This is sometimes referred to as the Person–Environment Correspondence Theory. It was originally developed by René Dawis, George England and Lloyd Lofquist from the University of Minnesota in 1964. The more closely a person’s abilities (skills, knowledge, experience, attitude, behaviours, etc.) correspond with the requirements of the role or the organisation, the more likely it is that they will perform the job well and be perceived as satisfactory by the employer.

1. Theory
Work Adjustment
of
Prepared by: Jeel Christine C. de Egurrola

2. Originally developed
by René Dawis,
George England and
Lloyd Lofquist from
the University of
Minnesota in 1964.
Theory of Work
Adjustment

3. Career choice and development continuous process of
adjustment and accommodation in which:
A person (P) looks for work
organizations and
environments (E) that
would match his/her
“requirements” in terms of
needs
E in turn looks for
individuals who have the
capabilities to meeting the
“requirements” of the
organization
Anchored on the person-environment correspondence/
person-environment fit theory
Theory of Work Adjustment

4. Theory of Work
Adjustment
The more closely a
person’s abilities (skills,
knowledge, experience,
attitude, behaviors, etc.)
correspond with the
requirements of the role or
the organization, the more
likely it is that they will
perform the job well and
be perceived as
satisfactory by the
employer.

5. To P, the most central requirements to meet from E are his/her needs (or
reinforcers) – psychological and physical needs (Values)
Theory of Work Adjustment

6. Dis-correspondence may
occur for either the person
and the environment.
Clients may enter career
counseling expressing
dissatisfaction with their
jobs or career choices, but
counselors are adviced to
remember that these
employees may be
unsatisfactory; that is, the
environment may be
dissatisfied with him/her.
Theory of Work Adjustment

7. Adjustment Style
• P’s level of tolerance to P-E dis-correspondence
• Whether P has tendency to become easily
dissatisfied
Flexibility
• Whether P has a tendency to actively change or
actively change or act on E to reduce dis-
correspondence and dis-satisfaction
Activeness
• Whether P would resort to self-adjustment in
order to deal with dis-correspondence without
actively changing or acting on E
Reactiveness
• P’s degree of resolve and persistence to adjust
and accommodate before choosing to exit E.Perseverance

8. The person and the work environment act on and
react to each other "in a mutual give and take"
(Dawis, 2005; Dawis & Lofquist, 1984) to achieve
and maintain correspondence with each other
(Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2012)
Career choice and development is thus
conceptualized as a continuous process or cycles of
work adjustment initiated by the dis-satisfaction
and dis-satisfactoriness. (Leung, 2008)
Theory of Work Adjustment

9. Google Book
• Brown, S.D. & Lent, R. W. (2012). Career development and counseling"
Putting theory and research to work [Google Books version]. Retrieved
from http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=U_9315vv3d8C&dq=person+-
+environment+did-correspondence&source=gbs_navlinks_s
• Capuzzi, D. & Stauffer M.D. (2012). Career counseling: Foundations,
perspectives, and applications [Google Books version]. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Pq0JILHV0TIC&dq=person+-
+environment+did-correspondence&source=gbs_navlinks_s
• Leung, S.A. (2008). The big five career theories. Internatonal Handbook of
Career Guidance. 115-132. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6230-8_6
Internet
• Winter, D. (n.d.). Theory of work adjustment. Retrieved from
https://careersintheory.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/theories_twa.pdf
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