The relationships among learning style, college major, occupation, and job statisfaction

This study was undertaken to determine the relationships among preferred learning styles, college major, occupation, and job satisfaction. The primary objective was to determine if a match between learning style and occupation influences job satisfaction. Respondents were randomly selected from the undergraduate classes of 1984-1986 from the College of Human Ecology at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Responses were obtained through a mailed, three-part survey which included an educational profile, a Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI), and a Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) Short-Form (which included demographic data) to determine undergraduate major, present occupation, learning style, and job satisfaction.Findings:1. Results showed no statistically significant differences to indicate learning style type is related to general or intrinsic job satisfaction. There appears to be an indication that extrinsic job satisfaction can be predicted by scores on the measure of Concrete Experience and the difference between scores for Abstract Conceptualization and Concrete Experience (ACAE) on Kolb's LSI. These relationships, however, are not especially strong (R²-.08). These relationships have not been identified as predictors of job satisfaction in other studies using the Kolb LSI.2. Learning style types appear to be related to occupational choice. Results Showed that Accommodators showed both the highest frequency and highest percentage of match between learning style and occupational category. All three other learning style types tended to choose Accommodator-related careers predominantly over others.Scores of respondents on the Abstract Conceptualization scale differed as a function of type of major (majors were categorized as "helping," "service," and "technical.").