Compromise: The Forgotten Dimension of Career Decision-Making

The study of compromise in career decision-making has been neglected. Out of Pryor's adoption of Gottfredson's compromise formulation, a programme of research was undertaken to investigate the basic dimensions of career compromise. The results of four separate studies are reported, investigating compromise conceptions, compromise plans, compromise choices and compromise interventions. These data support the importance of the three Gottfredson dimensions — psychological characteristics, prestige and sex-type-in the process of career compromise. The major deficiency of the Gottfredson compromise model is the need for elaboration of several of its aspects, such as sex differences in compromise strategies, ‘refusal to compromise', the existence of more than one compromise paradigm and the interrelatedness of the compromise dimensions.