Meanings of Occupational Work: A Collection of Essays (Issues in Organization and Management Series)

Bys: Brief, Arthur P. and Nord, Walter R.

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0669123412
• ISBN13: 9780669123418
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Meanings of Occupational Work

What are the beliefs, attitudes, and values people attach to their occupations and to the subject of work in general? How do their feelings about their jobs influence the behavior of society as a whole? Is it possible that some of their assumptions about working are based on a broader set of issues than the social scientists who study them and the business executives who manage them have taken into account? In this outstanding collection of essays, Arthur P. Brief and Walter R. Nord, along with several other experts, critically appraise a wide variety of issues concerning work and pose many provacative questions about the validity of traditional approaches to both the study of work values and the management of workers. A comprehensive treatment of what work menas in peoples' lives and how that meaning affects workers, organizations, and society, this bok explores: * Why so many ofthe assumptions presently guiding and influencing theoretical research's approach to the subject of work may be too narrow * How adopting a broader perspective can yield greater insights and enhance the current level of understanding of work attitudes and behaviors * What questions are not now being asked could supply important new answers regarding the meaning of work * Why examining the meanng of work vs-a-vis peoples' feelings about ther lives is the only way to determine the effects of work on society * What previously unidentified assumptions and relationships indicate the need for a new focus on the study of the meanings that people assign to work and to working Here is a truly balanced perspective on such issues as work motivation, coping with work stress, the impact of work on the family, and the relationship of career satisfaction to life satisfaction that reviews the meaning of occupational work from a variety of vantage points. By examining the historical, political, and socioeconomic as well as the psychological issues impacting the meaning of work, Brief and Nord show us why inconsistent empirical results may well be by-products of a failure on the part of managerial and scientific researchers to define adequately the variables and belief systems surrounding how people look at work. For all those concerned with what people think and feel about their work and how they act in the workplace, this concisely written series of essays not only provides a thorough overview on the subject of working and draws many valuable conclusions about the shortcomings and successes of past research findings and human-resource practices; it also lays the groundwork and outlines the basic agenda for improving the paramenter of future study. --- from book's dustjacket