Abstract
The underlying concepts or beliefs people hold about work were studied by first developing a conceptual framework consisting of five different belief systems. The framework was operationalized by developing a questionnaire that used individual belief statements as items in a S-point, Likert-type format. The subjects surveyed were 340 blue-collar and white-collar workers from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area and 72 union leaders and 366 top managers from the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, area. Subsequent multivariate analysis revealed that differences in beliefs exist in relation to job or position, age, sex, race, and education. Top management is not in favor of participative management structures ; young people are more work ethic oriented than other age groups. Females and blacks show strong feelings of being exploited. Education is related to a weakened commitment to traditional beliefs and to the organization.
Keywords
PsychologyWork (physics)Social psychology
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
THE BELIEF STRUCTURE OF MANAGERS RELATIVE TO WORK CONCEPTS MEASURED BY A FACTOR ANALYTIC MODEL<sup>1</sup>
Studies in the early seventies suggested that the traditional work ethic position was changing and that the American worker was expressing new needs for interesting and challeng...
Characteristics of Indigenous primary health care models of service delivery: a scoping review protocol
Indigenous populations in colonized countries experience worse health outcomes relative to their non-Indigenous counterparts. In Australia, in the period 2010 to 2012 the estima...
A Tool for Reviewers
Peer review lies at the core of science and academic life. In one of its most pervasive forms, peer review for the scientific literature is the main mechanism that research jour...
Updated guidance for trusted systematic reviews: a new edition of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
On a shelf in the sunny, open‐plan office of Cochrane Australia in Melbourne, there's a large, white ring‐binder that, it's fair to say, hasn't been opened in a while. It's a pr...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1978
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 219-227
- Citations
- 189
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
189
OpenAlex
Cite This
Rogene A. Buchholz
(1978).
An empirical study of contemporary beliefs about work in American society..
Journal of Applied Psychology
, 63
(2)
, 219-227.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.63.2.219
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1037/0021-9010.63.2.219