An empirical study of contemporary beliefs about work in American society.

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.

Intelligence, “Big Five” personality traits, and work drive as predictors of course grade

“…Protestant Work Ethic studies and later cross-cultural studies have revealed no consistent effects of gender (see Baguma & Furnham, 1993;Buchholz, 1978;Furnham, 1982Furnham, , 1987Furnham, , 1990Furnham & Rajamanickam, 1992;Mirels & Garrett, 1971). A later study by Wentworth and Chell (1997) found higher work ethic scores in males for a college population.…”

“…Mervielde et al (1995) found inconsistent effects of the Five Factor model predicting GPA in grade school children (ages [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Early studies of work ethic demonstrated no consistent gender effects (Buchholz, 1978;Furnham, 1982Furnham, , 1987Furnham, , 1990Mirels & Garrett, 1971). Wentworth and Chell (1997) found higher Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) scores in male college students as compared to women, using Mirels and Garrett's (1971) scale, but drew no definitive conclusions based in part on the fact that Furnham's more recent cross-cultural research had shown that women tend to score higher in PWE (Baguma & Furnham, 1993;Furnham & Rajamanickam, 1992 The conclusions in the literature about the relationship between age and work drive are equally unclear (Buchholz, 1978;Furnham, 1982Furnham, , 1987Wentworth & Chell, 1997).…”

Attitudinal correlates and demographic predictors of monetary beliefs and behaviours

“…The questionnaire has been used in various studies (Buchholz, 1978;Dickson and Buchholz, 1978;Furnham, 1984Furnham, , 1986.…”

Cultural orientations and preferences for HRM policies and practices: the case of Oman

“…The cross-cultural literature shows that value orientations are not homogenous within countries and that there is a certain amount of diversity due to demographic characteristics of individuals (e.g., Buchholz, 1978;Clare and Sanford, 1979;Connor and Becker, 1994;Dickson and Buchholz, 1977;Heller et al, 1988;Lincoln et al, 1982). In addition to age, this research will explore whether differences exist in cultural orientations among Omani employees due to their gender, education level, work experience, and marital status.…”