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This study examined the relationship between Holland type (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional; Holland, 1959, 1997) congruence and incongruence (i.e., lack of ft between an occupation's 3-letter Holland code and a person's lowest 3 Holland interest types) and tested whether incongruence predicts unique variance in satisfaction beyond congruence. Results from an employee sample suggest that incongruence and congruence are distinct constructs (in that they correlated r = -.32) and that beyond congruence, incongruence did not predict variance in overall or intrinsic job satisfaction. Counselors are urged to assess both congruence and incongruence, but to focus on helping clients to identify best-fitting occupations when possible, rather than to merely avoid incongruent occupations.

The present study investigated new approaches for assessing Holland's congruence hypothesis by (a) developing and applying four sets of decision rules for assigning Holland codes of varying lengths for purposes of computing Eggerth and Andrew's modified C index; (b) testing the modified C index computed using these four approaches against Brown and Gore's C index; and (c) comparing the validity of SII, O*NET, and DHOC taxonomies for assigning Holland codes to work environments. Results obtained from an archived sample of 239 employed young adults suggested that the modified C index performed as well as, but not better than, the standard C index. The SII was associated with larger mean congruence scores and stronger congruence-satisfaction relations than was the O*NET, which in turn was associated with larger mean congruence scores and stronger congruence-satisfaction relations than was the DHOC. Implications for research and practice related to Holland-type congruence are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)