Some Determinants of Work Alienation*

This study represents an attempt to examine the nature and sources of self-estrangement in work. The concept is defined using a discrepancy approach. Questionnaire data were collected from 1,313 employees representing seven occupational groups. The results suggest that individual work values interact with perceptions of the work situation to produce different levels of self-estrangement within each occupational group. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis indicates that job conditions are significantly more important than background factors for explaining feelings of self-estrangement. In particular, lack of control over task activities (powerlessness) and lack of meaningful work (meaninglessness) are found to be the most powerful predictors across all occupational groups. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Determinants of Educational Choice: Some Alternative Models*

The predictors of educational choice were classified into three constructs: structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. It is argued that these constructs are necessary to the occurrence of educational expectations and that the effect of each is contingent upon the others. The predictive utility of three multivariate models is compared: an additive, an interactive, and a mixed model. The two models that incorporate interaction terms are most effective in predicting educational plans.     

Personal and Organizational Determinants of Perceived Absence Norms

A two-phase study employed a combination ofqualitative and quantitative methodology to studyabsenteeism in a complex, hospital setting. The primaryfocus was to identify the bases of employees' beliefs about what is acceptable and expected in termsof absence behavior. Through a series of employeeinterviews, two different absence cultures wereidentified. We found evidence that employees' normativeperceptions were influenced by their prior personalabsence, and by the average level of absence within boththeir immediate work group and the absence culture towhich they belonged. Perceived norms were also shown to predict future individual absence (totaldays absent) 1 year later. Theoretical and practicalimplications of this research were discussed.     

Determinants and Consequences of Social Trust*

This article provides an overview of social trust, examining its various aspects and components. Trust is best understood in a sociological sense by focusing on its important relational characteristic. Following this lead, the article discusses briefly how social trust relates to social capital and examines factors that shape the development of social trust, along with outcomes related to variations in trust, classifying them by analytical level (i.e., individual, community, group, organizational, and societal). The article concludes by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and by identifying some important questions that have not yet been adequately addressed.     

Whistleblowing and the Control of Organizational Misconduct*

The current study reviews the literature on whistleblowing and examines its role in detecting and controlling organizational misconduct. We begin with a definition of this concept, show how micro-level theories of “deviance” explain whistleblowing, summarize evidence on its prevalence and correlates, and examine the legal protection of whistleblowers against organizational retaliation. The effectiveness of whistleblowing legislation in encouraging the reporting of organizational misconduct is also discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the relative costs and benefits of whistleblowing as a method of social control of organizational misconduct.     

On the Determinants of Class Legislation: an Ecological Study of Political Struggles Between Workers and Management*

The state controls many matters of conflict between labor and management. This study attempts to identify the social conditions that lead to laws which favor either side in their ongoing struggle for influence. Using a cross-sectional ecological design I found that political systems with more blacks were least likely to have public policies in the interest of the working class. Other relevant factors which had less consistent effects were the type of enterprise and the level of resources in an area. Generally, the results are consistent with theories that racial antagonisms undermine the political efforts of workers.     

Effects of Class Positions of Parents on Educational Attainment of Daughters and Sons*

Cet article évalue les effets de l'appartenance de la mère et du père à une classe - déterminée selon la théorie marxiste des classes -sur le niveau d'instruction de leurs enfants, garçons et filles, au Canada. Les données sont tirées d'un échantillon représentatif de Canadiens et de Canadiennes. Les analyses multivariables mon-trent que l'appartenance du père et de la mère à une classe influe sur le niveau d'instruction des enfants des deux sexes. Que le père ou la mère soit issu de la bourgeoisie, de la classe des dirigeants ou de la classe des spécialistes, l'enfant aura un niveau d'instruction plus élevé que celui dont les parents appartiennent à une autre classe. On a toutefois observé que seuls certains effets de l'appartenance à une classe étaient directs; les effets liés à l'appartenance à une classe semblent ne se manifester que partiellement dans les differences de niveau d'instruction des parents, qui sont liées à la classe à laquelle ils appartiennent. Les niveaux d'instruction de la mere et du père influent directement sur le niveau d'instruction des enfants des deux sexes, une fois neutralisés les effets de l'appartenance sociale des parents. De plus, les effets du niveau d'instruction du père et de la mère ont tendance à différer selon le sexe de l'enfant (le niveau d'études de la mère influe davantage sur celui de la fille et à l'inverse celui du père influe davantage sur celui du fils). Toutefois, cette tendance ne se vérifie pas en ce qui concerne les effets de l'appartenance des parents à une classe. Les analyses qui comparent les sous-échantillons d'âges indiquent que la double influence de l'appartenance des parents à une classe et de leur niveau d'instruction a diminué après les années soixante compara-tivement aux années précédentes. Les résultats sont interprétés à la lumière de la théorie du capital culturel. This paper assesses the effects of mothers' and fathers' class positions—measured in terms of Marxist class categories—on the educational attainment of male and female offspring in Canada. Our data are from a national representative sample of Canadians. Multivariate analyses show that, for offspring of both genders, the class positions of fathers and mothers influence educational attainment. Where either parent was a member of the bourgeois, managerial or expert class categories, this meant more education for the offspring than other class backgrounds. Only some proportions of the class effects were direct; the effects of class background appear to partially operate through differences in educational attainment of parents that are associated with parents' class positions. Mothers' and fathers' education levels continue to have comparatively strong positive relationships with educational attainment for offspring of both genders after controls for class categories of parents. Further, the effects of paternal and maternal education tend to be “same-sex directed” (mothers' education levels have stronger effects for daughters than for sons and vice versa for fathers' education). However, a similar pattern does not hold for the effects of parental class positions. Analyses comparing age sub-samples indicate that the influences of both parental class positions and parental education levels upon educational attainment of offspring have decreased in the post-1960 period compared with earlier years. The results are interpreted in terms of the theory of cultural capital.     

Individual and Organizational Determinants of Wage Disparities in Israel's Local Authorities

Abstract

In this study I compare hypotheses derived from a resource-based view of management with those based on an institutional perspective to test whether wage levels in local authorities are more likely to reflect technical or allocative efficiency measures, the former deriving from “autonomous” revenues from private sources, the latter from policy-based allocation of resources. A focus on wage variations for 5,033 employees from 83 local authorities shows that the level of autonomous revenues lowers the wages for women and Arab employees but not for men and Jewish employees. The results suggest that local authorities use a differential wage allocation, probably indicating increased access to privatized and outsourced employee recruitment. Moreover, the results show that equal opportunity notions, presumably inherent in social policy guidelines, do not ensure interorganizational homogeneity in wages: metropolitan and larger local authorities are more likely to use technical than institutional measures of organizational success. I conclude that neoinstitutional hypotheses that focus both on the competitive and institutional aspects of governance are differentially applied in regard to wages.     

The Relation Between Peer Victimization and Adolescents' Well‐Being: The Moderating Role of Ethnicity Within Context

This study examined the moderating effects of individual ethnicity and school ethnic composition on the relation between peer victimization and adolescents' well‐being. Participants were 4,593 sixth grade students attending 36 schools categorized as ethnically diverse or predominantly African American, European American, or Latino American. Multilevel models revealed relations between participants' ethnicity and their reported frequency of overt but not relational victimization. Findings did not support the hypothesis that adolescents in the minority group in their school would be more frequently victimized than adolescents in the majority group. Furthermore, contrary to hypothesis, the relation between the reported frequency of victimization and well‐being did not vary as a function of the interaction between adolescents' ethnicity and their schools' ethnic composition.     

Organizational Maintenance,Sensitivity to Clients,and Vulnerability: Some New Suggestions About a Traditional Concept*

Maintenance, an important concept in the organizational literature, is often assumed to be a key factor in the low levels of sensitivity to client needs and demands apparent in many human service organizations. This paper uses data from a national sample of juvenile courts to demonstrate, however, that maintenance may relate to other variables in ways that are at variance with the common assumption. The maintenance of internal organizational operations is bound closely to the development of ties to the community; as a result, strong emphasis on maintenance actually leads to high levels of sensitivity to clients when certain environmental forces demand it. This positive relation is especially strong when organizations are highly vulnerable to external pressures. Such results suggest a contingent view of the role of maintenance in organizations and imply some further directions for research.     

Perceived Teacher Autonomy and the Meaning of Organizational Control*

This paper compares field data from three schools to generate explanations for teacher perceptions of their autonomy. These perceptions do not vary with control imposed on teachers in any regular way. Consideration of environmental pressure on the schools, however, reveals a pattern to the findings. Minimal environmental pressure allows the emergence of an all-pervading consensus that leads teachers to construe control as supportive of personal goals. Moderate pressure engenders teacher dependence on the principal to buffer them from uncertainty. The principal translates the dependence into control activities teachers perceive as constraints. High levels of pressure preoccupy the principal who, therefore, cannot coordinate the school effectively. This causes teachers, themselves, to feel ineffective and constrained.     

Structural Determinants of Consensus and Cohesion in Complex Organizations*

Les réactions collectives, à l'occasion de tensions qui se manifesteraient dans des sous-unités d'organisation sociale complexe, varieraient en nombre et en caractère selon le niveau du consensus et la puissance relative des sousunités. Le niveau de consensus et le degré de cohésion, ce dernier étant associé au consensus, seraient fonction de la différentiation des rôles et la fréquence des interactions au sein des sous-unités. A mesure que la différentiation des rôles et que le taux des interactions sont déterminés par la technicité, ce type d'organisation même influence les réactions collectives en face de tensions. Des données recueillies dam une firme industrielle canadienne indiquent que le consensus s'associe à la densité des effectifs plutôt qu'à la différentiation des rôles, alors que le degré de cohésion s'associe plus à la différentiation qu'à la densité des effectifs. Le consensus et la cohésion semblent s'interposer dans les rapports entre la satisfaction au travail et le rendement, l'absentéisme et le roulement du personnel.     

Socialization and Newcomer Adjustment: The Role of Organizational Context

Research on how the context of work affects HRMpractices in general, and socialization practices inparticular, is relatively scarce. The present studyassesses a model linking context, socialization, and newcomer adjustment. Self-report data frombusiness school graduates after 4 months (N = 295) and10 months (N = 223) on the job revealed that mechanistic(vs. organic) structure, organization size, and jobs of high motivating potential were eachpositively associated with organizations' use of whatJones (1986) refers to as institutionalizedsocialization, and this form of socialization waspositively associated with newcomer adjustment. Contraryto expectations, neither a newcomer's bureaucraticorientation nor growth need strength moderated therelationship between socialization andadjustment.     

A Study of Reputational Community Leaders Using The Concepts of Exchange and Coordinative Positions*

The general purposes of this study were to investigate the group and organizational affiliates of reputed community leaders in a rural community. The specific hypotheses were that the higher one is ranked as a reputational leader, (1) the more exchange influence he will likely have accumulated through occupying economic, kinship, occupational, ownership, and political-governmental positions which are reputedly influential in the community, (2) the more likely he is to be an active participant in formal and/or informal coordinative interstitial groups in the community, and (3) the more likely he is to be an active participant in those formal coordinative groups which are reputed to be influential over community affairs. The hypotheses were tested by comparing the sets of rankings of twenty-eight reputational leaders with (1) their rankings in terms of exchange positions scores, (2) their rankings in terms of social participation scores, and (3) their rankings in terms of weighted social participation scores. The results of the study tended to support the hypotheses, as stated, for the community involved.     

An Organizational Model of Higher Education Institutions and Faculty Teaching Goals*

The theory of organizations as “open systems” is used to develop hypotheses on the relationship between academic institutions and faculty teaching goals. The effects of three measures of academic organizations–type of control, institutional functions, and institutional affluence–on faculty support for four types of teaching goals are tested with data from a nationally representative sample of 301 academic institutions. Through the use of a path analytic model, it was found that these organizational characteristics directly affect the types of teaching goals faculty members endorse and the level of support for teaching goals in general.     

Female Labor Force Participation and the Organizational Experiences of Male Workers*

Using a sample of 387 male federal employees who responded to a questionnaire, this study tests two theoretical perspectives concerning the effect of women's labor force participation on men's work experiences. One theory, with roots in the external-conflict/intenial-cohesion and minority-group size/discrimination literature, predicts that the greater the representation of women in work groups, the greater the social solidarity among male workers and the less the social support for males from female coworkers. A second theory, derived primarily from Blau's exploration into the quantitative properties of social structure, suggests that the higher the proportional representation of females, the lower of social solidarity among male workers and the greater the social support for males from female coworkers. The findings support the latter, not the former, theoretical perspective.     

Interactions Between Cultural and Economic Determinants of Divorce in The Netherlands

This study examines the relationship between gendered family roles and divorce in The Netherlands. Cultural and economic aspects of this relationship are distinguished. Economic hypotheses argue that the likelihood of divorce is increased if women work for pay and have attractive labor market resources. Cultural hypotheses argue that divorce chances are increased if women adhere to emancipatory norms, independent of their labor market positions. An event‐history analysis of a life‐history survey among 1,289 Dutch women reveals evidence for both hypotheses. Interaction effects are found as well: The protective effect of a traditional division of paid labor is only present among couples in which wives have traditional gender attitudes. Hence, the validity of economic explanations of divorce is conditional on cultural values.     

Determinants of Black Suburbanization: Regional and Suburban Size Category Patterns*

This study analyzes the movement of blacks to the suburbs of American metropolitan areas, using the framework developed by Taeuber and Taeuber (1965) for the analysis of racial transition in inner city neighborhoods. The data are consistent with their model and suggest that the rate of black population growth is a function not only of the characteristies of individual suburbs themselves, but also of the central cities of the metropolitan areas within which they are located. The units of analysis are all suburbs with populations of 10,000 or more in 1960 and 1970. Suburban size is a key characteristic because the independent variables affect black population growth quite differently in different size categories. While there are clear differences between southern and nonsouthern suburbs in average levels of the push and pull variables, as well as the rate at which the black suburban population grew in the 1960s, the effects of these variables on black suburban growth were the same in both regions.