Work Orientations

Work Orientations

Work orientations and work attitudes have to do with the productive capacities in society. Insofar as individuals are positively oriented towards contributing their labour, we can expect a great amount of work to be done and to be carried out efficiently, carefully and responsibly. These subjective factors are thus very vital in modern working life. Work Orientations: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings offers up-to-date research on people’s commitment to work and employment and job satisfaction in economically advanced countries. It will also analyse changes that have taken place in these respects over the last decades. Among the key issues in Work Orientations are questions about whether patterns of work centrality and employment commitment tend to remain stable or have changed across time in various countries. Moreover, we assume that the circumstances under which people participate in the social division of labour colour their subjective relationships to their jobs and to employment in general. A major aim of the book is to explore the impact of factors such as occupation, education, age and gender on work orientations and work attitudes. Work Orientations will be invaluable for researchers and scholars in the fields or organizational studies, the sociology of work, employee engagement and related disciplines.

Work Orientation and Job Performance

With critical attention focused on education, and the teaching profession itself under close scrutiny by federal, state, and local officials and governing boards, a heightened sense of the need to attract and retain good teachers has surfaced as a national priority. Based on data collected on elementary school teachers, principals, and central office administrators in a large unified school district, the authors draw upon cultural rather than economic or psychological concepts to reveal and explain how educators become oriented to their work responsibilities. The book presents a comprehensive description of the rewards and incentives provided for teachers. It also describes the roles of principals and links the principal's work to classroom performance and teaching effectiveness. Throughout this fascinating account the authors describe and reflect upon the ways in which teaching is controlled by a system of beliefs and meanings that specify the overall purposes of schooling and establish norms for social relationships with students and colleagues.

Overeducation and Work Orientations