JOB-RELATED EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES IN URBAN MASS TRANSIT

Early efforts of behavioral scientists interested in finding attitude-behavior linkages on the job centered largely on job satisfaction. More recently, organizational commitment has joined job satisfaction as a focal variable and, indeed, shows greater promise as a predictor of both employee participation and worker productivity. Nonetheless, job satisfaction continues to interest organizational scholars, partly due to current societal concern about the quality of working life. Neither concept, however, seems to have found a wide audience within the transit industry. This research attempts to fill that void by assessing the degree of organizational commitment as well as patterns of job satisfaction in a sample of 1244 lower-level employees in 24 public mass transit organizations. Cross-industry comparisons are facilitated by the use of standard measures for which normative data are available. Contrary to the belief of some scholars, lower-level transit employees do become committed to their organizations. On the other hand, overall satisfaction levels were lower for transit employees than for those employed in most comparative occupations. The specific job aspects responsible for dissatisfaction tended to be those related to the rewards and employee treatment that are under control of the organization rather than the nature of the work itself. In general, the unique pattern of job concerns found among transit employees indicates that attitudinal research based on other occupations should be applied in the transit industry only with due caution. (Author)

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1980/759/759-004.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=JOB-RELATED+EMPLOYEE+ATTITUDES+IN+URBAN+MASS+TRANSIT&author=H.+Angle&author=J.+Perry&publication_year=1980
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309030749
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Task Force on Employee-Management Relations and the Quality of Working Life. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Angle, Harold L
  • Perry, James L
• Conference:
  • 59th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1980-1-21 to 1980-1-25
• Publication Date: 1980

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 22-25
• Monograph Title: Critical Issues in Urban Transit Finance and Management
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 759
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Personnel; Productivity; Psychology; Public transit; Urban transportation
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00330085
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309030749
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 21 1982 12:00AM