Allport's (1966) constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness formed the basis of the study. A questionnaire containing scales to measure intrinsic religious motivation (IRM; abbreviated from Hoge, 1972), extrinsic religious orientation (ERO; Feagin, 1967), qualitative workload, powerlessness, role ambiguity, participation in decision-making, job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and sense of coherence, was administered individually and orally in Afrikaans. The respondents were 149 so-called ‘coloured’, male workers on farms in the Western Cape Province. The sample was chosen in view of past experiences that indicated that they tend to be strongly pious. Factor analyses were performed to purify some scales. ERO showed too low a coefficient alpha and too high a correlation with IRM to warrant reporting results. Other coefficients alpha were acceptable. IRM correlated significantly with role ambiguity, job dissatisfaction and emotional stability. A stepwise multiple regression analysis, relating the other-than-religious variables to IRM, produced a model in which job dissatisfaction, role ambiguity, weak conscientiousness, low participation in decision-making and low job involvement (in this sequence) explained 18% of common variance. Associations with IRM were thus distressful and did not favour productivity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AckoffR. (1953). The design of social research.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
AckoffR.L. (1981). Creating the corporate future: plan or be planned for.. New-York: Wiley.
3.
AllenN.J.MeyerJ.P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1–18.
4.
AllportG.W. (1950). The individual and his religion: a psychological interpretation.. New York: Macmillan.
5.
AllportG.W. (1966). The religious context of prejudice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 5, 447–457.
6.
AllportG.W.RossJ.M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432–443.
7.
AnsteyG. (1989). The effect of sense of coherence on work stressors and outcomes in blue collar workers. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Cape Town.
8.
AntonovskyA. (1979). Health, stress, and coping: new perspectives on mental and physical well-being.. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
AntonovskyA. (1987). Unravelling the mystery of health: how people manage stress and stay well.. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
10.
AntonovskyA. (1993). The structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. Social Science and Medicine, 36, 725–733.
11.
BakerM.GorsuchR. (1982). Trait anxiety and intrinsic-extrinsic religiousness. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21, 119–122.
12.
BanisterP.BurmanE.ParkerI.TaylorM.TindallC. (1994). Qualitative methods in psychology: a research guide.. Buckingham: Open University Press.
13.
BarrickM.R.MountM.K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.
14.
BatsonC.D.SchoenradeP.A. (1991). Measuring religion as quest: 2) reliability concerns. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 430–447.
15.
BatsonC.D.SchoenradeP.VentisW.L. (1993). Religion and the individual: a social-psychological perspective.. New York: Oxford University Press.
16.
BlauG.J. (1985). A multiple study investigation of the dimensionality of job involvement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 27, 19–36.
17.
BoumaG.D. (1973). Beyond Lenski: a critical review of recent ‘Protestant ethic’ research. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 12, 141–155.
18.
BuchholzR.A. (1977). The belief structure of managers relative to work concepts measured by a factor analytic model. Personnel Psychology, 30, 567–587.
19.
BurkeM.J.BriefA.P.GeorgeJ.M. (1993). The role of negative affectivity in understanding relations between self-reports of stressors and strains: a comment on the applied psychology literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 402–412.
20.
BurrisC.T.BatsonC.D.AltstaedtenM.StephensK. (1994). ‘What a friend…’: loneliness as a motivator of intrinsic religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 326–334.
21.
CaplanR.A.CobbS.FrenchJ.R.P.HarrisonR.V.PinneauS.R. (1980). Job demands and worker health: main effects and occupational differences.. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
22.
DananaZ. (1989). Relationships between stressors and outcomes in nurses. Unpublished honours research project, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town.
23.
DavidsonJ.D.CaddellD.P. (1994). Religion and the meaning of work. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 135–147.
24.
DavidsonJ.D.KnudsenD.D.LerchS.H. (1983). Involvement in family, religion, education, work, and politics. Sociological Focus, 16, 13–36.
25.
DonahueM.J. (1985). Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: review and meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 400–419.
26.
DunhamR.B.GrubeJ.A.CastañedaM.B. (1994). Organizational commitment: the utility of an integrative definition. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 370–380.
27.
FeaginJ. (1964). Prejudice and religious types: a focused study of Southern fundamentalists. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 4, 3–13.
28.
FurnhamA. (1984). The protestant work ethic: a review of the psychological literature. European Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 87–104.
29.
FurnhamA.MuhiudeenC. (1984). The protestant work ethic in Britain and Malaysia. Journal of Social Psychology, 122, 157–161.
30.
GeniaV. (1993). A psychometric evaluation of the Allport-Ross I/E scales in a religiously heterogeneous sample. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32, 284–290.
31.
GeniaV. (1996). I, E, Quest, and fundamentalism as predictors of psychological and spiritual well-being. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 56–64.
32.
GreeleyA.M. (1964). The protestant ethic: time for a moratorium. Sociological Analysis, 5, 20–33.
33.
GorsuchR.L. (1984). Measurement: the boon and bane of investigating religion. American Psychologist, 39, 228–236.
34.
GorsuchR.L. (1988). Psychology of religion. Annual Review of Psychology, 39, 201–221.
35.
GorsuchR.L. (1994). Toward motivational theories of intrinsic religious commitment. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 315–325.
36.
GorsuchR.L.McPhersonS.E. (1989). Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E-revised and single-item scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28, 348–354.
37.
HarrisonD.A.ShafferM.A. (1994). Comparative examinations of self-reports and perceived absenteeism norms: wading through Lake Wobegon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 240–251.
38.
HogeD.R. (1972). A validated intrinsic religious motivation scale. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 11, 369–376.
39.
HoodR.W. (1971). A comparison of the Allport and Feagin scoring procedures for intrinsic/extrinsic religious orientation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 10, 370–374.
40.
HuntR.A.KingM. (1971). The intrinsic-extrinsic concept: a review and evaluation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 10, 339–356.
41.
JohnsG. (1994). How often were you absent? A review of the use of self-reported absence data. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 574–591.
42.
KanungoR.N. (1982). Work alienation: an integrative approach. New York: Praeger.
43.
KimballC.P. (1982). Stress and psychosomatic illness. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 26, 63–67.
44.
KirkpatrickL.A. (1989). A psychometric analysis of the Allport-Ross and Feagin measures of intrinsic-extrinsic religious orientation. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 1, 1–31.
45.
KirkpatrickL.A. (1993). Fundamentalism, Christian orthodoxy, and intrinsic religious orientation as predictors of discriminatory attitudes. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32, 256–268.
46.
KirkpatrickL.A.HoodR.W. (1990). Intrinsic-extrinsic religious orientation: the boon and bane of contemporary psychology of religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29, 442–462.
47.
le CarréJ. (1996). Our game.. New York: Ballantine.
48.
LenskiG. (1963). The religious factor: a sociological study of religion's impact on politics, economics, and family life (Rev. ed.). Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
49.
LeongF.T.L.ZacharP. (1990). An evaluation of Allport's religious orientation scale across one Australian and two United States samples. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 50, 359–368.
50.
MathieuJ.E.ZajacD.M. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171–194.
51.
McCraeR.R.CostaP.T. (1985). Updating Norman's ‘adequate taxonomy’: intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 710–721.
52.
McCraeR.R.CostaP.T. (1987). Validation of five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81–90.
53.
McFarlandS.G. (1989). Religious orientations and the targets of discrimination. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28, 324–336.
54.
McMichaelA.J.HaynesS.G.TyrolerH.A. (1975). Observations on the evaluation of occupational mortality data. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 17, 128–131.
55.
MertonR.K. (1936). Puritanism, Pietism, and science. Sociological Review, 28, 1–30.
56.
MertonR.K. (1968). Social theory and social structure (Enl. ed.). New York: Free Press.
57.
MountM.K.BarrickM.R.StraussJ.P. (1994). Validity of observer ratings of the Big Five personality factors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 272–280.
58.
MowdayR.T.SteersR.M.PorterL.W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14, 224–247.
59.
OsgoodC.E.SuciG.J.TannenbaumP.H. (1957). The measurement of meaning.. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
60.
RayJ.J. (1982). The protestant ethic in Australia. Journal of Social Psychology, 116, 127–138.
61.
SchneierC.J. (1990). Sense of coherence and self-esteem as moderators in the relationship between job-related stressors and outcomes in nurses. Unpublished honours research project, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town.
62.
ShamirB. (1986). Protestant work ethic, work involvement and the psychological impact of unemployment. Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 7, 25–38.
63.
SingerE. (1978). Informed consent: consequences for response rate and response quality in social surveys. American Sociological Review, 43, 144–162.
64.
StrümpferD.J.W. (1995). The origins of health and strength: from ‘salutogenesis’ to ‘fortigenesis’. South African Journal of Psychology, 25, 81–89.
65.
StrümpferD.J.W.FritzG.PageM.J. (1991). Relationship of sense of coherence to health and work in data processing personnel. Unpublished report, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town.
66.
StrümpferD.J.W.LouwD.A. (1990). Occupational and health psychology of ‘coloured’ agricultural workers in the Western Cape. Unpublished report to the Human Sciences Research Council. Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town.
67.
TettR.P.JacksonD.N.RothsteinM. (1991). Personality measures as predictors of job performance: a meta-analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 44, 704–742.
68.
WarrP.CookJ.WallT. (1979). Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of psychological well-being. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 52, 129–148.
69.
WatsonD.ClarkL.A. (1984). Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465–490.
70.
WeberM. (1976/1904–05). The protestant ethnic and the spirit of capitalism.ParsonsT. (Trans.) (2nd ed.). London: Allen & Unwin.
