

Thu, 15 Oct
|78 Murray St
Vocational interests, gender, and job performance: Two person–occupation cross-level interactions
With Dr Serena Wee
Time & Location
15 Oct 2020, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm AWST
78 Murray St, 78 Murray St, Perth WA 6000, Australia
About the Event
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…