Since the early 1900s, researchers have attempted to understand how an individual’s motivation can impact their performance in the workplace. Rather than try to handle everything that makes up a person’s motivation, researchers studied elements of motivation – such as vocational interests – in order to break up the complex topic. Broadly speaking, vocational interests represent an individual’s preferences for certain work activities and situations that they find motivating. The RIASEC typology of vocational choice proposed by John Holland in 1959 has become one of the most enduring and widely-accepted theories in the field.
