Individual Choice and Situational Factors

Abstract

This analysis of job satisfaction and job commitment of some Nigerian workers is guided by the action frame of reference developed by Goldthorpe, because of its emphasis on individual choice within the constraints of the social structure. Workers' wants and expectations as derived from their non-work spheres are thus used as important parameters of attitudes to factory employment. The data clearly demon strate how the individual manipulates his or her interests between the different sectors of the economy, with high rates of satisfaction with factory employment that helps to resolve immediate economic problems and provides inputs toward subsequent careers identified outside the manufacturing sector. The resultant instrumentalism of the worker is traced to the structural conditions of a rapidly changing neocolonial society, the high rates of unemployment, and persistent inflation. Low commitment to the factory, on the other hand, is explained in terms of the improved opportunities perceived in the informal sector and in professional and administrative employment.