Charles A. O'Reilly

Personality—job fit: Implications for individual attitudes and performance

Abstract Results of a test of a personality—job congruency hypothesis using 307 Navy personnel in 10 job categories are reported. Personality measures were used to form two indices of work orientation; expressive, or desiring achievement and self-actualization while on the job, and instrumental, or desiring job security and high financial reward from the job. These orientations were found to interact with the type of job (challenging or nonchallenging) and to affect job attitudes and performance. Implications for investigating variations in job attitudes from structural and individual frames of reference are discussed.