Theory

of
Work Adjustment
 Originally developed
by René Dawis,
George England and
Lloyd Lofquist from
the University of
Minnesota in 1964.
Also referred as
Person–Environment
Correspondence
Theory

Theory of Work
Adjustment
Work is conceptualized as an interaction
between an individual and a work
environment.

• The work environment requires that certain tasks

be performed, and the individual brings skills to
perform the tasks.

• In exchange, the individual requires

compensation for work performance and
certain preferred conditions, such as a safe
and comfortable place to work.
• The environment and the individual must continue to meet
each other’s requirements for the interaction to be
maintained.

• Work adjustment is the process of achieving and

maintaining correspondence.

• This correspondence is the reciprocal process between

the worker’s satisfaction and the employer’s
satisfactoriness (Eggert, 2008).

Theory of Work Adjustment

 Anchored on the person-environment correspondence/
person-environment fit theory

Career choice and development continuous process of

adjustment and accommodation in which:

A person (P) looks for

work organizations and E in turn looks for
environments (E) that individuals who have the
would match his/her capabilities to meeting the
“requirements” in terms “requirements” of the
of needs organization

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.

Theory of Work
Adjustment
 Dawis and Lofquist (1984) defined work adjustment as a
“continuous and dynamic process by which a worker seeks to
achieve and maintain correspondence with a work
environment “ (p.237).

• Satisfacton and
Satisfactoriness
are predictors that
result in tenure.
• “Whatever satisfies
needs are called
reinforcers because they
can maintain or increase
the rate of behavior”
(Dawis, 1996, p. 80)

Theory of Work Adjustment

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

Theory of Work Adjustmenty

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

 • P’s level of tolerance to P-E dis-correspondence
Flexibility • Whether P has tendency to become easily
dissatisfied

• Whether P has a tendency to actively change or

Activeness actively change or act on E to reduce dis-
correspondence and dis-satisfaction

• Whether P would resort to self-adjustment in

Reactiveness order to deal with dis-correspondence without
actively changing or acting on E

• P’s degree of resolve and persistence to adjust

Perseverance and accommodate before choosing to exit E.

Adjustment Style
 Active Reactive
Flexibility Adjustment Adjustment Persistence
Individual Individual
• Individuals who are
• The extent to
more flexible can • changing their
“tolerate greater • changing behavior which individuals or
degrees of
work environment to better suit the environments will
discorrespondence (change content of environment adjust before giving
and are less easily the job, and up.
dissatisfied” (Dawis, therefore its • changing personal
1996, p.86). requirements) priorities or work
• When no further
Environment values Environment
• When the lack of adjustment is
correspondence is so • changing the • changing the possible, something
great that flexibility is rewards to increase dramatic happens –
no longer viable, some
person’s abilities
through training job satisfaction the person leaves the
form of adjustment
often takes place. job or they are fired.

Adjustment
Theory Style
of Work Adjustment
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