,vz: V was: SKILL LEVEL. SOClAL .INVOLVEMENTS AND IDEOLOGY: A STUDY OF AUTOMOBILE WORKERS Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSLTY Steven E. Deufsch 1964 1H5“ I/W/ / W / mg WWI (z }A 1m 5205 LIB RAR Y Michigan State University This is to certify that the thesis entitled Skill Level, Social Involvements and Ideology: A Study of Automobile Workers presented by Steven E. Deutsch has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. degree in Sociolooy Major professor Date War—2.51.4964— 0-169 31'}; 1) L1'~‘ J C 5995 '9 V v‘ ABSTRACT SKILL LEVEL, SOCIAL INVOLVEMENTS AND IDEOLOGY: A STUDY OF AUTOMOBILE WORKERS by Steven E. Deutsch This study attempts to examine the occupational skill level differences among manual workers in the following areas: relations with others in the plant, involvement in work, job attitudes,_occupa- tional aspirations and interests, involvement in the union, political attitudes and behavior, involvement in the neighborhood and community. Data for the study was provided from interviews with automobile workers in 1962. A stratified sample of 306 workers in Lansing, Michigan was selected from among skilled tradesmen,‘machine operators and assembly workers—~constituting three levels of skill within the range of manual industrial occupations. The findings demonstrate that it is hazardous to generalize about industrial workers as a homogeneous category. Skilled trades- men (in cxnrtrast in) productiinitwurkers) are (fllhfir, have Hunts seniorityg are better educated if younger, manifest greater social interaction on the job, evidence more satisfaction with the industrial sector, exhibit greater occupational fulfillment and lower occupational as— pirations. Furthermore, they tend to have greater union interest and participation, tend to be less supportive of union political action, are more conservative politically, less alienated along the powerlessness Steven K. Deutsch and normlessness dimensions, ideologically less intense and more involved in tlne crunmuitit§z A two—fold typology is suggested. Skilled workers show a higher degree of work satisfaction and higher degree of participation in the union and community. Production workers in both assemblyand non—assembly jobs are more dissatisfied with work related areas and participate less in union and Community activities. lhe data suggest that for those less involved in their work, union or community the family is the major Source of involvement. lhe pattern of low involvement and feelings of political powerlessness may point under favorable conditions to strong support of the union and its political ideology. lhe pattern of high social in- volvement suggests an adjustment for Skillxwl\JUIkQFS who participate more in a union which they see as e>flxdnlhn1 their eConomic gains. The}, are more involved in their communities, and are less ideologically com— mitted and politically liberal. What is suggested is a true paradox. The union activists are Conservative "job—conscious mnikers, and the non~activists are the more liberal (politically) and dissatisfied workers whose ideological sensitivities haxx‘tnmt been activated. The Conclusion is that the American working class is not a homogeneous mass but a heterogeneous occupational hierarchy with distinct orientations toward theij‘twirk, tluelntion movement and tdn: broader Societyu SKILL LEVEL, SOCIAL INVOLVEMEN'IS AND IDIIULOGY: A STUDY OF AUTOMOBILE wnnxuus By Steven E. Deutsch A THRSlS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Sociology and Anthropology 196Q ACKNOWLEDGII‘llLN'IIS Since the doctoral dissertation represents the culmination of one's formal academic apprenticeship, it is indeed an appropriate time to acknowledge one’s indebtedness. Firs ., to my parents I am grateful for the support and encouragement of academic training: and to my father I shall always be grateful for the lesson of scholarly relevance and honesty. To my fi‘st teachers of sociology, Professors Richard R. Myers and George F. Simpson of Oberlin College I express my apprecia— tion for initial stimulation and for acquiring the perspectives of the social sciences. Ik)unrnejor mentor, inspiring teacher and friend, Professor William H. Form, I extend my sincerest gratitude for offering a scholarly ideal by example and for helping me to develop the critical and humanistic perspectives that are essential ingredients for our field. I am grateful to my many teacners for their inspiration as well as their friendship and aCknowledge with appreciation the members of my committee: Professors Jay Artis, William Paunce, Eugene Jacobson, and Hans Toch. I have benefited greatly from the stimulationénd as— Sistance of my good friend, Paolo Ammassari. To John Sonquist of the University of Michigan I am indebted for methodological help in this research and for the lessons of patience and rigor in social research. ii My wife and children have learned a lesson of patience of their own in putting up with me and with my absence during the period of time I was engaged in this research. Happily, they have also been my staunchest supporters. 9 Many persons helped materially in the execution of this study. I would like to single out Mr. {oy Rammacher, President of Local 652, United Auto Workers; Professor Jack St ieber and Professor liinar Hard in of the School of Labor and Industrial Relations. I am also grateful to the many others without whose help this study could not have been I done. And finally, I am most. sinCerely grateful to the more. than three hundred men who graciously gave the time to answer questions, and in most cases, expressed their support of the research endeavor. ‘iii TABLE OF CDNTLNTS Chaptel‘ Pa \ I INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOIHESLS. . . . . . . . 8 7-~ ' ,. ‘fi‘ .' ’2' Mork Life and Job Satistaction. . . . . . . . . . 8 Union Attitudes and Participation .“i'f”. . . . . 14 Union Political Action and Political Ideology .9 f" 16 . - ‘7 i Neighborhood—Community Involvement. (”I . . . 20 8 1111-11118 1‘ E, O O I O O C O O O O I O O O O O O O O I ' O 2 2 III SIIH)Y [HESIGN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Research Set tins: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2“ 111a ESann)le. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Interview Schedult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Procedural Problems . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Methodolog ical Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 IV THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER, SKILL LEVEL, AND OCCUPA- TIONAL 1N\'()L\'l_lellll\'T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Satisfaction with Industrial Sector . . . . . . . 33 Occupational Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Job Satisfaction. . . . . I . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Summary Index .UI HCCUpational Intolvvmvnf. . . . 51 V SKILL LHVLL AND UNION INVOLVEMENT . . . . . . . . . 54 Union Interest. . . . . . . . . . . . ‘ . . . . . 55 Unijfll EVBIIHEtitfll. . . . . . . t . . . . . . . . . 57 UUIkHl Partix:ipatirn1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 38 lhiicnl ln\mwlveuu41t . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; . . 64 VI [WIDN FUNCTIONS AND UNION POLITICAL ACTION. . . . . 67 Union Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Union Political Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Support for Union Political Action. i . . . . . . 74 iv {10 (T; Chapter ' Page VII POLITICAL IDEOLOGY, BEHAVIOR AND ALIENATION . . . . . 79 The Meaning of Ideology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Political Liberalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Political Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 On the Meaning of Alienation. . . . . . . . . . ’37 PUWGIILSSHESS and Political Alienatior. . . . . . . 91 Normlessness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Idqultmgica]. 1nte11sit\ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 An O\et\iew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 VIII SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND Nl‘IICHBtll-illl'n)D-COD‘IMIWITY IN\'O L\'I‘I\11:N —l7 o o o o c I o o o a o o o o o o o o a o 103 The Meaning of Mass Society . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Skill Level and Associational Involvement . . . . . 106 Skill Level and Neighborhood-Community Involvement. lll IX OCCUPATIONAL SKILL LEVEL AND PATTERNS OF SOCIAL INTEC;ImTI()N O O C O O O O O I C O O C O C O C C C O 117 Occupational Skill as a Critical Variable . . . . . 117 The Concept of Social Integration . . . . . . . . . 119 Summary of Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Implications of the Findings and Conclusions. . . . 125 Lingering lesearch QUtStIOHS. , . . . . . . . . . . 129 BIB‘LIC)(IIZAPHE'. a c o o o o a o a c o a o o o o o I 0 o c o a 133 Table 10 ll 12 13 14 15 16 17 LISIT(H7 LADLES Relationships Retween Age, Education, Seniority and Skill (Wage Rate). . . . . . . . . . . . . Satisfaction with Industrial Sector and Skill Level Occupational Satisfaction and Skill Level. . . . . Occupational Aspirations — Desire to Change Occupa— tions and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . Occupational Aspirations — Desire to Change Occupa~ tions — Age,and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . . Occupational Aspirations — Desire to Change Occupa— tions, Seniority and Skill Level. . . . . . . . Occupational Aspirations — Desire to Change Occupa- tiOIIS, lklUCatIUIl 811d :kill L6\’e1 o o o o o o o 0 Occupational Fulfillment and Skill Level . . . . . Occupational Fulfillment, Seniority and Skill Leve Occupathnmfl.Fu1fi1hmmt, Agezmn18killlxnel . . Job Satisfaction and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . Job Satisfaction, —Age and Skill Level . . . . . . Job Satisfaction, Seniority and Skill Level . . . Index of Occupational Involvement anJ Skill level. Union Evaluation and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . Union Participation and Skill Level. . . . . . . . Union Participation, Education and Skill Level. L Page 32 34 36 37 38 39 MO 43 45 47 148 as 50 58 6O 61 Table 18 19 2O 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3O 31 32 33 34 Union Involvement and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . Union Functions and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . . UHIOI Behavior and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . . . Union Problems and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . . . Support for Fnion Political Action and Skill Level . Support for Union Political Action, Education and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Political Liberalism and Skill Level . . . . . . . . Political Liberalism , Education and Skill Level . . Political Activity and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . Powerlessness and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . . . Powerlessness, Education and Skill Level. . . . . . Normlessness and Skill Level . . . . . . . . . . . . Normlessness, Education and Skill Level . . . . . . Ideological Intensity and Skill Level. . . . . . . . Participation in Voluntary Organizations and Skill Le\re1 o o a o o o o o o o o o o o o O I o O 0 0 0 0 Participation in Voluntary Organizations, Education and Skill Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Community Involvement and Skill Level. . . . . . . . vii Page 66 68 68 7O 75 77 83 84 87 93 94 98 99 101 109 110 115 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It has been 120 years since Karl Marx wrote about the alien- ating effects of industrial work and almost two centuries since the industrial revolution began in the West. And yet the controve‘sy till goes on as to whether modern industrial man is, indeed, alien- U) ated. This study begins with the assumption that certain historical changes in the structure and technology of industry have produced different forms of production, social structure and work relationships. The study does not focus directly on the discussion of alienation per se: but, rather on the satisfaction of the manual worker with his occupational life and the degree to which he is involved with his union, neighborhood, and community. This research suggests that there are important differences among manual workers in their work and non—work lives, and that these are manifest in different attitudes, social relations and behavior. Moreover, the critical question no longer may be whether industrial workers are alienated, but how they relate to others in the union, neighborhood, communities, and other social systems. Discussion about the concept alienation was initiated by Marx in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. The alienation of the object of labor merely summarizes the alienation in the work activity itself. What constitutes the alienation of labor? First, that the work is external to the worker, that it is not part of his nature; and that, conse— quently, he does not fulfill himself in his work but denies himself, has a feeling of misery rather than well being, does not develop freely his mental and physical energies but is physically exhausted and mentally debased. The worker there- fore feels himself at home only during his leisure time, where- as at work he feels homeless. His work is not voluntary but imposed, forced labor. It is not the satisfaction of a need, but only a means for satisfying other needs. Its alien char- acter is clearly shown by the fact that as soon as there is not physical or other compulsion it is avoided like the plague. While Marx attributed the alienation of the worker to his relat- ionship to the owners of the means of production, and thus linked alienation to the capitalist order, more recent writers such as Feuer have pointed out that, “This alienation of man from the machine, which stands against him, imposing its rhythm on him so that he is a satel— lite to its motions, is something which is common to all industrial societies, whether they be capitalist or socialist."2 Furthermore, Blauner has suggested that work alienation of the modern worker may be abating in automated industries, and that a curvilinear relationship exists between amount of alienation and more advanced forms of technology.3 1Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844) in Erich Fromm, Mirgls Concept of Man (New York: Frederick Ungar Pub- lishing Compan‘, 1961), Dp. 99—99. 2Lewis Feuer, "What is Alienation? The Career of a Concept," in Maurice Stein and Arthur Vidich (editors), Sociglogy on Trial (Engle- wood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., l9637, p. . 3Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom: The Factory Worker and His Industry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,.l964),pp. 178-186. The problem posed originally by Marx and de'x'eloped by social theorists and philosophers is historical. Although this research is placed in an historical context, it is an empirical inquiry into the relationships between skill level of manual workers and their patterns of satisfaction, participation and ideology. This study will probe the areas of occupational invochment of industrial workers who perform unskilled work on the assembly line, production work, highly skilled work within the same industry and plant. If the behavior of modern industrial man does not satisfy him, does he find some satisfaction in non—work spheres-—or is work dissatisfaction sufficient to produce a generalized feeling of cstrangement from Self, others and society? As Wilensky reCently said, “This is perhaps the central problem of the sociology of work--the effect of the division of labor on social integration, or more precisely the Conditions under which work role, occupational association, and career are most and least effective as bonds of solidarity either within workplace or between workplace and largel‘lniits (n‘ both.'!* This study focuses on automobile workers——the very Marxian model of alienated man entrapped by technology and capitalistic eConomic structure. Blauner concludes his discussion of auto workers as fislltncs: I . ,,._. , . . . . . 4Harold L. Wilensky, Urderly Careers and Soc1al Part1c1pation: The impact of Work History on Social integration in the Middle Mass,“ American Sociological Review, Vol. 26 (August, 1961), p. 523. a With his alienated relation to his work and his emphasis upon leisure and consumption, the automobile worker is, in a sense, the blue—collar prototype of the mass man in mass society. His work is unfree and unfulfilling and exemplifies the bureau— cratic combination of the highly rational organization and the restricted specialist. In relation to the two giant bureaucrac- ies which dominate his life, he is relatively powerless, atomized, depersonalized, and anonymous. Yet, as the producer of motor vehicles, he is a vital factor in an automobile civilization, as well as a ready consumer of its mass culture and mass leisure.5 The implications of the skill level of the industrial worker have not been systematically analyzed in the broad dimensions of his social life. While it is known that level of job satisfaction varies with skill? this finding has not been exploited sufficiently in relation to a host of associated variables such as union and politi— cal orientations, Blauner's study quoted above, which used 1947 Roper poll data did consider differences among industrial workers but he slighted the problem of differences in skill level. Moreover, though he traced the forms of alienation outlined by Melvin Seeman and examined the technological and social work environments in four industries, noting various degrees of meaningless, powerlessness, social alienation and self—estrangenent,7 he did not.relate work SBlainuar, £13. cit., 13- 122. 6See S. Wyatt and R. Marriott, A Study of Attitudes to Factory Work (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1956). 7Melvin Seeman, “0n the Meaning of Alienation,” American Socio— logical Review, Vol. 24 (December, 1959) pp. 783—791. Seeman said that alienation has been used to portray: meaninglessness, normlessness, powerlessness, social isolation, and self—estrangement. alienation with non-work areas such as the union, neighborhood, community, voluntary associations,and political ideology. He concluded that industrial workers are alienated, some more than others. But we are still left with the question of how industrial workers integrate themselves into a society in which they suffer one er the other forms of VKWK alienation. The question posed here is whether there is a shifting relationship between work and non-work as one moves from high to low occupational skill. If less skilled workers manifest less job satis— faction, does work then take on less meaning and other pursuits more meaning? For example, will the less skilled worker be less satisfied with his job and become more active in the union than the more skilled worker who presumablyis more satisfied with his job, or will another pattern emerge? In a study of the Typographical Union, Lipset, Trow and Coleman found a consistently high pattern of job satisfaction re- lated to a high degree of occupational and community participation.8 According to Blauner, such occupational communities rarely exist among urban factory workers.9 It is hypothesized that skilled workers in industrial manufacturing approximate traditional craftsmen, manifest 8Seymour Martin Lipset, Martin Trow and.James 8. Coleman, Union Democracy (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press,1956),, 9Robert Blauner, "Work Satisfaction and Industrial Trends in Modern Society," in Walter Galenson and Seymour Martin Lipset (editors) Labor 239 Trade Unionism (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1960). a higher level of job satisfaction, and are more involved in the broader communityu (Us the other harui, the unskilled worker is less satisfied with his work, is less involved in social organizations but perhaps is more involved in the union and expresses a greater desire to change the social-political structure. This is a re-test of aiinwnof Marx’s theory: the less skilled industrial worker is less satisfied with his work, participates less in his local com- munity, is more involved in the union, is more supportive of the union’s political role, and is more liberal politically. One of the research realities which has been considered a para- dox is that industrial workers, while less happy with their jobs than those in high prestige occupations, have generally manifested relatively ‘ lO , . high job satisfaction. Blauner, in fact, condemned intellectuals for cloaking industrial workersscflh Marxian work alienation, when in fact, they are satisfied with their jobs. Bennett Berger also criticized Chinoy and others for similarly imputing alienation to manual workers.11 In the current fascination with alienation, the concept is often equated to job dissatisfaction——a distortion of Marx’s conceptuali- . . . . 12 . zation as C. Wright Mills has pointed out. In fairness to 10Blauner, op. cit., 1960, 1Bennett M. Berger, Working—Class Suburb: A Study of Auto yorkers in Suburbia (Berkehgrand Los Angeles: University of Californta Press 1960), Chapter 6, H», 12C. Wright Mills, The Marxists (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1962), p. 86. I3launer, he did reverse himself in his recent book in which he stated tdhat, ”. . . the typical worker in modern industrial society is pro- . . _ .l - 1>ably satisfied and self—estranged.’ 3 He then proceeded to examine i‘elative alientation in four industrial settings. This study attempts to examine the relevance of job skills c>n the worker’s relations with others in the plant, his involvement :in.his work and job attitudes, his occupational aspirations and :interests; his involvement in the union; his political attitudes and t>ehavior; and his involvement in the neighborhood and community. 'Fhe relations among these variables are clarified in theory and in ‘terms of specific hypotheses in the next chapter. 13Blauner, op. cit., 196Q, p. 29. CHAPTER II THICORILTLCAL FRAIVIHJORK AND HYPUTHESLS The procedure in this chapter is to examine briefly the theory EBIICl literature for the several interrelated hypotheses which are pro— [>c)sed. These hypotheses deal with the following major areas: job ESEBtisfaction, occupational satisfaction, union attitudes and parti- cnipation, union political action and political ideology, and neighbor- llxjcxl arnl Cohmflfllit)’ in\\>lvenxuit. Work Life and Job Satisfaction Marxian theory patently argues that work no longer is meaning— ful for the industrial worker whose only benefit from his job is the inadequate remuneration. Work as such has no meaning in the sense of craftsmenlike acComplishment or in terms of meaningful social re- lationships. Herzberg and his collabmators traced historical changes .n. I in patterns of work and concluded in the others that significant changes . . . 1 1n technology have fostered various types of soCial changes. One sudi 0 1Frederick Herzberg, Bernard Mausner, Barbara Block Snyderman, lflg_Motivation to work (New York: John Wiley X Sons, 1959), Chapter 13; (Hiarles -l.\§alker ((nlltOY), bkxhn11 Techfnilogy and ()bcilizatiANI (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1962). change is that work is no longer of Central importance in a society which increasingly emphasizes non—work activity. Similarly, Dubin concluded that, ”. . .for almost three out of four industrial workers studied, work and the workplace are not central life interests."2 Furthermore, only ten percent of the workers see their primary social relationships taking place at work and for nine out of ten persons, primary relationships were unrelated to work. If work has become less meaningful in terms of self—fulfillment, social interaction and basic satisfaction, then where and how do men relate to one another? Bell stated that, Few auto workers today have a future beyond their job. Few have a chance of social advancement. But they are not radical. What has happened is that old goals have been displaced, and the Am- erican Dream has been given a new gloss. Success at one's job becomes less important than sUCCess in one’s style of life.3 C. Wright Mills coined the phrase, "the big split,“ to distinguish between the world of work and the world of non—work, noting that there is an increasing tendency for non-work activities to be compensatory for the dissatisfactions in the work arena.4 However, Nosow and Form stressed that work remains the major link between man and Society. 2Robert Dubin, ”Industrial Worker’s Worlds: A Study of the 'Central Life Interests'of Industrial Workers,” Social Problems, Vol. 3 (January, 1956), p. 131. ’1 “Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology (New York: Collier Books, 1961), p. 255. I ALC. Wright Mills, White Collar (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), pp. 235—238. 10 The separation of work from other realms of life has been er— roneous 1y interpreted by some as indicating that work is no longer a central life interest of modern man. The available evidence does not confirm this, for work continues to be the driving force giving direction and meaning to contemporary living. While it is true that work satisfaction tends to de- crease with level of occupational skill, work still occupies a central role in the lives of most people. The primary reason for this is that there is no other activity which pro- vides as much social continuity to life as does work. Cer- tainly leisure has not yet replaced work as a central organi- zing principle of life. It is work, not leisure, that gives status to the individual and his family.’5 (Emphasis added) Weighing the evidence in the literature, one may reaSonably conclude that work is still important in Contemporary society in terms of production, status assignment and as a major channel for human relatedness. While some current theoreticians have proposed revising our thinking on this subject as a result of the cybernetic advance,6 the importance of work to most people today is clearly established by many studies. Although the conflicting positions on the centrality of work cannot be reconciled here, the range of socio- logical findings may be outlined briefly. First, there are differences by occupational levels in terms of job attitudes and job satisfaction.7 Second, there are occupational differences in the perceived functions and meaning of work.8 Third, there are occupational differences in SS igmund anow and William H. Form (editors) Man, Work and Society (New York: Basic Books, 1962), p. 11. 6W. H. Ferry, et, al., The Triple Revolution (Santa Barbara, California: Privately printed, 1964). 7Gladys L. Palmer, “Attitudes Toward Work in an Industrial Com— munity,“ American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 63 (July, 1957), pp. 17-26. 8Nancy C. Morse and Robert S. Weiss, ”The Function and Meaning Of Work and the Job," American Sociological Review, Vol. 20 (April, 1955, pp. 191-198: Elizabeth L. Lyman, “Occupational Differences in ll adjustment and mental health.9 That is, unskilled workers are likely to view work as something to do and may prefer other occupations. They manifest greater occupational and job dissatisfaction than skilled workers, and have greater problems maintaining a healthy personality. Yet, these Conclusions can be exaggerated. Thus, while professionals and white-Collar workers are less dissatisfied than manual workers, all respondents are overwhelmingly satisfied with their jobs.10 Inter- pretations of this finding are variable. Thus, most people may in fact be satisfied with their work or they may have adjusted themselves to their work and beCone satisfied; or that weaknesses exist in the techniques of studying work attitudes, or that all dimensions of work have not been explored sufficiently.) This study will pursue the last alternative and probe several areas/of occupational life. Oc— cupational attachnmdn: is the.concept which shall be used to portray? this larger area of work life. It shall be used a composite index consisting of occupational fulfillment, occupational satisfaction, Sector satisfaction, job satisfaction, work environment and satis- faction with interaction at work. Thus, it is hypothesized that: occupational involvement and all factors comprising it are positively Correlated with skill level. the Value Attached to Work,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 61 (September, 1953), pp. 138—144; Eugene A. Friedmann and Robert J. Havighu‘st, The Meaning of Work and {etirement (Chicago: Univefsity of Chicago Press, 193A). 9Aaron Levenstein, Why People Work (New York: The Crowell—Collier Press, 1962), p. 246. 10Robert Blauner, "Work Satisfaction and Industrial Trends in Modern Society in Walter Calenson and Seymour Martin Lipset (editors), Labor and Trade Unionism (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1960): Herzberg, et. al., op. cit. In addition, for a review of job satisfaction studies §FE‘Tfioma§_ET—Sfiott et. al., A Definition of Work Adjustment (Minneapolis: Univefsity of Minnesuta Industrial Relations Center, 1960), especially Chapter Two; Victor H. Yroom, Work and Motivation (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964). 12 Closely related tt)1flu:tlhn nsions of occupational involvement is the matter of occupational aspirations or the desire to change oc— cupations. There are considerable occupational differences on questions Concerning the desirability of continuing in present employment and particularly on choosing the same occupation all over again. Among manual workers there are large differences by skill level: forty—one per- cent of skilled and sixteen percent of unskilled autoworkers would choose ll the same career again. Guest studied automobile worker's careers and aspirations, noting that one out of five men desires to remain at his present job with the remainder having different aspirations. He traced the process of adjustment made by the individual worker as he resolves the ever—apparent contradictions and dilemma between the American Dream and the realities of factory work. He put it this way, In the long range picture, assembly line workers entertain hopes, on the verbal level at least, which are in keeping with the deeply rooted American tradition of opportunity. They want to quit the present altogether and strike out on their own. Yet to leave means facing the unknown. The present imperatives of security and a reasonable steady income outweigh the attractions of the job world outside. A few workers are not troubled by this dilemma. They look to the ihmediate advantage they now enjoy of high wages and security. Stme reSolve the dilemma by build— ing up hopes for their children’s future. Others appear to re- solve it simply by daydreaming about "getting into an indepen— / dent business of my own,“ knowing full well the idea is out of reach. But to the majority the dilemma is a pe‘sistent source of dissatisfaction.12 However, Chinoy stated that, 'TMJU1 security and small goals in the factory are essentially defensive in character . . . As goals, therefore, 11Blauner, op. cit. 12Robert H. Guest, Work Careers and Aspirations of Auto- mObile Workers," Anwrican Sociological Review, Vol. 19 (April, 1954), P. 163. 13 they constitute patterns of avoidance rather than creative activity. Once gained, they offer workers no positive gratifications, no mean- ingful experience."13 (31inoy argled that ymn‘kers' interests lJI leaving the factory develop from dissatisfaction in the plant not in inherent interest in out-of-shop goals. Several writers have presented evidence that automobile workers on production assembly lines are far from happy with the repetitive nature of their tasks. Furthermore, a discrepancy exists between ex— pected rewards and aspirations and the realities of factory life. Recently Form and Ceschwender pointed out that social structural features determine manual workers' job satisfaction, which is seen as a product of the perceived social and occupational hierarchy and the individual's place in that structure.14 If mobility and job satis— faction depend upon the worker’s position in the plant structure and his real expectation of advancement, then different degrees of job satisfaction should be expected as one goes from low to high skill jobs. 13Ijly Chinoy, Automobile Workers and the American Dream (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1955), p. 130. 11*William H. Form and James A. Ceschwender, "Social Reference Basis of Job Satisfaction: The Case of Manual Workers,“ American Socio— logical Ieview, Vol. 27 (April, 1962) pp. 228-237. For an analysis if job satisfaction factors including occupational status adjustment, see Thomas M. Lodahl, "Patterns of Job Attitudes in T‘xao Assembly Technologies,“ Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 8 (March, 1964) pp. 528~533. 14 Union Attitudes and Participation The seCond area of concern of this study is the workers' at- titudes toward the labor union and their involvement with it. A hypothesis guiding this research is that unskilled and semi- skilled workers are more active in the union and have more favorable attitudes toward it than skilled workers. The rationale for this runs as follows: the less skilled workers are frustrated by the perceived discrepancy between their occupational aspirations and their actual achievements. They are not satisfied with their jobs and their work environment, and they do not identify with their work. Being less satisfied with their work they see the union as an alternate channel of collective relatedness. A number of studies examined participation in the union by rank and file members. Tannenbaum and Kahn, Kornhauser, Rose, Dean, 15 - . Kyllonen, and others noted that factors such as urban residence, family hiSt(W§/tJf union numMmsrship, senihgrity and auyz, and (miner factors are associated with attitudes of union support and active participation. Spinard concluded that, ”. . . union activists . . . are dispropor- tionately drawn from those of relatively higher pay and job status."16 1)Arnold S. Tannenhaum and Robert L. Kahn, Participation in Union Locals (EVBHStLHl, Illinois: lune, Peterstn15c<3ompanyg '1958); Ruth Kxnwr- hauser, “Some Social Determinants and Consequences of Union Membership,7 Labor History, Vol. 2 (Winter, 1961), pp. 30-6]: Arnold M. Rose, Union Solidarity (Minneapolis: University of MinneSota Press, 1952): Lois R. Dean, Social Integration, Attitudes and Union Activity,lndustrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 8 (October, 1954) pp. 48-38: Toimi E. KyllUnen, “Social Characteristics of Active Unionists,“ American Journal g£;§2332lggy, '01. 56 (May, 1931) pp. 328-333. lbWilliam Spinrad, ”Correlates of Trade Union Participation: A SleYflal‘y’of the Literature,” American Sociological leview, Vol. 25 (April, 1900) Pp. 237-2u4, 15 Some contradictions exist in the literature about whether the less skilled worker is more or less active in the union, a question which is empirically explored in this research. Kovner and Lahnel7 suggest that formal indexes of participation are misleading and that informal shop involvement is more meaningful for the worker. lMNM\%uf, in this study, participatixn1 ts measured by actual behavior: attendance at meeting, voting in union elections, . . . 18 . . . and holding union office. Sayles and Strauss support this poSition. They state, “By participation we mean expenditure of tine on union affairs. Participation is more than emotional involvement in unionism: it is doing."19 This study is not only concerned with actual union participation, it also is concerned with workers' evaluation of union functions and activities. As will be shown later, the theoretical perspective adopted suggests that assembly and semi—automatic machine operators are less satisfied with their work than skilled workers and they engage in few activities in their neighborhoods or community. 17JoSeph Kovner and Herbert J. Lahne, “Shop Society and the Union,‘ Zhnhlstrial arnl‘Labln'luelations Iu~view, \RJI. 7 (Octckun‘, 1953) pp. 3-14. 18A word of caution in light of Dean's finding that twenty—six Percent of workers she studied over-reported union attendance when she compared their reports with observational data. She concluded that integration into the union may be founded upon personal involvement and ideological support, but not actual participation. See Lois R. Dean, "Interaction, {eported and Observeo: The Case of One Local Union,“ lumen Organization, Vol. 17 (Fall, 1958) pp. 36—uu. 19Leonard R. Sayles and George Strauss, The Local Union (New York: Harper k Brothers, 1953). 16 Since the ln1ion offers tfinwn collective ranuyiition and HRfiNES to change the work situation, these workers will more likely endorse all union goals including union political action. To repeat our hypothesis: Union involvement (as measured by participation and approval of unions) is negatively Correlated with skill level. l‘nion Political Action and Political Ideology Since the union has many goals (economic, social, and political) obviously the workers can have different attitudes toward each of these goals and how the union pursues them. This study is especially con— cerned with the worker's position on union political goals and activities. Kornhauser, Sheppard, Wilensky, Rose, Kampelman,20 and others have examined union political action and the support for such activity on the part of the membership. Various typologies have emerged from these studies which classified members on their political ideologies, union ideologies and attitudes toward the union in politics. As yet, no effort has been made to link worker's evaluations of their work situatitnixuith politixxal behaviors, Lleologies anni attitudes. 20Arthur Kornhauser, Harold L. Sheppard and Albert J. Mayer, When flor \‘otes (New York: University Books, 1956): Harold L. Sheppard and Nicholas Masters,”tnion Political Action and Opinion Polls in a Demo- cratic Society,“ Social Problems, Vol. 5 (July, 1957) pp. lh—Zl: ”The Political Attitudes and Preferences of Union Members: The Case of Detroit Autoworkers,“ American Political Science Review, Vol. 53 (June, 1959) pp. 437-447: Harold L. Kilensky, “The Labor Vote: A Local Union's Impact on tind'Political Chnniuct of Its Dkdnbers,"5&3cial Forces, \R31. 35 (December, 1956) pp. 111-120: Rose, op. cit.: Max M. Kampelman, “Labor in Politics," in Industrial Relations Research Association, Interpret- ifl§_:§§ Labor Movement, December, 1952. 17 This is rather surprising since the common tie for trade unionists is their employment. As Blauner said, “. . . it is striking that the human relations school had concerned itself so little with the job itself, with the relations between the worker and his work, rather than the relation between the worker and his mates."21 It would seem important, therefore, if not obvious, to examine the worker and his work environment in its broadest Context and see how this might be related to his political ideas. Specifically, the question posed here is, What impact does the work situation have upon the industrial worker' (I) sup— port for union political action and political—social change? Several empirical studies have indicated that union members are ambivalent about the political role played by the union. Barbash, for example, states that the union member, “. . . accepts the political func- tions of the union, but he wants the union's politics kept close to the , . “22 union's economic role. Seidman, et. al. state that support for political action Cones mostly from union activists and not from the inacti\es.23 And yet, a number of recent studies indicate a significant 21 Blauner,op. cit., 1960, p. 350, 22Jack Barbash, Labor's Grass Roots (New York: Harper k Brothers, 1961), p, 211, 23Joel Seidman, Jack London and Bernard Karsh,”Political Con- sciousness in a Local Union,“ Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1951) pp. 692—702. 18 degree of class consciousness among American manual workers who generally support union political action.24 What emerges from this curSory review of the literature is an inconsistent picture of the manual worker‘s attitudes toward union political behavior. The more active members tend to support union political action, many workers do not support such behavior, and some workers manifest a degree of class Consciousness which may carry over into the political arena. The nuflel proposed in this research (I) uggests that the work situation, objectively and subjectively per- ceived tstdgib/related to union attitudes, participation, and politi- cal ideology. It is suggested that the worker who is less satisfied with his work and occupation will manifest feelings of powerless- ness, meaninglessness, and normlessness. Conversely, the skilled worker will have greater Confidence in himself since he has achieved more occupationally, will feel Hunt: political power, will be more politically conservative (perpetuating the American ideology of per— sonal destinyaid limited government role), and will not be highly 2b’See, for example, Jerxme C. Manis and Bernard N. Meltzen, 'Stme Correlates of Class Consciousness Among Textile Workers,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 69 (September, 1963) pp. 177—185; John C. Leggett, ”Working-Class Consciousness, Race and Political Choice,“ Ibid., pp. 171-176 and “Economic Insecurityand Working—Class Consciousness,“ American Sociological Review, Vol, 29 (April, 1964) Pp. 226-23u. 19 involved in the union nor will he support its political action. On the other hand, given the American ideology which stresses personal achievement and responsibility for personal success, the unskilled industrial worker who is dissatisfied with his job and occupation may feel politically powerless. It is predicted that this feeling will be associated with greater political liberalism and greater endo‘se— ment of union political action. A balance theory has already been implied in the discussion of discrepancy between worker's aspirations and perceived status. If a worker's situation is incongruent, that is, there is a gap between his occupational aspirations and his achievements he will sense a general loss of control over his life which may affect his attitudes toward social control and government. The frustrated worker may feel a lack of control over his destiny, resent his condition, and project his feelings into attitudes of political futility and powerlessness. This syndrome was revealed in a Study of Detroit autoworkers which showed that the alienated tended to be less satisfied with life and viewed politics as futile.25 In this study we expect workers in 2DArthur Kornhauser, et. al., op. cit., particularly Chapter 5. 20 assembly jobs compared with more skilled workers, to manifest low occupational involvement, job satisfaction, neighborhood—community participation, but higher involvement in the union, more liberal political attitudes and greater support of union political action. It is suggested that feelings of powerlessness are not necessarily translated into apathetic lethargy as Dean suggested,26 but rather that the unskilled worker becomes more involved in the union and supports its collective political action and the extended role of the government. To conclude, it is hypothesized that: Unskilled and semi—skilled workers are more supportive of union political action than are skilled workers. Occupational skill level is positively correlated with politi- cal conservatism. Skill level is negatively Correlated with feelings of power— lessness. Skill level is negatively Correlated with feelings of norm- H (D U) U) S (D U) U) Ne ighborh ood -Commun i ty 1 nvo 1 ve me nt Many people argue that Americans are joiners in voluntary organizations and that they often meet under organizational sponsorship.27 Dwight C. Dean, ”Alienation and Political Apathy,” Social m, Vol. 38. 27Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology (New York: Collier Bogks, 21 Number of memberships hxvoluntary associations correlates positively with occupational prestige, income, education and other variables. Manual workers tend to be low participators. Komarovsky and Dotson found that about two-thirds of working class persons in their res- pective samples belonged to no associations.28 In this study there are no reasons to expect a deviation from this general pattern. In addition to enumerating the organizational membership of the workers in the sample, measures of neighborhood and community involvement were used including newspaper readership, community issue awareness, social interaction with neighbors,and evaluation of neigh- borhood. These are not discrete factors but are generally linked into a total configurational pattern. It is expected that the more skilled worker in the automobile plant will have more formal educa— tion and will, as suggested by other research, participate to a greater degree in voluntary organizations and will be more involved in his neighborhood and community. Specifically, it is hypothesized that: Mirra Komarovsky, “The Voluntary Associations of Urban Dwellers," American Sociological Review, Vol. 11 (December, 1946) pp. 686-697: Floyd Dotson, "Patterns of Voluntary Association Among Ur- ban Working—Class Families,“ American Sociological Review, Vol. 16 (October, 1951) pp. 676—693. For an excellent literature summary see Harold L. Wilensky, “Life Cycle, Work Situation, and Participation in Formal Associations,” in {obert Kleemeier (editor) Agirgand Leisure (New York: Oxford tniversity Press, 1961). 22 Occupational skill level is positively correlated with neigh— borhood and community involvement. Summary Most sociological research has assumed a high degree of homo— geneity among blue—collar workers in their work and occupational sat- isfaction, attitudes trward the union, membership in voluntary or- ganizations, degree of involvement in neighborhood and Community life, and political attitudes and behavior. This study seeks to examine differences along these dimensions for manual workers with different levels of skill.29 It is assumed that the eCology of the work situa- tion, the nature of the job tasks, the type and amount of interaction on the job, and other occupational components significantly affect the non-work life of the worker. - An over—all theoretical model is here being proposed. The broad guiding hypothesis is that different patterns of behavior are exhibited by industrial workers at various occupational skill levels. Occupational skill level relates to measures of job satisfaction, con- trol over job, work environment, and so on. This, in turn correlates positively with some dependent variables——neighborhood—Community 29A lead in this direction is offered by Leonard R. Sayles, Behavior of lndustrial Work Groups (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958). 23 involvement and negatively with others such as attitudes toward union political activity, political Conservatism and feelings of powerless- ness. The specific hypotheses are: Fi‘st: job satisfaction is positively related to occupational skill level. Second: indexes of occupational involvement are positively correlated with skill. Third: union involvement and skill level are negatively Cor- related. Fourth: skill level and support for union political action are negatively correlated. Fifth: skill level and political liberalsim are negatively Correlated. Sixth: skill level and powerlessness and normlessness are negatively Correlated. Seventh: skill level and participation in voluntary associa- tions are positively Correlated. Eighth: skill level and neighborhood and community involve- Uent are positively Correlated. A discussion of the research setting, sample,and data gather- ing fol lows . CHAPTER III STUDY DESIGN The Research Setting The automobile industry plays a major role in the economy of the United States and apparently is coming to occupy a similar position in the structure of industrializing nations in other parts of the world. Automobile production involves various types of job tasks, including engineering and design, experimental model—making, parts production, assembly, maintenance, and so on. These jobs are all industrial but require different types and amounts of training, permit different degrees of job control, involve different physical tasks,and occur in various work environments. Automobile production is so diversified that it typifies modern industrial economy. This study is based on interview data obtained from personal interviews with a non-random sample of automobile workers in a middle— sized American city. Lansing, Michigan is the state capitol with a population of 120,000. It has a large proportion of its working force in manufacturing, especially in the automobile industry. It is a rather diversified middle-sized City with a state university and various industries complementing government and manufacturing. Lansing con— tains an unusually small proportion of foreign—bornznd Negro residents 24 - 25 and has been a rather stable community. Half of the working force lives outside the city, and the proportion of Oldsmobile workers outside of Lansing is even larger. Interviews were conducted in worker's homes-—some being sixty or more miles away from the plant. As Form and Sauer pointedaut,the city contains a conservative, native-born working class, many of whom belong to the United Auto Workers, a rather ideologically oriented union.1 While not a major metropolitan area, Lansing is sufficiently large and industrial so that findings from this research should apply to American urban industrial workers in similar types of communities. The Sample While the findings of this research are of general significance, it was not undertaken as a study of blue—collar workers or autoworkers in particular. The research was designed to examine the relationships between job skills and other behavioral and attitudinal variables. Since skill level was the basic independent variable, a stratified rather than a random sample was selected. 1William H. Form and Warren L. Sauer, "Organized Labor's Image Of Community Power Structure," Social Forces, Vol. 38 (May, 1959) pp. 332~341. ' \ 26 The skill level of automobile workers in the sample mes deter- mined by job tasks, wage level, and job training requirements. The sample was trichotomized into skilled, semi—skilled and unskilled jobs. These categories are exemplified by the following job tasks: a) skilled occupation — machining (tool and die, experimental design) which requires an apprenticeship and journeyuan status; b) semi-skilled machine operation (semi-autonatic stamping and fashioning machines which make standard automobile parts ) which requires some training but not an apprenticeship: C) unskilled — assembly-line work which requires very little training—~33 little as one—half hour.2 Wage corresponds. to the skill level, and, in the Oldsmobile plant, killed U) trades even have separate bargaining units. A sample was randomly selected from departments chosen as typical of the three levels of skill-—skilled, semi—skilled,aui unskilled. Membership in the Oldsmobile Local 632 of the UAW totals about. 9,100 workers, with 1,700 in skilled trades and 7,400 classified as 2Blauner determined skill level in the Roper sample by length Of time respondents indicated it took to be trained and experienced to handle the specific job. He classified as unskilled those which required less than thirty days training, low skilled those with bet- ween one and three month's training, medium skilled those with between three months and two years training, and skilled those requiring more than two years training. Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom: The Eflgtory Worker and His Industry (Chicago: Knive‘sity of Chicago Press, l964)'pp. 67-68. 27 unskilled production workers. A further breakdown may be made of the production workers between those in assembly and non—assembly jobs. The designation of unskilled corresponds to assembly workers and semi— skilled corresponds to non—assembly production workers which follows a break in wage level among production workers, those in assembly and above—assembly wage rate. The sample included a random number in each skill category, after which women workers and those with less than one year’s plant seniority were eliminated. The remaining sample were contacted by letter with follow—up interviews in their homes. The refusal rate was about seven percent, but a check revealed no discrimi- nating characteristics of this group. The final sample of completed inter— views included eighty-two skilled workers, eighty—two semi—skilled workers and 142 unskilled workers—~for a total of 306 completed inter- views. The sample, then,is overly representative of skilled trades— men and under—represents production assembly workers. However, for the objectives of this research the sample is most adequate. The Interview Schedule The interviews were conducted in the worker's homes in most cases and lasted from just over one to almost three hours, with a mean about one and one-half hours per interview. All interviewing was done in a two—month period during the late summer of 1962, a period of change—over and temporary layoffs in the auto industry and 3 Period of relative national economic prosperity and high automobile Sales. 28 The interview questions ranged from general occupational questions and career history to specific items relating to current job and work situations, worker interaction both on the job and off, social interaction with family, friends and neighbors, other indicators of neighborhood and community involvement, leisure activities and participation in voluntary associations, union attitudes and parti- cipation, political attitudes and behavior, and a number of background variables. Procedural Problems The initial effort was to secure the cooperation of both the United Auto Workers union — locallyand nationally, and the Oldsmobile Division of the General Motors Corporation. While full support was offered by the union, the company was unwilling to lend formal sup- port, although representatives were interested in the nature of the study and its company implications. Union officials were the major source of information and assistance in determining departments for selection and other questions dealing with technical facets of plant operation and job performance. The final sampling was taken from seniority lists provided by the company and given to the union for its records. Workers were assured of union support for the study, and they were told that the union and company were both fully informed as to the nature of the study. 29 . As suggested earlier, about half the working force in Lansing lives outside the central city. The proportion of Oldsmobile workers residing outside the city is over sixty percent. Being aware of the weaknesses of other sociological studies which have eliminated persons living far away or without telephones, efforts were made to interview all of the selected sample, and ninety—three percent of those contacted were successfully interviewed. Methodological Problems The interview schedules were coded and data from them were put onto IBM cards. Data were then processed on tabulating equipment and the IBM 7090 computer. A standard procedure was used in the computation of mean scores of summed items constituting indexes. The computer program calculated a mean of the scores on individual items, calculating all cases with three—fifths or more of the data available. That is, if the respondent only answered four out of five items in a given index, the computer was still able to calculate the average or mean score.3 Such means were computed for the indexes and measures made up from individual items in the interview. Each of these mean score distributions were trichotomized into high,medium and low?‘ Thus, for example, each res— pondent's scores on the items making up the occupational satisfaction lHdvx vuwwa catvcxn‘ized as lligh, ukulium LU ,1nw. 3In a very few cases the index total is reduced by one, indicat- 1ng a respondent for whom data was consistently missing. I 4 . . a . (Sollapstwl into high axui low in 5(WK‘ cases. .- 30 Where relationships between variables were tested statistically . the chi—square test was used, and the five percent level was accepted as evidencing statistical significance. In the multi-variate tables the trichotomous classifications of mean index scores were, in some cases, collapsed to reduce cells having very small frequencies before computing chi-squares. This was sometimes done for the bi-variate tables. The specific construction of indexes will be outlined in the data pre— sentation sections. The first substantive area of research — work factors and at— titudes and occupational integration — will be examined next. Later. chapters will proceed to review each level studied: the union, ideology and political alienation, the neighborhood and community. ‘ Cl {A PIER IV 'I‘Hli INDUSTRIAL WORKER, THE WORLD OF WORK AND OCCUPATIONAL INVOLVEMINT This chapter will examine the differences among manual workers in their occupational satisfactions and involvements. As Sayles has stated, occupational distinctions tend to be blurred in the litera- ture and all factory workers have been treated as one broad group of semi—skilled workers.1 The objective in this analysis is to probe for expected differencLes by skill levels. The concept of. occupational involvement is a summary measure of three areas of satisfaction: job, oc- cupation, and the industrial sector of employment. Traditional job satisfaction studies have focused primarily on satisfaction with job tasks and in-plant work environment. The dimensions added here are satisfaction with the occupation and industrial sector. These com— ponents were viewed as necessary since the sample of workers in this study included those holding jobs and trades. The former are workers Who hold highly routinized jobs of low skill, and the latter are workers who have skills (e.g. electrician, tool and die naker) which go beyond specific job tasks. 1Leonard 2. Sayles, Behavior of Industrial Work Groups (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1938), p. 163. 31 32 Before reviewing the findings in the analysis, it will be help— ful to view the interrelationships between variables which were theoretically proposed as controls. While skill level, which correlates directly with wage rate, was the major independent variable in the analysis, age, education and seniority were important controls. The high intercorrelations among these variables are shown in Table 1. In general, age and seniority were used as logical controls in measur— ing occupational factors, although in the case of occupational aSpira— tions, the literature suggested that educational level is important. Education was used as a control in later analyses of union, ideologi- cal and community variables. TABLE 1. Relationships Between Age, Education, Seniority and Skill (Wage Rate) ========. x2 P df '0' Education and Seniority 12.9 7.01 2 .29 Education and Skill (Wage Rate) 3.68 (.20 2 .16 Education and Age 22.69 {3001 3 .36 Seniority and Skill (Wage Rate) 32.4# cfiOOl u .42 Seniority and Age 219.33 12001 6 .82 Skill (Wage Rate) and Age 38.84 (2001 6 .#3 k 33 Satisfaction with Industrial Sector Satisfaction with the industrial sector suggests categories in the total industrial—occupational structure as distinct from the occupa- tion itself. The questions used in the Index of Satisfaction With Industrial Sector were: "With the same hourly pay, would you prefer to work on a farm machine, an office machine, or on a machine in a ’3" factory: "Which occupation gives the most satisfaction: skilled factory worker, office worker, independent farmer?" Table 2 presents the relationship between industrial sector satisfaction and occupational skill level.. The more skilled worker in the automobile plant expresses greater satisfaction with this sector of work and prefers it to non-factory work. The semi-skilled and unskilled workers are less satisfied, and they manifest greater preferences for non—factory work. This is probably due to the greater prestige given by factory workers to white-collar occupations and also to the glorification of the independent farmer who is his own boss and works out-of—doors. It should be recalled that sixty percent of Olds- mobile workers live outside of Lansing where the plant is located. A Sizeable number are what the census classifies as rural non—farm; that 18, a family living on a farm or in a farm area but primarily employed in non—farm occupations. There were a number of cases of men who just were unable to"make it" on their farms but kept them and farmed on weekends while holding a job at Oldsmobile, as one man put it, "Just to pay the bills." These men mostly had low seniority and were in less 3h skilled jobs in the plant. For them, the non—factory occupations have greater appeal. However, the evidence suggests that it is the occupa- tional experience itself which makes skilled workers more satisfied with and have greater preference for their industrial sector.2 TABLE 2. Satisfaction with Industrial Sector and Skill Level* II: Index of Satisfaction Occupational Skill fevel with Industrial Sector Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Low Q7 50 32 44 Medium 42 38 30 38 High 11 12 38 18 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of Cases 1&2 82 82 306 x7- = 29.09 p (.001 df = u E = .40 *In this, and in subsequent tables, figures are rounded percentages un— less otherwise indicated. 2An additional and relevant question used asked, ”Which occupa— tion is the most monotonous: skilled factory worker, office worker, independent farmer?" Skilled workers are much more likely to see their industrial sector least monotonous: X2 = 82, P .;.001, df = 2, E = .35. 35 Occupational Satisfaction Occupational Satisfaction The first measure demonstrated that skilled autoworkers are more likely to be satisfied with and prefer skilled industrial work than is true for the unskilled workers who are more in favor of office and agricultural work. A second dimension tapped the worker's satis— faction with his present particular occupation. The Index of Occupa— tional Satisfaction was made up of the following two questions: "Have you ever thought of having an occupation different than your present one?" "On the whole, how do you feel about your present occupation: very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied or dissatisfied, dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied?" The relationship again is significant in the hypothesized dir- ection: higher occupational skill correlates with greater occupational satisfaction, as shown in Table 3. Commenting on fellow worker's feel- ings about their occupation, eighteen unskilled men said, "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied," while only one skilled worker gave this res— ponse. When asked for their family's rating of their occupation, over nine-tenths of the skilled tradesmen said "good" or "very good? for Semi—skilled workers it was seven-tenths, and for unskilled workers it was almost six—tenths. Clearly, there is a relationship between occupational skill 1evel in the industrial plant and the degree of satisfaction felt by Workers at given levels. That is, the higher satisfaction among Skilled workers is seen consistently by all--both within the work group and outside the plant. 36 TABLE 3. Occupational Satisfaction and Skill Level Index of Occupational ‘ Occupational Skill Level Satisfaction Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Low 15 7 2 10 Medium 60 62 SO 58 High 25 31 48 32 Totals 100 IOO 100 100 Number of Cases 142 82 82 306 x2 = 18.1 P 2.01 df = 4 C = .32 Occupational Aspirations—~The Desire to Change Occupations Since skilled workers manifest greater occupational satisfaction than semi—skilled and skilled workers, it would be expected that they would aspire less to other occupations. Data from the sample of Olds— mobile workers in Table 4 corroborates this assumption. Unskilled and semi—skilled workers think about and plan to change occupations more frequently than skilled tradesmen. This measure shows greater differ— ences and a stronger relationship than does the measure of job satis— faction discussed later in the chapter. Less skilled workers are some- what more dissatisfied but aspire to other occupations considerably more than do skilled tradesmen. Further insights may be gained by looking at how these aspiring Workers view their chances of obtaining their desired occupations. Thirtyrr Six percent of unskilled workers view their chances as being "very good" or "good" in contrast to twenty—one percent of the skilled workers. This is explained in large part by the fact that the production assembly workers are younger and have less seniority. As Chinoy suggested, 37 these workers are more youthful and optimistic about the possibilities of getting out of their present factory employment and "going into their own business.”3 TABLE 4. Occupational Aspirations - Desire to Change Occupations and Skill Level m: Measure of Occupational Occupational Skill Level Aspirations Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Doesn't think about changing 32 32 31 36 Thinks about and doesn’t plan change 52 55 44 4O Thinks about and plans change 13 13 5 24 Totals 99 100 100 100 Number of Cases 142 82 82 306 x2=1u.52 p \.01 df=4 5:.29 Tables 5, 6 and 7 show the effect that age, seniority and educa— tion have on the relationships between skill level and occupational aspirations. It should be pointed out that collapses were made in multivariate tables as necessary to calculate statistics. The amount Of education (low is nine years of schooling or less; high is ten years Or more) tends to be related to occupational aspirations, but this is Particularly evident among highly skilled and highly educated workers 3Ely Chinoy, Automotive Workers and the American Dream (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1955), Chapter 7. Also see Gladys L. 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OCH OCH ooH as M ooH ooH . ooH ooH mamuoe _ a: 0m am on J mm m: mm mm ewH: _ m: m: mm me M N: m: we a: asset: i NH k mm :m H mm mH om :m sea _ Hence emaaaxm emaaaxmlaEmm ewaaaxmc: amuoe emaaaxm emaawmeHEmm emafiaxmc: acmeaaaeaam onCOwcom :wN: ~ NproHcmm 304 HmcoHumazooc Hw>ea Hfifixm ecu muwuoficom .uceEHHHuH3w Hmcoflumasooo .m mA2ma Haaxm ecu peasaaauasm Hmcoapmasooo Aeaov AcoHuafisuHmo new owonHHoo acesgwmasm Hmcoapmanooo 83va new 3013 me. u w m u we Ho.v m am.m n «x "Hm>oa Haaxm ecu unmeaaaofism Hmcoapmasuuo Awesosv Now we so me . mm :H ma no mmmwo mo amnesz ooH ooH ooH ooH as am ooH as mampoe mm a: am am on an mm mm awn: :: a: a: an em Hm mm m: asset: em 0H mm mm on k mm mm 304 Hmpoe ewaaaxm emaaaxmnaEmm emaaaxmc: annoy emaaaxm emaaaxmua2mm emaaaxmcz ucmsaaaeaae 3 o was?» H S8,." p 3:00 o :4. i Hm>ma Haaxm new mw< .uemeaaauasm HanoHuwasooo .oa mamew 46 Job Satisfaction Several characteristics of the job were examined in this re- search: the nature of the job tasks, the physical work environment, and the social interactional work setting. These dimensions will be examined in turn. The few studies which have examined the differences among manual workers performing jobs at various levels of skill have documented that those workers possessing greater control over their jobs, working at jobs requiring more training and higher skills, do, indeed, manifest 8 less job dissatisfaction. The Index of Job Satisfaction was composed of two questions: "On the whole, how do you feel about the operations you act- ually perform on your job, the work you are actually doing: very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied or dissatisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied?" "Would you like, without a change in pay, to change type of work activity once in a while?" Table 11 presents the data on the relationship between occupa— tional skill level and job satisfaction. While not significant at the five percent level,the trend is pronounced and supports the direction of the hypothesis. The controls of age and seniority may be applied to these data since it is well known that older workers and those with accumulated seniority tend to be less dissatisfied. Tables 12 and 13 suggest the mode of acceptance that Chinoy and Guest speak about: the young unskilled auto worker aspires toward the American Dream, but as he 2/9 I 8Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom: The Factory Worker and Egg Industry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964); S. Wyatt and R. Marriot, A Study of Attitudes Toward Factory Work (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1956). 47 accumulates seniority he gradually comes more to accept the reality of his occupational station and makes the adjustment by becoming less dissatisfied with his job.9 TABLE 11. Job Satisfaction and Skill Level Index of Job Occupational Skill Level Satisfaction Unskilled Semi—Skilled Skilled Total Low 56 58 42 53 High 44 42 58 47 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 82 82 306 x2 = 5.75 p g.10 df II M OI ll .21 The nature of the differences in job attitudes held by workers at various skill levels is clarified by looking at additional data. For example, indicating which were the most disliked factors in their present job, pace of work or other physical aspects of work (hard, heavy) were mentioned by four percent of the skilled tradesmen, eight percent of the semi—skilled men, and thirteen percent of the unskilled workers. 9Chinoy, op. cit.,; Robert H. Guest, "Work Careers and Aspira— tions of Automobile Workers," American Sociological Review, Vol. 19 (April, 1954) pp. 155—163. Wilensky says job satisfaction is a function of the disparity between rewards and aspirations but both are, in turn, related to family life cycle and work history. Harold L. Wilensky, "Work, Careers and Social Integration," International Social Science Journal, Vol. 12 (Fall, 1960) pp. 543~560. 48 mm. H O H u we HOO./ a mO.OH u we "suHuoHcom ecu :oHuomumHumm non em. u m N u we mO..va OH.O u we "Hm>ua HHme ecu coHuomamHumm non HsuHuoHamm aszv HH. u m N u MO Ok.u a NH.H u we nH93 HHme can :oHuuqemHunm non AsuHuoHcmm 3oHO . OHH a: mm mm w OOH mm m: OOH mwmwo no twaasz OOH OOH OOH OOH m OOH OOH OOH OOH mHmpoH OO we a: no Os n: mm mm awHe Os mm mm mm OO mm HO NO - :OH Hmuoe OmHHme OmHHmelHEum ewHHmecO Hence OmHHme OmHHmeuHEmm OwHHmeaO NHHHOchm awe: Nuwuoficmm 30A _ :oHuommmemm non Hw>wq HHme can Nuwuochm .coHuommmwumm now .mH mHmoH HHme Ocm :oHuuaumHumm now AOHov no. u m N u up 00.1 m mN. n Nx ”Hm>wH HHme can cofluommmflumm now Awesowv HON we so mk w as . :H . OH k0 mammo no awnssz OOH OOH OOH OOH M OOH OOH OOH OOH mHmuoe mm no as km W Hm on mm on ewH: me Hm em ms . OO so HO ON 30a Hmuoe OwHHme owHHmelewm owflflwxmcz awuoe owHHme UwHHmexdewm owHHmecp OHS wcsow :oHuomumHumm non r Hm>oa HHme Osm ww< .coHuommmHowm pom .NH mHs~q Haexm one coaeeeoeoeeee coon: Accopeesem amaze Acoaumasono wow comawfifioo cofipaafiowuuwa scan: swam n:m_sswcozv N u no mo.v e me.o u x "He>oa aflexm can coeeeeooaeeue cows: Acowemosem zoov nmfi OOH Hm dm om 00H am He ma a 3: Km mHH om mm mm momma mo wmnssz ooH oofi ooH ooH ooH ooH . maeeoe on m a 3 ea m ewe: _ me he cm es on me ensue: mm me as me he es .304 fleece emaaoxm eefiaexmnoEem eeflflexmc: Hmeoe eeflfiexm eefifiwxmleom eefiflexmea coHuaozom mm“: coHuaostm 304 :ofiemawowuuam cows: He>ea Hawxm one cowuuosem .coaeeeooaeeee cows: .NH mamee 62 consistent.14 In fact, Dean suggested that a worker's participation in the union may be predicted by the extent of his social integration in the plant and his social interaction with fellow—workers away from the factory.15 Kyllonen, Seidman, et. al., Sayles and Strauss, Rose, Tannenbaum and Kahn all saw union activity as a social activity and related to worker social cohesion or social activity.16 This may be the major factor upsetting the hypothesized relationship between skill level and union participation,since skilled tradesmen do have more in—plant social interaction, greater occupational identification, and are more active participators in voluntary organizations, Before leaving the matter of union participation, an additional question should be raised. .The participation measure in this re- search as most others, included voting in union elections. The data suggest over—reporting or this measure as witnessed by the fact that forty—nine percent of the unskilled workers. SiXtY‘fiV’t‘ percent of the semi—skilled workers, and seventy—eight percent of the skilled tradesmen stated that they had voted in the last election of union officers. Yet, in the most reCent elections 1D'Joseph Kovner and Herbert J. Lahne, ”Shop Societv and the Union," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 7 (October, 1953) pp: 3‘14. 15Lois R. Dean, "Social Integration, Attitudes and Union Activity," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 8 (October, 1954) pp. 48—58. 16Toimi E. Kyllonen, "Social Characteristics of Active Unionists," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 56 (May, 1951) PP. 528—533; Joel Seidman, et. al., The Worker Views His Union (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958); Sayles and Strauss, op. cit.; Arnold M. Rose, Union Solidarity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1952), Chapters 3 and 6; Tannenbaum and Kahn, op. cit., Chapters 5 and 6. 63 only 1,980 out of more than 9,100 workers actually voted.17 This seems to follow the pattern which Lois Dean found}8 Moreover, while an estimated eighty percent of attenders at union meetings are regular in their attendance, most meetings are attended by only about one hundred men.19 Yet, fifty—seven percent of those workers interviewed stated that they attended meetings, at least once in a while.20 The critical question is: are skilled tradesmen more likely to be over- reporters? If they are, the relationship between skill level and union 17The State Journal, Lansing, Michigan, May 26, 1963. 18Lois R. Dean, "Interaction, Reported and Observed: The Case of One Local Union," Human Organization, Vol. 17 (Fall, 1958) pp. 36— 44. She found twenty—six percent of workers over—reported on union meeting attendance. Information obtained from personal interview with Roy Rammacher, President, Local 652, U.A.W., Lansing, Michigan. 20Skill level and attendance at union meetings: X2 = 15.44, P<1.01, df = 4, C = .30. There is a comparative answer to the question of ac- curacy of reporting union attendance in this study. In several researches the proportion of union membership attending local meetings has been noted. Sayles and Strauss, op. cit., p. 173, for example, found six percent in an automobile assembly plant attended meetings. There are bound to be variations, based on factors such as size of local union; proportion of ethnic group members in the local; the economic conditions of the industry, the community, and the country; the labor—management relations in a particular plant; tradition of union activityin a given local, plant and community; and a host of other factors. For a number of reasons, one might expect higher levels of membership participation in other automobile cities in Michigan, such as Flint or Detroit. In one recent study of UAW members in Detroit, onlyrfineteen percent of the more than four hundred workers interviewed said that they did not attend meetings—~an incredibly small number. (Donald Stokes, ”Political Com- munication to the Union Worker," unpublished study, University of Michigan) In this study of Oldsmobile workers fortyieven percent stated that they did not attend union meetings. Even with the dif- ferences in the two samples and communities, the data reported in this study appear more reliable. Thus, while accepting the serious pos- sibility of over—reporting, it is suggested that the data seem to indicate less over—reporting than in some.other studies. 64 participation is spurious. While Dean did not shed any light on this particular question, she found that over~reporters tended to be lower in social integration, more critical of the local union, and less fav— orable to factory occupations. This suggests that over-reporters are more likely to be lower skilled workers, and if this is the case, the relationship between skill level and union participation must be ac- cepted. Dean came close to answering the dilemma of interpreting the discrepancy from the hypothesis in this study. The positive dissemblers (over—reporters), then, appear to re- present a sort of committed-but—disgrunted proletariat; pro- union in ideology but upwardly mobile in aspirations; cognitively identified with working—class institutions but reluctant to ac— cept the facts of working-class existence. This is, in short, the well—known "cross—pressures" situation and something—~in this case, the strict truth about attendance at union meetings-— has got to give.21 Skill Level and Union Involvement Based on the fact that assembly and other production workers in the automobile plant hold less desirable jobs, lower paid jobs, jobs which are more monotonous, require less training, permit less control and responsibility, it was hypothesized that they would also be less satisfied with their jobs than the skilled tradesmen. Further- more, it was predicted that a broader measure of occupational satis- faction would reveal the same situation. Moreover, it was suggested that the dissatisfaction of the less skilled would lead them to place mun}: hnportance (hi the Lulhon as tins spokesmunl of theim‘cjiscontent. Contrary, the more satisfied skilled workers would be lower on the measures of union involvement and eluiorserx-nt . 21Dean, op. cit., 1958. 65 Analysis of the data has shown that less skilled worke‘s 315 more dissatisfied with their jobs and show lower levels of occupational involvement. At the same time, they are more upwardly mobile in their aspirations, interact less at work, and very probably over—report their participation in the union. The less skilled industrial worke‘s project the image of social isolation,p0wer1€35n€35<1“ fatalfimnxddch is conceptual- ized in the sociological literature.22 But at the same time, they as— pfie to occupational advancement and possess some of the raw ingredients for active Commitment to collective action. As Dean suggested, this produces a multiplicity of pressures, and projects an idealized but in— accurate union role as one way out.23 Other solutions, unhappy as they may be, are for the gradual dissipation of the worker's aspira— 24 tions,and the withering of the.American Dream. An Index of Union Involvement was constructed by summing the Index of Union Evaluation and Index of Union Participation. Table 18 presents the data and reveals a positive association to skill level. The initial hypothesis must be rejected, and the opposite conclusion must be ac— cepted that skilled workers tend to show higher integration into the union than semi—skilled and unskilled workers. 22Melvin Seeman, ”0n the Meaning of Alienation," American Socio- logical Review, Vol. 24 (December, 1959) pp. 783—791. 23Dean, op. cit., 1958. Robert H. Cuest,”Work Careers and Aspirations of Automobile Workers," American Sociological Review, Vol. 19 (April, 1934) pp. 153~ 163: Ely Chinoy, “The Tradition of Opportunity and the Aspirations of Automobile Workers,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 37 (March, 1952), pp. 453-459, 66 TABLE 18. Union Involvement and Skill Level Index of Union Involvement Occupational Skill Level Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Low 30 32 ll 25 Medium 44 34 37 40 High 26 34 52 35 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 1&2 82 82 306 x2 = 20.90 p 1.001 df = u E = ,3u While interested in the union, the less skilled workers are not activists to the same extent as the skilled tradesmen. Since the measure of union involvement included a dimension on evaluation of unions in general, which discriminated between skill categories, a similar ex— pectation might be warranted when asking Oldsmobile workers to evaluate their local union. There was, in fact, a weak tendency for skilled workers to evaluate the local union more positively.25 A related con— sideration might be the perception of union functions which will be taken up in the next chapter. 25 E = .18. Skill level and local union evaluation: X2 = 5.54, Px_.30, df = 4, CHAPTER VI UNION FUNCTIONS AND UNION POLITICAL ACTION Skill Level and Union Functions Although the assembly workers and production machine tenders at Oldsmobile apparently are less active in the union, it was expected that they would project a more class-conscious perspective when asked to select from a list of the most important union functions. There were, in fact, virtually no differences among the three skill categories on whether the primary union function should be improving wages and work conditions or increasing worker unity and promoting social—political change, as seen in Table 19. There is general support for the so— called Perlman thesis of job—conscious unionism: the worker confines the function of the trade union to those activities relevant to the job in a very particular and restricted sense.1 The respondents were asked to select from a prepared list one of the characteristics which they felt best described union behavior. As seen from the reduced total, a larger number of workers said, "don‘t know" on this question than on other items. However, Table 20 reveals 1Selig Perlman, A Theory of Labor Movement (New York: Macmillan Company, 1928). .67 68 TABLE 19. Union Functions and Skill Level BEISEFFEFEIIEF§========= Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Wages, working conditions 81 85 83 83 Worker unity, social—political change l9 15 17 ' 17 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 139 80 80 299 TABLE 20. Union Behavior and Skill Level Union Behavior Unskilled Semi—Skilled Skilled Total Fights militantly 25 36 27 29 Works with determination 31 27 18 26 Bargains freely, cooperates with management 44 37 SS 45 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 123 78 74 275 x2 = 8.04 P«:.lo df = u E = .23 that there are some differences according to skill level. There is no projection of unionlnflltancy among unskilled workers (those most dissatisfied with their occupations), although more unskilled than skilled workers characterized typical union behavior as “determined.“ It is the semi— skilled workers who are the most militant. This perhaps is the case because machine operators are most subject to technological displace— ment and most concerned with winning job security. 69 Workers were asked to indicate which union problems in a pre— pared list were the most important. Their responses are found in Table 21 which shows that machine operators were less concerned with seniority and transfer than other workers. This refutes the interpre— tation concerning their militancy. Actually the unskilled are more con— cerned with seniority since they have the least of it. For the total sample, fringe benefits are the most important, wages and payment the least important. However, internal differences do exist. The problem second most pressing for all groups is speed—ups, but this is selected relatively more often by the semi—skilled, in accord with expectation. Most of these men operate machines whose pace is automatically set, and it is a difficult task to keep up -- particularly since these are mostly single-operation machines and the full responsibility is on the one worker. The assembly workers are most concerned about reduc— ing the amount of time they have to work at their jobs since they selected shorter workweek and workday as a problem more than the others.2 In contrast, the skilled tradesmen are more pre—occupied with enhancing their already achieved plant status and securing more fringe benefits.. To conclude this discussion, although it is already known that skill level and participation in the union are positively correlated, it was suggested that the production workers who were more occupa— tionally dissatisfied might be more militant in their perceptions of 2Absenteeism has been shown to be higher among workers high on the mass production score (assembly jobs). See Charles R. Walker and Robert H. Guest, The Man on the Assembly Line (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), Chapter 10. 70 TABLE 21. Union Problems and Skill Level Union Problems . Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Shorter workweek and day 18 16 9 15 Wages and payment 9 5 6 7 Speedups 23 28 18 23 Fringe benefits 29 37 \ 48 36 Seniority and transfers 22 14 19 19 Totals 101 100 100 100 Number of cases 133 76 79 288 2 _ X = 12.23 P ' .20 df = 8 C = .25 union functions and behavior. The data do not lend firm support to this conceptualization. A fuller test comes in the exandnation of union political action. Union Political Action There exists a rich literature from political economy, sociology and political philosophy dealing with the political activities of workingmen’s groups and trade unions in particular. In contrast to the later job conscious orientation of Selig Perlman and other American labor economists, the Webbs earlier in England developed theories of industrial democracy, stressing both the political and economic roles 71 of trade unions.3 This perspective differed from Marx's, since the main objective of the Webbs was to resolve class conflict by developing the workers' power through collective bargaining. The tradition of the Fabian Socialists in England who followed the Webbs, has lingered and characterizes much of Europe today. However, the American situation developed differently. For example, there has never been a successful labor party. Mills' research shortly before the Progressive Party polled over 1,500,000 votes in 1948 with substantial labor support, indicated a small proportion of politically militant union leaders—— neasured by their support for a labor party as one of several variables.“ Before reviewing some of the empirical studies,an important historical note should be made. As Coetz Briefs has pointed out in his review of Sombart's study, "Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?" organized labor in America represented an upper stratum of labor.5 As the large—scale industrial development occurred there was a slow but corresponding growth in industrial unions——but they did not take on the characteristics of a genuine proletarian movement. Seidman, et. al. have also pointed out that, 3Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Industrial Democracy (New York: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1920). See also, Adolph Sturmthal, ”Some Thoughts on Labor and Political Action," Reprint 119, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois, 1962, for an examination of labor political action in various societies. “C. Wright Mills, The New Men of Power (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948) p. 288—290. 5Coetz Briefs, The Proletariat (New York: McGraw—Hill Book Company, 1937) Chapter 12. 72 The heterogeneity of the population, the internal divisions within the ranks of workers, the relatively high degree of social mobility, and a widespread psychology of individualism have all contributed to make union political action more dif— ficult to achieve in this country.6 There is another consideration. With the development of indus— trial unionism and industry—whk?bargaining, the autonomy and political control of the local union is lessened, and the rank—and—file became less involved in the union asa movement with the waning of decision— 7 making at the local level. Clearly, American trade unionists do not follow the classical pattern of projecting their work— induced dissatisfaction and union militancy into a proletarian movement with strong socialist and poli- tlcal underpinnings. Yet, several empirical studies reveal a consider- able degree of support for union political action. Hudson and Rosen found only one—fifth of their respondents felt that their union should not take an active part in politics, while better than four-fifths always or usually felt that the union should support political candi— 8 dates. And Rose found a good deal of sympathetic support among Team— sters not only for union support of candidates, but a surprising pro- portion--forty~five percent--who believed that the union should help 9 to start 8 Labor Party sometime in the future. However, the American 6Joel Seidman, et. al., The Worker View His Union (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958) p. 234. 71bid., p. 197. Ruth Alice Hudson and Hjalmar Rosen, “Union Political Action: The Member Speaks," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 7 (April, 1954) pp. 404—418. 9Arnold M. Rose, Union Solidarity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1952) p. 84. 73 situation still more generally follows the Perlman model, for rank— and—filers support political action by the union insofar as they see such activity linked to economic ends. Justification for political action depends on such activity being kept close to the union's pri— mary economic role. Other studies demonstrate that supporters of union political action tend to be more politically active themselves.11 Wilensky shOWed that activity in the union is associated with a labor—liberal political viewpoint, including the endorsement of union political action.12 Seidman, London and Karsh also found that inactive members of the union were much less supportive of political action as did Tannenbaum and Kahn.13 And Sheppard and Masters found that less educated and low wage union members were more political.14 It may be inferred from this fact 10Jack Barbash, Labor's Grass Roots (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961) pp. 210—211; Doris E. Mersdorff, “Local 222: A Study of Factors Associated with the Willingness of its Members to Define Political Action as a Union Function," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1953) pp. 74—75. 11Richard W. Dodge, “Some Aspects of the Political Behavior of Labor Union Members in the Detroit Metropolitan Area," (unpublished Ph.d. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1953). 12Harold L. Wilensky, "The Labor Vote: A Local Union's Impact on the Political Conduct of Its Members," Social Forces, Vol. 35 (December, 1956) pp. 111-120. 13 Joel Seidman,Jack London and Bernard Karsh, "Political Conscious- ness in a Local Union," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1951) pp. 692—702; Arnold S. Tannenbaum and Robert Kahn, Participation in Union Locals, (Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson & Company, 1958) pp. 122-123. 1L‘LHarold L. Sheppard and Nicholas A. Masters, "The Political Attitudes and Preferences of Union Members: The Case of the Detroit Auto Workers," American Political Science Review, Vol. 53 (June, 1959) pp. 437—447. 74 that unskilled workers, who are paid a lower hourly rate, are less politically conscious and supportive of the union's political role. Rose’s study also found that support for union political action in— creases as one has more education.15 The picture might be summarized as follows: the American scene has not witnessed the emergence of a politically oriented or socialistic labor movement and no classical proletarian strains have characterized the union movement. American workers tend to support political action by their unions when it is clearly tied to the economic functionscf the union. The sociological literature suggests that workers who are more in favor of union political action are better educated, more active in the union, more informed about the union, and better paid. Skill Level and Support for Union Political Action The initial hypothesis was that production workers would be more involved in their union and more supportive of union political action than the skilled manual workers. Since the first part of this hypothesis was reversed by the data, one might be inclined to reverse the second part in keeping with hints from the literature. However, the original hypothesis was retained and tested. The Index of Support for Union Political Action was made up of several questions: 5Rose, op. cit., p. 177. 75 "Union dues should be spent on political action: agree or disagree?” "Unions should endorse political candidates: agree or dis— agree?" "Do you go along with union political recommendations?" "Would you say that the union's political influence today is: too little, about right, too much?" "Did you contribute to COPE (Committee on Political Educa~ tion) in the last election?" Table 22 presents the data for the relationship between skill level and support for union political action, revealing that unskilled workers are disproportionately high on the index. Although there is no statistically significant relationship between skill level and support for union political action, there is a trend in the hypothesized direc- tion. TABLE 22. Support for Union Political Action and Skill Level Index of Support for Occupational Skill Level Union Political Action Unskilled Send—Skilled Skilled Total Low 26 34 38 31 Medium ‘ 45 46 39 44 High 29 20 23 25 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 82 82 306 x = 3.13 p <.3o df = u E = .17 76 The responses to the items listed above making up the index are themselves quite interesting——although it is important to recog- nize that the sample is over represented by skilled tradesmen. About one-third believe unions should endorse political candidates; a little over one—third follow union political recommendation; fifteen percent support dues being spent for political action; somewhat over one— quarter contributed to COPE —— the political education and political action union program supported by voluntary contributions.16 In all, there is a moderate degree of willingness to support union political action. However, there is not a statistically significant discrimination among the workers of varying levels of occupational skill. Taking the lead from studies cited earlier, this relationship was controlled by education. Table 23 reveals a curious phenomenon: for those with low education, skill level and union political action support appear to be negatively correlated as originally hypothesized; however, no such relationship obtains for those with high education. The interpretation is not clear. While education and skill level are generally related, there is one anomalous category: the older skilled tradesmen who have had little education. This is a historical phenomenon borne out by the data. Relatively uneducated men were hired into the automobile industry during the tight labor market of the war years and trained to become skilled tradesmen. Today young men newly hired must come with these skills or very likely remain in unskilled jobs. The 16An additional item not in the index revealed that ten percent cfthe sample believe that the union movement should have its own third party. NH. u w m u mt om.7 m mm.m x "cowpmosom new coHuo< Hmowuflfiom COME: MOM upoaasm ma. u w a u we ok.v a em.m mm Hom>mo Haaxm new scapu< Hmoauaaom coon: Eco auoaasm AcoHpmosem ewaxo as. u w s u on Ho.v a mk.ea Nx ”Hm>ma Haaxm ecu coauu< Hmuauaaoa scan: use opossum AcoHomusem zoov ems em as km mas em mm mm momma oooumaaaz coo ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH . mamooe an em ea mm mm ma so mm zoo: me as cm o: . ms mm ms Mm games: mm mm an em om om :m a zoo Hooch oofifiwxm noHHmeIMEQm voaflwxmczhflmuOH omflfiwxm mmHHmeIHEmm.omHHmecz coflumosom 304 cofiumosom wa: . i b liqi __ cofipo< Hmowufifiom :oHc: you pooaasm Ho>o4 Hdem can :oHumosom .coHuo< Hmowufiaom COHGD pow upoaasw .mm mAmma Haaxm new amaamamnaa smeauoaoa AcoHumosem ewazv 8 Acofiumasoaao new oomowfifioo mpmxuoz nmfifiwxw paw woaflwxmtwsomv mm. u N N u we oH.v m 00.: u «x ”Hm>mA HHme can smwfimpmnfig Hmoaufiflom fiscaumosom 304V ka em as km oHH 0N mm mm momma mo tapssz ooH ooH ooH as . NoH as ooH ooH mflmuoe m k s m i NH ma m as ewe: om mN mm mm w om so as mm space: " NH ON ea e as ma 0H s 30a HmuOH DmHHaxm vmfifiwmeHEGm pmafifixmca.fimu09 pwfiawxm Uwfifiwxmlfifimm poflfiwmeD cowumusem ewes Ho>o4 Hfiwxm ocm :oHumosom .Emwfimuoowq Hmowufifiom P p .‘ COHuVQUDCm 304 emaamtmnaa Hmuaaaaoa mo xwecH mN mae1itically active. See Arthur Kornhauser, Harold L. Sheppard, and A1— beITt J. Mayer, When Labor Votes (New York: University Books, 1956) p. 223. 88 estrangement.13 These are not conceptually distinct in the writings of Marx and others who developed the concept to include all of these dimensions. Seeman tried to distinguish the dimensions and has, along with his students operationalized them in a number of studies.lu Others, such as Feuer, are unhappy with the concept altogether, and claim that, ". . . (it) remains too much a concept of political theology which bewilders rather than clarifies the direction for political action.15 While not in sympathy with Feuer and believing that the concept is useful to understand man's condition, it is agreed that writers have employed alienation as an omnibus concept.16 It seems that most contemporary writers have missed the critical point made by Marx: labor is alienating for the mass production worker who is chained to the technology and is only motivated to work so that he can survive. At the same time, there is a societal condition which is a function of the capitalist order and which is a manifestation of self—estrangement, estrangement from others and from the society.17 13Melvin Seeman, "On the Meaning of Alienation," Anerican Socio— logical Review, Vol. 24 (December, 1959) pp. 783~79l. 14See, for example, Arthur G. Neal and Salomon Rettig,"Dimen— sion of Alienation Among Manual and Non—Manual Workers,” American Socio- logical Review, Vol. 28 (August, 1963) pp. 599—608. 15Lewis Feuer, "What is Alienation? The Career of 8 Concept," in Maurice Stein and Arthur Vidich (editors) Sociology on Trial (Engle— ‘VOod Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963) p. 146. 16See, for example, the broad range of topics included in Eric land Mary Josephson (editors) Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1962). 17See the first manuscript on alienated labor in the Economic aruj Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, reprinted in Erich Fromm, Marx's Concept of Man (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1961). with x 1. '. 89 Thus, he speaks neither to the industrial researchers who are con— cerned with job morale and satisfaction, nor to the romanticists who I Q view with alarm the breakdown of idealized society. Marx’s concept of alienation includes aspects of work disaffection which is very germane to the question of the historical direction of modern society. However, it is a concept which has specific referents, and Seeman‘s effort is commendable since it has forced sociologists to operation- alize different dimensions of the phenomenon. .2175! 'mini‘ Marvin Scott suggested that the social sources of alienation are a lack of value commitment, role responsibility. norm conformity, 18 Although these correspond to several and control of facilities. of the dimensions which Seeman outlined, Scott pointed out that power— lessness may come from one of several social sources. The point worth stressing is that alienation is conceptualized as a measure of the degree to which persons are normatively and behaviorally integrated into a social system. Blauner employed the powerlessness, meaningless— ness, self—estrangement, and social alienation measures in his com— parative study of workers in different industries.19 Now while Marx did suggest, as Pappenheim has said, that man can no longer express himself in his work, there is a fallacy in this direction of thought: 18Marvin B. Scott, "The Social Sourcescf Alienation," in Irving 1. Horowitz (editor) The New Sociology: Essays in Social Science and §fl39ia1 Theory in Honor of C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964). 19Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom: The Factory Workers a (itfis Industry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964). 90 "These indictments culminate in the accusation that man in the tech- nological age has become alienated from his work, from himself, and "20 from the reality of society and nature. It assumes that in the contemporary United States, the industrial worker is rationally aware of the passing of traditional craftwork and that he suffers the effects of alienating labor. Yet, today most manual workers do not experience i craftwork, and thus cannot grieve over its passing. There is also the l question of the result of alienated work on industrial man——that is, how serious or significant is it for him to be unfulfilled in his El work and what happens when he is? I Seeman's paper is a summary of the use of a key sociological concept, but he does not fully develop the title of his paper, "On The Meaning of Alienation." The meaning of alienation warrants more than a historical survey of its conceptualization. It merits be— havioral research. Leo Srole began by modifying Durkheim‘s concept of anomie.or normlessness (a societal state) and developed a measure of anomia, or individual malintegration which is one of the conditions of alienation. He found this to correlate with out—group rejection ,{ or authoritarianism,21 Meier and Bell suggested that anomia is a result of the individual's lack of access to means to achieve life goals.22 This is of significance to the Marxian concept of aroused 20Fritz Pappenheim, The Alienation of Modern Man (New York: D“Ionthly Review Press, 1959) p. 43. 21Leo Srole, "Social Integration and Certain Correlaries," ‘Anmudcan Sociological Review, Vol. 21 (December, 1956), pp. 706—716. 22Dorothy L. Meier and Wendell Bell,"Anomia and Differential €$2cess to the Achievement of Life Goals,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 24 (April, 1959) pp. 189—202. anfluhflitauflw 91 class-consciousness or collective recognition of blocs to the ful— fillment of the needs and wants of the proletariat. And, indeed, Leggett found economic insecurity to increase feelings of class— consciousness.23 Thus, the unskilled production workers who exper- ience insecure employment in a society with a rapidly changing technology which is displacing workers at their level, will manifest greater class— consciousness, frustration at lack of means of obtaining their life goals, and will presumably be more anomic.24 Such workers will pro- bably show less normative integration, be more self—estranged, feel less control over events,rank high on a measure of powerlessness, and be more socially isolated. Normlessness and powerlessness dimensions of alienation have been operationally developed by Neal and Rettig who found that their measures did tap a dimension not revealed by 25 Srole's anomia scale. In this study measures were developed on two of Seeman‘s categories——powerlessness and normlessness-—and an additional measure which is referred to as ideological intensity. The data on these dimensions will be examined next. Skill Level, Powerlessness and Political Alienation As already suggested, the feeling of the individual that he cannot control events (powerlessness) is one dimension of alienation. 23John C. Leggett, "Economic Insecurity and Working—Class Con— Sciousness," American Sociological Review, Vol. 29 (April, 1964) pp. 226~234. 241m their study of the Packard plant close—down, Sheppard, et. al found that unskilled workers suffered considerably longer unemployment and with this they projected a greater degree of anomie. Harold L. Sheppard, Louis A. Ferman and Seymour Faber, Too Old to WorkL Too Young to Retire; A Case Study of a Permanent- Plant ShUtdown. ‘SpeCiaI”C5mmIttee on Unemployment Problems, U.S. Senate (Washington, D.C.:U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960) pp. 20, 51. 92 It is hypothesized that the less skilled workers will more likely perceive failure in their own achievements and will feel more impotent in a hostile world. They should score higher on an index which is made up of items measuring the respondent’s feelings of control over life and events. The Index of Powerlessness consisted of three ques— tions or statements with which the worker was asked to agree or disagree: "With a few exceptions, all Americans have an equal opportunity to make their own way in life. Agree or disagree?" "An individual's vote really doesn't change things or affect what‘s happening in the country. Agree or disagree?" "It doesn't matter which party wins the election, the inter— ests of the little man don't count." 3 Data in Table 27 show that there is a negative but non—signi- ficant relationship between skill level and powerlessness. When educa- tion is taken into account, as in Table 28, it, too, is negatively related to powerlessness, and the unskilled workers with low education score higher on powerlessness. This is in keeping with the hypothesized set of relationships and with suggestions in the literature. For example, llorton and Thompson found alienation and social class membership to be related: persons in low socio—economic position reflected several “themes, ". . . the feeling that the world is a threatening place in— 1Labited by the powerful and the powerless; suspicion of outsiders and PMaople in general; pessimism about the future; despair; and the tendency t<> debunk education and other values necessary for success in a com- Petitive society. "'26 26John E. Horton and Wayne E. Thompson, "Powerlessness and POlitical Negativism: A Study of Defeated Local Referendums," American :199rna1 of Sociology, Vol. 67 (March, 1962) pp. 485—493. \ 93 TABLE 27. Powerlessness and Skill Level Index of Powerlessness Occupational Skill Level Unskilled Semi—Skilled Skilled Total Low 51 61 56 55 Medium 26 24 33 27 High 23 15 ll 18 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 82 82‘ 306 x2=7.39 P920 df=4 6:.21 Powerlessness focuses on the extent of power the individual feels in the social—political structure. It taps his feelings about the futility or purpose in voting or in political participation at all. This is what several researchers have considered political alienation. According to Levin, "Political alienation is the feeling that he is not part of the political process."27 There is a general theme in the literature which states that in modern industrial mass Society some persons feel estranged from the politics and the government of their society. Lane explains lower levels of political participation Bummg lower-class individuals by their presumed feelings of political im— Dtnence. Rosenberg examined the meaning of politics in.mess sockfiy anC Choncluded that feelings of psychological inadequacy and political alien- Ertion are responsible for the avoidance of politics.29 In their study 27Murray L. Levin, The.Alienated Voter (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960), p. 61. 28Robert E. Lane, Political Life (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959), pp. 233—234; Political Ideology (New York: The Free Press,- 1962), particularly Chapter 11. 29Morris Rosenberg, "The Meaning of Politics in Mass Society," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Spring, 1951) pp. 5—15; "Some Deter- mlnants OE’Political’Apathy," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 18 (Winter, 1954) pp. 349—366. See also David Riesman and Nathan Glazer, "Criteria for Political Apathy," in.A1vin W. Gouldner (editor) Studies in Lead— EEEEEB (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950). 94 mm. H m N a mo mo.v m m:.m u mx ”cofipwosom can mmoCmmoHpo3om em. u m s u we om., a mm.e u we "Ho>wa Haaem ecu mmoammmfiumzoa Acoapausom aware mm. u w s u we cm.v a 00.: u we ”Hm>ma Haaem can mmmcmmmfinmzoa Acoapaosem 304V kma em as km w ass on mm mm mmmao Mo sagasz ooH ood ooH as ooH om cos so msmuoa so k as as mm as OH on em“: mm mm ea em i mm N: am mm agave: . He :0 0k em 2 ms mm Om me 30a sauce eoaaaem ousaaem‘aamm emaaaxmcs. coaamosem ewe: F i fleece Umafiwxm moflafixmtfifiom COHHmeCD cofiumoaom 304 mmoCmmoHooBOm mo KoocH Hm>oq fififiem ezm coHumosnm .mmmemmmfiemzom i .mm Bea ' " i:.Mfi 95 of Detroit auto workers, Kornhauser, Sheppard and Mayer found that alienated workers tended to be less satisfied with life and saw politics as futile.30 There is a rich tradition of literature on the social—psychological factors underlying particular political behavior. Cantril's study il- lustrated the dissatisfaction of the Italian and French workers voting for the Communist Party.31 Others have examined the implications.of mass society upon political structures and have traced the historical changes in Western society which have produced a current milieu in which totalitarian movements can build upon the latent disaffection of 32 mass man. There are several perspectives in the literature. Some scholars are concerned about the apathetic response of mass man to mass . - society; others have examined the activist and protest political be— havior of alienated man. Levin pointed out that, "Feelings of political 3OKornhauser, Sheppard, Mayer, op. cit., Chapter 5. 31 Hadley Cantril, The Politics of Despair (New York: Basic Books, 1958). P— 32 See, for example, Scott Greer and Peter Orleans, "The Mass. ESociety and the Para—Political Structure," American Sociological Review \N31. 26 (October, 1962) pp. 634—646; Joseph R. Gusfield,"Mass Society E3nd Extremist Politics," American Sociological Review, Vol. 27 (Feb~ ITUary, 1962) pp. 19—30; William Kornhauser, The Politics of Mass Society (Cflencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959). 96 alienation may be expressed through rational activism, withdrawal, pro- jection or identification with a charismatic leader."33 In other words, there may be different response patterns depending on a host of var— iables. It was initially hypothesized that skill level and political alienation or powerlessness were negatively related and the data con— firmed this relationship. However, the less skilled workers who are more politically alienated are less politically_active—-which is ex— plained only partially by their low educational attainment. This il— lustrates one pattern of response: political alienation or feeling of powerlessness seems to elicit a withdrawal or non—activist response from the sample of automobile production workers. The next chapter examines further the question of withdrawal and of social participation in the broader community and society.34 Other dimensions of alienation will be reviewed first. Skill Level and Normlessness Seeman developed normlessness from Durkheim's concept of anomie—- a societal condition in which there is a breakdown of the normative Structure.35 Another perspective that would seem to bear more 33Levin, o . cit., p. 66. 34See, for a review of the literature on social participation.and Pcflitical behavior, William Erbe, "Social Involvement and Political lXctivity: A Replication and Elaboration," American Sociological Review, \Fol. 29 (April, 1964), pp. 198—215. . 35Seeman, op. cit. sociological fruit is to exaime the extent to which members of a society are normatively integrated; to see what extent to which they see the presence or absence and operation of universal norms in the society. It is hypothesized that less skilled\workers who are disil— lusioned by a social system in which they have failed to achieve their own goals will tend to see the world as less normatively integrated. An Index of Normlessness was used based on seven statements with which the workers were asked to agree or disagree: ”In everyday problems of life it is easy to know which is the right path to choose. Agree or disagree?" "It is hard to rear children nowadays because what is right today is wrong tomorrow. Agree or disagree?" "It seems that nobody agrees on whatis right or wrong be— cause everybody is following his own ideas. Agree or dis— agree?" "There are so many organizations with different goals that it is impossible to trust any of them. Agree or disagree?" "The world of today is Changing so fast that it is dif— ficult to be sure that we are making the right decisions in the problems we face everyday. Agree or disagree?" "The man with morals and scruples is better able to get ahead in this world than the immoral and unscrupulous per— son. Agree or disagree?" Table 29 reveals a statistically significant negative corre— lation between occupational skill level and normlessness. As pre- <3icted, skilled workers are more normatively integrated. However, tflie sociological research literature cautions against accepting this firming without controlling for education, which was done in Table 30. 98 TABLE 29. Normlessness and Skill Level Index of Normlessness Occgpational Skill Level Unskilled Semi—Skilled Skilled Total Low ' 8 11 2O 12 Medium- 57 6O 67 60 High 35 29 13 28 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 82 82 306 2 x =16.15 P\.Ol «3:46:30 The result is striking. Workers at all skill levels are much lower on the normlessness alienation measure if they have had more education; or to put it differently, for the less educated workers the differences among skill groups are still considerable, but the number who are well integrated on this normative dimension is small.36 Robin Williams said, "If individuals feel that the normative structure upon which their psychological security depends is threatened by forces they cannot ident— ify or understand, they frequently exhibit aniJmnxxunulintolerance of 36Several studies have found alienation and education to be <20rrelated, but there is a further argument that challenges the valid— Iity of some ofthe measures for less educated respondents. See Rhodes CH3. cit., Lenski and Leggett, op. cit. 99 cm. H m N n we Ho.» m mo.m n «x "coauaoscm ode mmemmoHEpoz on. u w s u we mo., a am.o u we UH~>~A Afiaxm cam mmmsmmmaanoz naoaumozem amaze Hm. n m N u we oH./ a ks.m u we HH~>oa Haaxm can mmuemmufianoz “coauuosem Bose ka em as km ass mm mm mm mumao no twaesz ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH ooH . msauoa em NH mm Hm em ma an as aw“: ow me mm am He kk Ho em enema: es mm as OH m w m s son HauOH oofifiwxm oofififixmlwfiwm owHHHMmCD coaumosem em“: Hooch ooHHme ooHHmeIHEom ooHHmec: cofiuaooom 30A mmoCmmoHEpoz uo XmocH H~>~a Hfifixm ecu aofiomosem .mmmemmmfieeoz .0m mameg 100 37 Williams seems to be ambiguity of differences in social relations." saying that less educated persons tend to rank high on meaninglessness' alienation, and will tend to be poorly integrated into the normative structure-~a statement which the data appear to support. Skill Level and Ideological Intensity This chapter began with a discussion of ideology and the theoretical antecedents for the hypothesized relationships between occupational skill level of manual workers and their political ideology, behavior and alienation. In operationalizing the concept of alienation there was developed a measure of the extent to which the worker accepts the prevalent value structures and the extent to which he feels a lack of power or is politically alienated. Another component which links both of these is a measure of the individual’s degree of adherence to a set of beliefs, or what was called "ideological intensity." This is not a measure of political liberalism nor of adherence to societal norms. It stems from the under but is conceptually distinct. Three statements with which the respondents were asked to agree or disagree made up the Index of Ideological Sensitivity: "It is better to take the position of live and let live than to insist on a point of view even if one is sure it is really right. Agree or disagree?" "Once one makes a really important decision, one musn't pay any attention to other points of view no matter how con— vincing they may seem. Agree or disagree?" "One shouldn‘t let his family suffer because he believes in an ideal which can be realized only in the distant future. Agree or disagree?" y 37Robin M. Williams, American Society (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, befCQnd Edition, 1961), p. 565. illil‘li 101 The hypothesis was that skill level and ideological intensity are negatively correlated——1ess skilled blue—collar workers will be more intense in ideological adherence. Data in Table 31 confirm the hypothesis. This finding strengthens the entire theoretical model WhiCh elaborates a politically liberal, ideologically sensitive, politically alien— ated group of unskilled and semi—skilled production workers who vary on these dimensions from the skilled tradesmen in the same industry. TABLE 31. Ideological Intensity and Skill Level Index of Ideological Occupational Skill Level Intensity Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Low 46 55 63 53 High 54 45 37 47 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 81 82 305 x2 = 13.64 p ..01 df = 2 E = .28 An Overview The findings of this chapter are as follows: skilled workers, in contrast to manual workers of lesser skill, are more politically cfonservative, more politically active, less politically alienated, nlore normatively integrated, and less ideologicalhrintense in their at‘titudes. This fits the predicted model quite accurately with the eXception of the reversed relationship between skill and political a Ct ivity. ‘m‘ . 102 One interpretation of this total pattern\is an extension of Olsen's distinction between "feelings of incapability" and"feel- ings of dissatisfaction.".38 The less skilled worker is dissatisfied with his life and thus is alienated and politically liberal—~suggest— ing a desire for social—politica1~economic changes. But at the same time, he feels incapable to make meaning out of his situation and he feels little power in a world without norms. Hence, he manifests the propensity for social—political action but, in fact, is a non— activist-retreatist or apathetic. While the sample of Oldsmobile workers clearly have internatlized some of the basic American values, such as a belief in personal opportunity,39 their own work experience and occupationally related characteristics seem to influence their ideology and ideologically based behavior. This shall be examined in the community arena in the light of mass behavior theory in the next chapter. 38Marvin E. Olsen, "The Concept of Alienation," paper read at the Michigan Sociological society meetings, Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 22, 1963. In their study of Detroit auto workers, Kornhauser, et. al., found that political futility, social alienation, and life Satisfaction were related. They also found prolabor-apolitical workers ‘to be the must alienated and the least satisfied with life. Kornhauser, Ej:_al., 923 cit., Chapter 5 and p. 254. 91n the sample, only fourteen percent disagreed or were not Esure about the equal opportunity of Americans to make their own way in life. This figure is probably lower than it would be in many other <2Ommunities because the sample reflects the very small proportion of Negroes in the Lansing area working force. However, a recent Harris 13011 showed that in a national sample only two-thirds believe that 'Wnost people make their own breaks” and the rest feel differently, $I‘:don’t know. Reported in the Cleveland, Ohio Plain—Dealer, June 22, 964. CHAPTER VIII THE WORKER, SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND NEIGHBORHOOD- COMMUNI TY I NVOLV EME NI‘ The Meaning of Mass Society A common theme in the historical literature on the West stresses that a historical process of atomization is occurring which leads to the massification of society. Nisbet traced the changes which have isolated man in primary groups from the societal elite. The inter- mediate relationships are vanishing, he claimed, producing a mass society. Our present crisis lies in the fact that whereas the small traditional associations, founded upon kinship, faith, or locality, are still expected to communicate to individuals the principal moral ends and psychological gratifications of society, they have manifestly become detached from posi— tions of functional relevance to the larger economic and political decisions of our society. Family, local community, church and the whole network of informal inter—personal relat— ionships have ceased to play a determining role in our in- stitutional systems of mutual aid, welfare, education, recrea- tion and economic production and distribution. Yet despite the loss of these manifest institutional functions, and the failure of most of these groups to develop any new institut- ional functions, we continue to expect them to perform ade- quately the implicit psychological or symbolic functions in the life of the individual.1 1Robert A. Nisbet, The Quest for Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1952), p. 54. 103 ‘ 104 This lack of intermediate relationship produces the quest for community or readiness to embrace new ideologies, and is a factor in the strong propensity for totalitarianism in mass society.2 0n the one side, Levin espouses mass theory and sees the alienative effects of democratic political theory.3 0n the other hand, Gusfield has recently criticized much of mass theory in its attribution of extreme political behavior to an undifferentiated society which is alienative.4 Many sociologists have argued that ours is a non—pluralist or mass society in which democratic institutions are threatened and mem— bers of the society become undifferentiated, but contradictions exist as to the political implications and the associational implications of the current societal condition. Daniel Bell argues that, ". . . the theory of the mass society no longer serves as a description of Western society but as an ideology of romantic protest against con- temporary life."5 He states that the United States is a nation of joiners with at least 200,000 voluntary associations6 and claims that while the United States 23 undergoing more rapid change than pro- bably any other country, the assumption that this will inevitably produce social disorder and anomie is not borne out.7 2William Kornhauser, The Politics of Mass Society (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959). 3Murray B. Levin, The Alienated Voter (New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1960) p. 73. _ “Joseph R. Gusfield,"Mass Society and Extremist Politics," flggrican Sociological Review, Vol. 27 (February, 1962) pp. 19—30. 5 Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology (New York: Collier Books, 1961) p. 38. 6Ibid., p. 32; also see Bernard Barber, "Participation and Mass Apathy in Associations" in Alvin W. Gouldner (editor) Studies in Lead- ership (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950) pp. 481-484. 7Bell, op. cit., p. 37. 105 Bell does not explain why mass theorists are protesting, al— though he dismisses their analyses as being inapplicable. His case rests, in large part, on a refutation of the socially isolated urban industrial man. While associational involvement is an important part of the theory advanced by Nisbet, Kornhauser and others, it is not in itself a full measure of the mass condition of society.8 The basic question which Nisbet poses appears to be the lack of integration of modern man into neighborhood or community structures. "The point is that with the decline in the significance of kinship and locality, and the failure of new social relationships to assume influences of equivalent intensity, a profound change has occurred in the very psychological structure of society."9 Man is attempting to escape from isolation caused not by the disintegration of Organizations, but by the changes in his primary relations. But even if Bell is correct in his conclusion about associa- tional involvement, and the research evidence shall be examined Shortly, there is a qualitative factor which Selznick pointed out. He conceptualized segmental participation to refer to the mass society 8Maccoby, however; found political activity to be related to participation in a voluntary association, and concluded that greater associational involvement will produce greater political involvement Which may counteract the effects of massified society. Herbert Maccoby, "The Differential Activity of Participants in a Voluntary Association," figgrican Sociological Review, Vol. 23 (October, 1958) pp. 524-532. Also relevant, William Erbe, "Social Involvement and Political Activity, figgrican Sociological Review, Vol. 29 (April, 1964) pp. 198-215. 9 Nisbet, op. cit., p. 69. 106 member's shallow involvenmnt in groups in which primary—group relation— ships do not develop. "It is only with general alienation that the population—~where and to the extent that it does not retreat into apathy and isolation——will turn for sustenance to what are usually impersonal structures."10 These groups Selznick predicted,may be manipulated and mobilized, which is characteristic of modern mass society. The objective of this study is not to test any assumptions about mass society. Rather, it is to examine the modes of social integration of manual workers and explore the relationships between the world of work and non—work components. Thus, it is important to investigate the extent of voluntary organizational involvement and the extent of neighborhood and community involvement. lit fiShypothesized that these correlate positively with occupational skill level. Skill Level and Associational Involvement The sociological literature is replete with researches of participation in voluntary organizations. Some studies such as Scott and Axelrod,11 indicate that about two—thirds of Amerhxnm belong to some voluntary association; while other inquiries show almost a reverse 10Philip Selznick, "Institutional Vulnerability in Mass Society," émerican Journal of Sociology, Vol. 56 (January, 1951) pp. 320—331. 11John C. Scott,Jr., "Membership and Participation in Voluntary Associations," American Sociological Review, Vol. 22 (June, 1957) PP. 315—326; Morris Axelrod, "Urban Structure and Social Participation," figmrican Sociological Review, Vol. 21 (February, 1956) pp. 13—18. 107 pattern.12 In studies of working-class persons, the results are more consistent. Komarovsky found about sixty percent did not belong to voluntary associations, and Dotson found in his sample of blue—collar workers that about two—thirds were non—participants.13 Kornhauser found that union members were slightly more likely to belong to other voluntary associations than non-members; yet, in both cases about sixty percent did not belong.14 In his study of autoworkers, Stokes found that sixty-nine percent did not belong to any associations.15 Thus, there is a strong expectation for the level of participation among Oldsmobile workers to be low. 12Murray Hausknecht, The Joiners: A Sociological Description of Voluntary Association Membership in the United States (New York: Bedminster Press, 1962) p. 23, James E. Teele, "Measures of Social Participation," Social Problems, Vol. 10 (Summer, 1962) pp. 31—39. 13Mirra Komarovsky, "The Voluntary Associations of Urban Dwellers," American Sociological Review, Vol. 11 (December, 1946) pp. 686—697; Floyd Dotson, ”Patterns of Voluntary Association Among Urban Working- Class Families," American Sociological Review, Vol. 16 (October, 1951) Pp. 687-693. 1U'Ruth Kornhauser, "Some Social Determinants and Consequences of Union Membership," Labor History, Vol. 2 (Winter, 1961) pp. 30—61. 15Donald Stokes, "Political Communication to the Union Workers," (unpublished study, University of Michigan). 108 In addition to the general findings just reviewed, there is research evidence that participation in voluntary organizations is a function of certain demographic and related variables: occupational level, income level, neighborhood status, and level of education.16 Therefore, manual workers may be less active in voluntary associations than professionals or white—collar workers; but skilled workers should manifest higher levels of participation. The measure of voluntary association participation was a composite of membership, attendance, and office—holding for up to three organizations, scored as follows: Membership and participation in voluntary associations member and officer member, attends always or often member, doesn‘t attend oflrarely not member of any organization OHNOJ The possible score range was 0—9; actual range was 0-8. Fifty- four percent of the total sample are not members of voluntary organi- zations. Table 32 shows a highly significant positive correlation between occupational skill level and participation in voluntary associa— tions. Table 33 controls for education and it is apparent that the level of participation is lower for the less educated, although the correla— tion between skill and participation is still evident. 16See, for example, Charles R. Wright and Herbert H. Hyman, "Vol- untary Association Memberships of American Adults: Evidence From National Sample Surveys," American Sociological Review, Vol. 23 (June, 1958) pp. 284—294; Howard E. Freeman, Edwin Novak, and Leo G. Reeder, "Cor— relates of Membership in Voluntary.Associations," American Sociological Review, Vol. 22 (Octaber, 1957) pp. 528— 533; Leonard Reissman, "Class Leisure, and Social Participation," American Sociological Review, Vol. 19 (February, 1954) pp. 76- 84; Wendell Bell and Maryanne T. Force, "Urban Neighborhood Types and Participation in Formal Associations, " American Sociological Review, Vol. 21 (February, 1956) pp. 25-34. 109 TABLE 32. Participation in Voluntary Organizations and Skill Level FE; . . L. B Measure of Organizat1onal Occupational Skill Level Participation Unskilled Semi-Skilled Skilled Total Low 68 S3 32 54 Medium 21 33 41 30 High ll 14 27 16 Totals 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 142 81 82 305 x2 = 26.85 P ..001 df = u E = .39 While many studies have explored the differential participation patterns of Americans and factors accounting for it, few studies have examined the relationships between work situations and partici- pation in voluntary associations.17 Wilensky has shown that career patterns shape men's associational lives: those with chaotic work experiences tend to retreat from work and communal life, while men \aith orderly careers tend better to integrate their work and non—work Iroles and are more socially involved with their workmates away from ‘the job.18 y 17For an excellent review of the literature and discussion (XE work and associational participation, see Harold L. Wilensky, "Life C3ycle, Work Situation, and Participation in Formal Associations," if! Robert Kleemeier (editor) Aging and Leisure (New York: Oxford thiversity Press, 1961). 18Harold L. 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