisfied with and satisfactory in their work environments but experiencing difficulties in non‐work domains? These questions translate TWA tenets into testable hypotheses to pursue in career counseling (Swanson & Fouad, 2020).

A unique aspect of TWA is that counselors may focus on characteristics of work (and non‐work) environments to a greater degree than in other theories (Juntunen & Even, 2012). Such a focus allows counselors and clients to determine the degree of correspondence between environmental requirements and rewards and an individual's abilities and needs, thereby allowing a more finely grained analysis of a client's satisfaction with his or her current work situation.

INTERVENTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS

TWA also has potential applications for work organizations. For example, personnel assessment may be a primary area in which TWA could be used. TWA has had a history of application within personnel assessment and evaluation of job performance. Much job performance evaluation has focused solely on measures of individuals' capabilities (see Lent & Brown, Chapter 23, this volume). TWA, however, depicts job performance as a measure of the interaction between a person's ability and the demands or requirements of the workplace (Dawis, 1980). Therefore, finding ways to assess job performance within the actual environment, rather than solely the person's capability to perform job‐like tasks, would be an incorporation of TWA into performance evaluation. TWA could also be used in other interventions, such as organizational leadership and management aimed at creating a positive work climate and promoting workplace support (Griffin & Hesketh, 2005). The creation and employment of organizational‐level interventions is equally important as interventions aimed at individuals because TWA emphasizes the needs and requirements of each within the adjustment process.

Work style, particularly work style fit, is another possible target of interventions within organizational settings. Fit between an individual's work style and the organization's desired or demonstrated work style may be an important component of adjustment, above and beyond needs–supplies fit and demand–ability fit, and could be explicitly included as part of new employee training and supervision. Work styles may vary across organizations within the same industry, or across departments within an organization.

Finally, organizations would be wise to examine workplace climate in the context of TWA. As noted by Velez et al. (2018, p. 179), “Centralizing the experiences of marginalized populations typically necessitates stepping outside the boundaries of available theories to draw from multiple theoretical and research pipelines that could better capture those populations' experiences.” TWA clearly has an important role in examining crucial workplace experiences. Workplace discrimination—as evidenced by stigmatization, harassment, and microaggressions—reflects the values of an organization, and thus is directly relevant to person–organization or person–environment fit. It is also crucial to examine workplace climate more broadly, to include all potentialisms (racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism), and, conversely, to include the positive aspects of workplace climate, such as LGB‐supportive environment. While none of these are explicitly measured or discussed in original formulations of TWA, recent research suggests that these contextual variables may moderate or mediate relationships within TWA predictive and process models.

CASE EXAMPLE

To further examine how TWA may be used in working with clients, we discuss the case of Jasmine. Jasmine is a 19‐year‐old single, heterosexual Latina. She is an only child and has a close, supportive relationship with her mother, a social worker, who lives 3 hours away. Jasmine is a sophomore in college, currently majoring in interior design. She sought career counseling because she recently began to question her choice of major but is unsure of other majors or careers she might like to pursue. Interior design has been her dream career since the age of 10, and Jasmine never considered alternative career paths. She reports finding enjoyment in organizing and decorating rooms and in seeing others' happiness as a result of her creativity.

Jasmine has always been a good student, earning As and Bs throughout high school, as well as in her first semester of college. However, during the past two semesters, she has begun earning Cs, which Jasmine attributes to the types of courses she has been taking for her major. These courses consist of architecturally based classes requiring knowledge of “angles and math” that she is “not able to understand,” despite the hours she reports spending on assignments and projects. She has begun feeling unexcited about her work and misses the experience of being artistically creative with colors, themes, and objects within a room. She has begun to perceive designing the structure of a room as overly restrictive. Jasmine wishes to receive help in deciding whether to continue with her interior design major.

TWA can aid in the understanding of Jasmine's current experiences of discorrespondence with her major through exploring both her satisfaction and satisfactoriness as contributing forces. In terms of satisfaction, Jasmine reported that she enjoyed interior design based on the process of organizing rooms, creating color schemes and themes, and seeing others' enjoyment. In terms of TWA values, these reflect independence and achievement, including ability utilization (making use of her artistic abilities), achievement (being able to see what she has accomplished), creativity (being able to try her own ideas), and social service (doing things for others). Her creativity needs of artistic expression are currently not being met in the courses she is taking, causing her to have low levels of satisfaction. In terms of satisfactoriness, the interior design major requires an architecturally based skill set that does not match Jasmine's repertoire of abilities, resulting in low satisfactoriness.

Goals of career counseling with Jasmine may be (a) clarifying her needs in a work environment, (b) increasing understanding of her abilities and how they relate to interior design or other academic majors, and (c) ultimately making a decision regarding whether to remain in her current major or change to a different major. These goals work together within the TWA framework to first understand what factors are important for Jasmine to experience correspondence with an academic major or career and then aid in identifying what Jasmine can do to obtain satisfaction and tenure in a given environment. These goals can be obtained through exploration of both the self and the environment. For example, exploring past experiences and environments in which Jasmine has felt her needs were met, as well as those in which she felt her needs were not sufficiently met, may provide important information regarding the flexibility and variation of Jasmine's needs. Such an exploration may provide greater insight into which needs are necessary for Jasmine to experience satisfaction within an environment.

Jasmine could also take the O*NET WIL to help in the identification of her major work‐related values (see Rounds & Leuty, Chapter 16, this volume). One advantage of the formal value assessments that can be obtained by the WIL is that it provides a clarification of values that may aid individuals who have a hard time discriminating among important values and needs. For example, Jasmine may feel that relationships with coworkers and using her creative abilities are equally important to her, whereas the WIL might suggest that achievement is more important to her than relationships with coworkers. Using assessment tools such as the WIL also may bring needs and values to the forefront of discussion with Jasmine, such as having high scores on working conditions that lead her to consider the importance of needs such as pay and job security.

Exploring and identifying Jasmine's abilities and the skill requirements of the occupation of interior design, as well as other potential options, can also be used to predict the occupational areas in which Jasmine is likely to be most satisfactory. Finally, identifying ways in which Jasmine may change her current environment (e.g., adding art classes to her course load to meet her need for artistic expression) may also be a beneficial intervention in finding ways to increase satisfaction and correspondence without changing to a completely new major and career path.

CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

As evidenced throughout this chapter, TWA has great potential for understanding the experiences of clients presenting with career choice issues and for assisting clients (whether individuals or organizations) in increasing work adjustment. In this section, we offer take‐home tips for career professionals in using TWA.

1. TWA is a well‐constructed theory with possible applications across the career–life cycle. It can be used to help people (a) forecast the types of occupations in which they may achieve satisfaction and satisfactoriness, (b) select among different occupational possibilities, (c) achieve (or re‐achieve) satisfaction and satisfactoriness in the current work environment and identify work environments that might be associated with greater satisfaction and satisfactoriness, and (d) aid in the retirement adjustment process.
2. TWA suggests that clients be helped to identify their major work‐related (or retirement‐related) needs, values, and abilities. Theories vary in the concepts they deem most important; values and abilities constitute the primary focus of TWA. While the role of vocational interests in TWA is less direct than in other theories of vocational choice, assessment of interests is a common component of career counseling and may be used as a mechanism for discussing a client's abilities and values.
3. TWA is a person–environment fit theory. Thus, it is also important to help clients identify work environments that appear to be correspondent with their major work‐related needs, values, and abilities. There are a variety of occupational information systems that can be employed for this purpose, including the Minnesota Occupational Classification System and the O*NET data bases (see Gore & Leuwerke, Chapter 19, this volume).
4. Discorrespondence may occur for either the person or the environment. Clients may enter career counseling expressing dissatisfaction with their jobs or career choices, but counselors are advised to remember that individuals also may be unsatisfactory; that is, the environment may be dissatisfied with the person. The concepts of TWA provide a ready framework for attending to both aspects of dissatisfaction.
5. An increasing body of research suggests that the theory has cross‐cultural validity, especially in the predictions of satisfaction among LGB individuals and African Americans. Thus, value–reinforcer correspondence (or needs–supplies fit) seems an important target for counseling LGB and African American clients who are looking for satisfying career options or experiencing dissatisfaction in the workplace. TWA seems relevant to other groups as well, but research is limited.
6. Finally, fully informed and comprehensive career counseling will incorporate other empirically supported theories and research along with TWA in helping people make satisfying and satisfactory career choices and achieve workplace and retirement adjustment. For example, Rounds (1990) found that value–reinforcer correspondence (from TWA) and person‐environment congruence (from Holland's theory) did a better job of predicting work satisfaction than did either correspondence or congruence alone. We also identified some ways in which concepts drawn from other theoretical approaches (such as positive psychology) and attention to contextual factors may help develop more complex approaches to understanding and assisting clients.

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