Using NORC annual survey data, the authors selected 21 questions describing respondent attitudes toward job, life in general, and financial status. Respondents were catigorized as management, white collar, blue collar, and those not affiliated with business organizations. Attitudes were compared across the four occupational groups. Little dissatisfaction was found in any but the blue collar group. Management as a group, and men as well as women managers showed high levels of satisfaction, with few significant differences found in responses by men and women. This study does not support the earlier finding of widespread alienation in business firms.
For a decade or more the social responsibility literature has contained references to widespread dissatisfaction -even alienation -i n America's business firms. These reports stem largely from the report of a Special Task Force to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Eliiot R. Richardson, which purported that alienation and discontent were a serious and growing problem in the workplace at all levelsblue and white collar, as well as management. The Task Force characterized their findings by a quote from Mbert Camus, "Without work all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies." 1