American Work Values: Their Origin and Development (SUNY Series in the (SUNY series in the Sociology of Work and Organizations) - Softcover

Bernstein, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791432165 ISBN 13: 9780791432167

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1997

Synopsis

American Work Values: Their Origin and Development examines the broad shifts in American work values from their European origins to the present. It analyzes shifts from work as salvation to work as opportunity and alienation, and concludes with a more recent focus on self-fulfilling employment in a context of industrial downsizing.

Beginning with the Lutheran-Calvinist support of work for the glory of God, the book's focus shifts to the change in work values that occurred from early industrialization in America to the end of the Great Depression, a period characterized by both opportunity and alienation. The modern trends that followed led to the empowerment of employees even as that empowerment tested the values of such participation in a climate of rampant downsizing. The book also deals with the debates related to work and welfare that simmered during these transformations. Whether it involved policy-makers in sixteenth-century Europe or wonks in the Washington of 1996, controversy over public assistance to the deserving and undeserving poor remained a raging controversy that spilled over into the debate on affirmative action.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Bernstein is Adjunct Professor of Management, former Dean of Graduate Studies, and former Dean of Liberal Arts, at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the co-author (with Robert Green) of History of Civilization: to 1648 and History of Civilization: since 1648. he is also the author of Career Education and the Quality of Working Life.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791432165
• ISBN 13: 9780791432167
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 382