Vocational interests, gender, and job performance: Two person–occupation cross-level interactions

Vocational interests refer to people's preferences for certain types of occupational activities and environments. Vocational interest theories imply a person–occupation cross-level interaction effect (e.g., artistic interests predict job performance better in artistic occupations), which has rarely if ever been tested as such. Using a large military sample, we find person–occupation interest congruence effects are supported: (a) on core technical job performance for six of eight interest dimensions, and (b) on job performance ratings for structural/machines and rugged outdoors (i.e., Realistic) interests. Another cross-level interaction involves the person–occupation gender congruence effect. Our data also confirm the job performance gap favors men when in male-dominated occupations, but favors women when in gender-balanced occupations. Due to strong overlap between vocational interests and gender, we conduct a critical test of whether person–occupation interest congruence might be due to person–occupation gender congruence. In only two of six cases (i.e., rugged outdoors and administrative interests), did…