The Human Side of Banking: Work Attitude and Social Alienation

Abstract

This paper examined the correlations between work alienation and alienation in society. Alternative views of alienation, the generalized approach, the compensatory, and the segmentation approaches, were tested in the banking industry. Study 1 examined the relationship between powerlessness and self-estrangement on the job and anomie. Study 2 examined alienation in society as well as at work. The association of powerlessness, self-estrangement at work, and powerlessness in society, general meaninglessness, social isolation, and cultural estrangement was examined. Studies 1 and 2 show that powerlessness in work is positively correlated with anomie, powerlessness in society, and social isolation. Self-estrangement in work had no significant correlation with any form of alienation in society. Study 3 introduced two other variables: the meaning of work to the respondents and the degree of work alienation. Subjects who viewed work as expressive showed a significant correlation between work alienation and alienation in society. The findings show that the relationship between work alienation and alienation in society may be moderated by the magnitude of work alienation. The results of the three studies reported here can be interpreted more as supportive of the generalized alienation approach than of the compensatory or the segmentation approaches.