Tenure, satisfaction, and work environment flexibility of people with mental retardation

In the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA), Dawis and Lofquist (1984) hypothesize that Employee satisfaction (ES) and flexibility of the work environment moderate the functional relationship between satisfaction in the work environment (WS) and the correspondence between job requirements and employees’ abilities. In addition, they hypothesize that tenure in a job is a joint function of ES and WS. This Person–Environment Fit framework has not been tested to support job placements of candidates with mental retardation (CMR), except for Melchiori and Church (1997), whose results partially support other aspects of the TWA. Fifty-two CMR were placed in 53 natural work settings. In total, 61 matches based on commensurate measures were made and data were collected for 16 weeks after job placement. Results show that ES is a mediator while flexibility of the work environment is not. ES and WS together contribute to predict tenure.