Occupation and Class Consciousness in America

Eichar takes a new conceptual and empirical approach to the question of class consciousness. Drawing on recent work in industrial psychology, as well as organization and management theory, he assesses the impact of occupation on working class consciousness and political orientation in terms of the content of work experience. He uses job characteristic theory to clarify the relationship between occupation and class to test whether certain job characteristics influence the class consciousness and political orientation of workers.Eichar begins by establishing theoretical distinctions relating to occupation and class. He next looks at basic job characteristics and examines occupational self-direction and its relation to class consciousness. From a review of recent literature, the author develops a set of hypotheses relating to the impact of occupational self-direction and alienation on class consciousness. He tests these hypotheses empirically using job information from respondents and descriptions of job characteristics. Interpreting his findings, Eichar points out significant differences in the impact of alienation and occupational self-direction depending on the level of class consciousness. Offering solid empirical analysis and careful review of the new class theories, as well as more traditional views of the relationship between work and political attitudes, this study will be of interest in political sociology, Marxist studies, industrial psychology, management theory, and related fields.

?Eichar's book explores a novel idea: the effect of immediate job characteristics on working-class consciousness and political orientations. Occupations and Class Consciousness in America is elegantly written, modest in its claims, and balanced in data presentation. . . . Eichar explores an important question of how work influences class consciousness. . .?-American Journal of Sociology, ?Eicher merges conceptual and empirical analyses of social classes, occupations, and political orientations into a carefully researched portrait of worker attitudes in American capitalism. Using data from the Quality of Employment Surveys (1970-), sponsored by the US Department of Labor, the author attempts to clarify the always popular and intriguing relationship between occupations and Marxist conceptions of class by using the job characteristic' approaches of industrial psychology and organizational theory. This effort brings two traditionally disparate bodies of literature (and ideology) together in a new and promising way. Rarely will good-faith Marxists write about such topics as job satisfaction, motivation, and occupational self-direction. Although the empirical relationships between job characteristics and worker attitudes are generally weak and inconsistent, Eichar's conceptual models are fruitful and worthy of a look. Most appropriate for social science research collections in academic libraries. Most likely users will be graduate students and faculty.?-Choice, ?This closely reasoned book focuses on job characteristics as a way to account for the impact of occupation on working-class consciousness. The intended audience most likely consists of specialists of class and stratification research. . . . This is an honest piece of work that operates within a Marxist approach without seeking to challenge it. The book is very strong in identifying the many problems of relating occupation to social class and in bringing a wide body of appropriate literature to bear on these concerns. Further development of the alientation/self-direction idea with appropriate empirical applications is definitely justified.?-Perspectives on Political Science, "Eichar's book explores a novel idea: the effect of immediate job characteristics on working-class consciousness and political orientations. Occupations and Class Consciousness in America is elegantly written, modest in its claims, and balanced in data presentation. . . . Eichar explores an important question of how work influences class consciousness. . ."-American Journal of Sociology, "This closely reasoned book focuses on job characteristics as a way to account for the impact of occupation on working-class consciousness. The intended audience most likely consists of specialists of class and stratification research. . . . This is an honest piece of work that operates within a Marxist approach without seeking to challenge it. The book is very strong in identifying the many problems of relating occupation to social class and in bringing a wide body of appropriate literature to bear on these concerns. Further development of the alientation/self-direction idea with appropriate empirical applications is definitely justified."-Perspectives on Political Science

DOUGLAS M. EICHAR is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hartford. He has published articles on worker consciousness and other topics in political sociology.