Few concepts in the social sciences have been more widely used than job satisfaction. Yet the concept of job satisfaction has yielded few profound insights into the nature of life at the workplace. This results partly from job satisfaction having few if any behavioral referents and the fact that job satisfaction ignores social and interactive aspects of the organization of work. New concepts more closely tied to behaviors are needed to understand the workplace and how people attempt to live within it. This article develops a preliminary model of workplace dynamics based on behaviors rather than attitudes and argues that the behavioral categories of good soldier, smooth operator, and saboteur are key modes of adaptation. These modes define a behavioral space which makes a wide range of workplace behaviors and events understandable. In addition, this behavioral model facilitates the integration of studies of the workplace with broader themes in the social sciences, such as group processes and the negotiated nature of behaviors, in a way not allowed by the concept of job satisfaction.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alwin, D. F.
(1973). Making inferences from attitude-behavior correlations. Sociometry, 36, 253-278.
2.
Angle, H. L.
, & Perry, J. L. (1981). An empirical assessment of organizational commitment and organizational effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 1-14.
3.
Argyle, M.
(1972). The social psychology of work. London: Penguin.
4.
Armstrong, P. J.
, Goodman, J.F.B., & Hyman, J. D. (1981). Ideology and shop-floor industrial relations. London: Croom Helm.
5.
Barley, S. R.
, & Williams, L. K. (1985, Fall). Could a funny thing happen on the way to the office of the future?Cornell Industrial and Labor Relations Report, pp. 11-12.
6.
Baron, J. N.
(1984). Organizational perspectives on stratification. In R. H. Turner & J. F. Short, Jr. (Eds.), Annual review of sociology (Vol. 10, pp. 37-69). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
7.
Bateman, T. S.
, & Organ, D. W. (1983). Job satisfaction and the good soldier. Academy of Management Journal, 26, 587-595.
8.
Batstone, E.
, Boraston, I., & Frenkel, S. (1978). The social organization of strikes. Oxford: Blackwell.
9.
Beniger, J. R.
(1986). The control revolution: Technological and economic origins of the information society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
10.
Burawoy, M.
(1979). Manufacturing consent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11.
Byham, W. C.
(1984). The steel-collar worker. Training, 21(1), 59-64.
12.
Byington, R. H.
(Ed.). (1978). Working Americans: Contemporary approaches to occupational folklife (Smithsonian Folklife Studies, No. 3). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
13.
Cole, R.
(1979). Work, mobility, and participation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
14.
Croizer, M.
, & Friedberg, E. (1980). Actors and systems: The politics of collective action. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Edwards, P. K.
(1986). Conflict at work. Oxford: Blackwell.
16.
Edwards, P. K.
, & Scullion, H. (1982). The social organization of industrial conflict. Oxford: Blackwell.
17.
Etzioni, A.
(1961). A comparative analysis of complex organizations. New York: Free Press.
18.
Fantasia, R.
(1988). Cultures of solidarity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
19.
Fine, G. A.
(1984). Negotiated orders and organizational cultures. In R. H. Turner & J. F. Short, Jr. (Eds.), Annual review of sociology (Vol. 10, pp. 239-262). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
20.
Fine, G. A.
, & Kleinman, S. (1979). Rethinking subculture: An interactionist analysis. American Journal of Sociology, 85, 1-20.
21.
Fisher, C. D.
(1980). On the dubious wisdom of expecting job satisfaction to correlate with performance. Academy of Management Review, 5, 607-612.
22.
Gamson, W. A.
, Fireman, B., & Rytina, S. (1982). Encounters with unjust authority. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
23.
Glick, W. H.
, Jenkins, G. D., & Gupta, N. (1986). Method versus substance: How strong are the underlying relationships between job characteristics and attitudinal outcomes?Academy of Management Journal, 29, 441-464.
24.
Glisson, C.
, & Durick, M. (1988). Predictors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in human service organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33, 61-81.
25.
Granovetter, M.
(1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91, 481-510.
26.
Hackett, R. D.
, & Guion, R. M. (1985). A reevaluation of the absenteeism-satisfaction relationship. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35, 340-381.
27.
Hall, D. T.
, & Schneider, B. (1972). Correlates of organizational identification as a function of career pattern and organizational type. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 340-350.
28.
Haas, J.
(1972). Binging: Educational control among high steel ironworkers. American Behavioral Scientist, 1627-34.
29.
Hawkins, R.
(1984). Employee theft in the restaurant trade. Deviant Behavior, 5(1-4), 47-69.
30.
Hill, S.
(1981). Competition and control at work: The new industrial sociology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
31.
Hobsbawm, E.
(1973). Peasants and politics. Journal of Peasant Studies, 1(1), 3-22.
32.
Hodson, R.
, & Sullivan, T. A. (1985). Totem or tyrant? Monopoly, regional, and local sector effects on worker commitment. Social Forces, 63, 716-731.
33.
Hollinger, R. C.
, & Clark, J. P. (1983). Theft by employees. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
34.
Howard, R.
(1985). Brave new workplace. New York: Viking.
35.
James, L. R.
, & Tetrick, L. E. (1986). Confirmatory analytic tests of three causal models relating job perceptions to job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 77-82.
36.
Juravich, T.
(1985). Chaos on the shop floor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
37.
Kalleberg, A. L.
(1977). Work values and job rewards: A theory of job satisfaction. American Journal of Sociology, 42, 124-143.
38.
Kanter, R. M.
(1974). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
39.
Kimeldorf, H.
(1985). Working class culture, occupational recruitment, and union politics. Social Forces, 64, 359-376.
40.
Kohn, M. I.
, & Schooler, C. (1983). Work and personality. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
41.
Kolchin, P.
(1978). The process of confrontation: Patterns of resistance to bondage in nineteenth-century Russia and the United States. Journal of Social History, 11, 457-490.
42.
Lawler, E. E., III
, & Porter, L. W. (1967). The effect of performance on satisfaction. Industrial Relations, 7, 20-28.
43.
Lincoln, J. R.
, & Kalleberg, A. L. (1985). Work organization and workforce commitment: A study of plants and employees in the U.S. and Japan. American Sociological Review, 50, 738-760.
44.
Linstead, S.
(1985). Breaking the “purity rule”: Industrial sabotage and the symbolic process. Personnel Review, 14(3), 12-19.
45.
Mars, G.
(1982). Cheats at work. London: Unwin.
46.
Martin, S. E.
(1980). Breaking and entering: Police women on patrol. Berkeley: University of California Press.
47.
Mathewson, S. B.
(1931). Restriction of output among unorganized workers. New York: McGraw-Hill.
48.
Mayo, E.
(1933). The human problems of an industrial civilization. New York: Macmillan.
49.
McCall, G. J.
, & Simmons, J. L. (1978). Identities and interactions. New York: Free Press.
50.
McClelland, D. C.
(1985). Human motivation. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
51.
Mechanic, D.
(1962). Sources of power of lower participants in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 7, 349-364.
52.
Mitchell, T. R.
(1985). An evaluation of the validity of correlational research conducted in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 10, 192-205.
53.
Montgomery, D.
(1979). Workers' control in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54.
Mortimer, J. T.
(1979). Changing attitudes toward work. Scarsdale, NY: Work in America Institute.
55.
Mortimer, J. T.
, & Lorence, J. (1989). Satisfaction and involvement: Disentangling a deceptively simple relationship. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52(4), 249-265.
56.
Mowday, R. T.
(1978). The exercise of upward influence in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23, 137-156.
57.
Mowday, R. T.
, Porter, L. W., & Stone, E. F. (1978). Employee characteristics as predictors of turnover among female clerical employees in two organizations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 12, 321-332.
58.
Mowday, R. T.
, Steers, R. M., & Porter, L. W. (1979). The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14, 224-247.
59.
Ouchi, W. G.
, & Wilkins, A. L. (1985). Organizational culture. In R. H. Turner & J. F. Short, Jr. (Eds.), Annual review of sociology (Vol. 11, pp. 457-483). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
60.
Price, J. L.
, & Mueller, C. W. (1986). Absenteeism and turnover of hospital employees. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
61.
Rothschild, J.
, & Russell, R. (1986). Alternatives to bureaucracy: Democratic participation in the economy. In R. H. Turner & J. F. Short, Jr. (Eds.), Annual review of sociology (Vol. 12, pp. 307-328). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews.
62.
Roy, D.
(1960). Banana time: Job satisfaction and informal interactions. Human Organization, 18, 156-168.
63.
Scott, J. C.
(1985). Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
64.
Sharp, G.
(1973). The politics of nonviolent action. Boston: Porter Sargent.
65.
Shaiken, H.
(1984). Work transformed: Automation and labor in the computer age. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
66.
Simpson, I. H.
(1989). The sociology of work: Where have the workers gone?Social Forces, 67, 563-581.
67.
Snow, D. A.
, & Anderson, L. (1987). Identity work among the homeless: The verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology, 92, 1336-1371.
68.
Steers, R. M.
(1977). Antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22, 46-56.
69.
Strauss, A.
(1978). Negotiations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
70.
Tausky, C.
(1978). Work organizations: Major theoretical perspectives (2nd ed.). Itasca, IL: Peacock.
71.
Tausky, C.
, & Piedmont, E. B. (1968). The sampling of behavior. American Sociologist, 3, 49-51.
72.
Taylor, F. W.
(1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper & Row.
73.
Thomas, K. W.
, & Kilmann, R. H. (1975). The social desirability variable in organizational research: An alternative explanation for reported findings. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 741-752.
74.
Thomis, M. I.
(1970). The Luddites. Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles.
75.
Thompson, E. P.
(1974). Patrician society, plebeian culture. Journal of Social History, 7, 382-405.
76.
Thompson, W. E.
(1983). Hanging tongues: A sociological encounter with the assembly line. Qualitative Sociology, 6(3), 215-237.
77.
Tilly, C.
(1978). From mobilization to revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
78.
Van Maanen, J.
(1973). Observations on the making of policemen. Human Organization, 32, 407-418.
79.
Van Maanen, J.
, & Barley, S. R. (1984). Occupational communities: Culture and control in organizations. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 287-365). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
80.
Veblen, T.
(1914). The instinct of workmanship. New York: Norton.
81.
Whyte, W. H.
(1956). The organizational man. New York: Simon & Schuster.
82.
Wilkinson, B.
(1983). The shopfloor politics of new technology. London: Heinemann.
83.
Willis, P.
(1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
84.
Woodworth, W.
, Meek, C., & Whyte, W. F. (1985). Industrial democracy. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
