Alienation as a Concept in the Social Sciences

Alienation Among Professional Engineers: A Canadian-American Comparison

“…Such disenchantment among professionals may lead to serious économie conséquences for the organization and to society. Previous research on professionals in organizations suggested the existence of possible incongruence between the needs of those individuals and the way organizations were managed (Blau & Scott, 1962;Kornhauser, 1962, Miller, 1967. Such incongruence créâtes aliénation which results in less effort and performance and more tardiness from work (Cummings & Mauring, 1977).…”

“…La présente étude tente de vérifier cette affirmation en comparant les ingénieurs canadiens et américains quant à la perception qu'ils ont de l'effet de la structure de contrainte ou de stimulation sur leur degré d'aliénation.La méthode suivieLes données canadiennes ont été obtenues de 189 ingénieurs qui étaient membres de l'Association des ingénieurs de la Colombie Britannique et qui travaillaient pour diverses entreprises de la province. With the technological explosion underway, and with its rapid fragmentation of the areas of expertise, industrial organizations are becoming increasingly dépendent upon their professional staff for successful management of their enterprise (Galbraith, 1967;Marcson, 1960). However, if the enterprise cannot provide an environment that satisfies the needs for individual autonomy, responsibility and achievement it is likely to create a state of aliénation among its members.…”

“…However, the Marxian tradition has exerted a stronger influence so far as the substance of aliénation and the areas of aliénation research are concerned (Ludz, 1976). The Marxian theory of aliénation consisted of three dimensions: (1) the philosophico-historical, (2) the tkeoretical, and (3) the empirico-historical (Ludz, 1976). In the philosophicohistorical dimension, Marx's concept of aliénation appears "to draw completely upon an image of man as the non specialist and fully developed individual" (Jenkner, 1965: p. 206).…”

“…In the philosophicohistorical dimension, Marx's concept of aliénation appears "to draw completely upon an image of man as the non specialist and fully developed individual" (Jenkner, 1965: p. 206). Such a view of man is no longer valid given the subséquent literature in social science (Ludz, 1976). In the theoretical dimension, aliénation is viewed as a total phenomenon encompassing the entire human condition.…”

“…Especially among professionals, factors such as specialized compétence with considérable intellectual content, extensive autonomy, responsibility, influence, and strong commitment to the profession were highly valued (Kornhauser, 1962). If the control incentive structure in the organization tended to diminish such values, the professionals are likely to expérience a loss of intrinsic meaning and pride in their work and adopt an instrumental view of work with its attendent négative consé-quences (Miller, 1967). Thus, the above theoretical perspective would lead us to the hypothesis that decreased controls and increased professional incentives would resuit in lesser aliénation among professionals.…”