
The Reluctant Job Changer
Studies in Work Attachments and Aspirations
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 29. January 1962
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-5128-0508-6 (ISBN)
Description
What keeps people in jobs or occupations is the central theme of four studies that interpret workers' attitudes toward job-changing in the light of their work experience as well as their expectations for the future.
Gladys Palmer, in collaboration with Herbert S. Parnes of Ohio State University and Richard C. Wilcock of the University of Illinois, has experimented in the key study with analyses designed to measure the strength of a person's attachment to his or her occupation or employer. Attitude questions are given a time dimension by checking them against the job histories of individual workers and by including evaluations of crucial job decisions in the past.
The effect of private pension plans upon the inclination to change jobs is examined by Parnes, with surprising results. A third study, by Carol P. Brainerd, considers the impact of the search for economic security on a highly skilled group by tracing changes over thirty years in the way toolmakers move between jobs and in the methods of training them. Mary W. Herman uses both America and European materials to analyze the connection between the ideas of social class, work attitude, aspirations for moving up the social scale, and the amount that actually occurs between different levels of skill.
The volume emphasizes the work experience and attitudes of male production workers in the stable period of their working lives, when family responsibilities are usually heavy. At the same points, however, it also covers women workers and the full range of age groups in the adult population. In the concluding chapter, Palmer brings the findings together, examines their implications for understanding the complex factors that determine individual movements in the labor market, and assesses the various attitude measures developed as predictors of attachment or mobility. Materials, sources, and technical aspects of the analysis are discussed in four appendices.
These studies have both practical appeal and research interest. Personnel workers, guidance counselors, employment specialists, and others involved in the everyday workings of the labor market will appreciate the insights into worker attitudes and behavior, while the analysis of institutional force and of motivations and trends in mobility will interest labor economists and sociologists, as well as technicians in the field of attitude research.
Founded in 1921 as a separate Wharton department, the Industrial Research Unit has a long record of publication and research in the labor market, productivity, union relations, and business report fields. Major Industrial Research Unit studies as published as research projects are completed. This volume is Study no. 40.
Gladys Palmer, in collaboration with Herbert S. Parnes of Ohio State University and Richard C. Wilcock of the University of Illinois, has experimented in the key study with analyses designed to measure the strength of a person's attachment to his or her occupation or employer. Attitude questions are given a time dimension by checking them against the job histories of individual workers and by including evaluations of crucial job decisions in the past.
The effect of private pension plans upon the inclination to change jobs is examined by Parnes, with surprising results. A third study, by Carol P. Brainerd, considers the impact of the search for economic security on a highly skilled group by tracing changes over thirty years in the way toolmakers move between jobs and in the methods of training them. Mary W. Herman uses both America and European materials to analyze the connection between the ideas of social class, work attitude, aspirations for moving up the social scale, and the amount that actually occurs between different levels of skill.
The volume emphasizes the work experience and attitudes of male production workers in the stable period of their working lives, when family responsibilities are usually heavy. At the same points, however, it also covers women workers and the full range of age groups in the adult population. In the concluding chapter, Palmer brings the findings together, examines their implications for understanding the complex factors that determine individual movements in the labor market, and assesses the various attitude measures developed as predictors of attachment or mobility. Materials, sources, and technical aspects of the analysis are discussed in four appendices.
These studies have both practical appeal and research interest. Personnel workers, guidance counselors, employment specialists, and others involved in the everyday workings of the labor market will appreciate the insights into worker attitudes and behavior, while the analysis of institutional force and of motivations and trends in mobility will interest labor economists and sociologists, as well as technicians in the field of attitude research.
Founded in 1921 as a separate Wharton department, the Industrial Research Unit has a long record of publication and research in the labor market, productivity, union relations, and business report fields. Major Industrial Research Unit studies as published as research projects are completed. This volume is Study no. 40.
More details
Series
Edition
Reprint 2016 edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
530 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5128-0508-6 (9781512805086)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Gladys L. Palmer | Herbert S. Parnes | Richard C. Wilcock
The Reluctant Job Changer
Studies in Work Attachments and Aspirations
E-Book
11/2016
1st Edition
University of Pennsylvania Press
€220.99
Available for download
Persons
Gladys L. Palmer was Director at the Industrial Research Unit at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Herbert S. Parnes was Professor of Economics at Ohio State University. Richard C. Wilcock was Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois.
Content
Preface
I. Workers and Their Jobs
-Gladys L. Palmer
II. Attachments to Occupation and to Company
-Gladys L. Palmer, Herbert S. Parnes, and Richard C. Wilcock
III. Workers' Attitudes to Job-Changing: The Effect of Private Pension Plans
-Herbert S. Parnes
IV. Trends in the Character of Work Attachments Among Philadelphia Toolmakers
-Carol P. Brainerd
V. Class Concepts, Aspirations and Vertical Mobility
-Mary W. Herman
VI. What Keeps Men in Jobs and Occupations
-Gladys L. Palmer
Appendix
I. Workers and Their Jobs
-Gladys L. Palmer
II. Attachments to Occupation and to Company
-Gladys L. Palmer, Herbert S. Parnes, and Richard C. Wilcock
III. Workers' Attitudes to Job-Changing: The Effect of Private Pension Plans
-Herbert S. Parnes
IV. Trends in the Character of Work Attachments Among Philadelphia Toolmakers
-Carol P. Brainerd
V. Class Concepts, Aspirations and Vertical Mobility
-Mary W. Herman
VI. What Keeps Men in Jobs and Occupations
-Gladys L. Palmer
Appendix