WORK ALIENATION

"The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of job stress and cynicism on work alienation in nurses. Three distinct contributions beyond the existing literature are examined. First, cynicism is positioned as a mediator in the relationship between job stress and work alienation. Second, the differences in job stress, cynicism and work alienation according to demographic variables are investigated. A quantitative survey was carried out among the one of the largest public hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. The data from 199 nurses was collected via surveys and SPSS Statistics version 18.0 and these were employed as statistical techniques to carry out the objectives of the study. It was determined that there was a significant relationship between job stress, cynicism and work alienation. According to the aim of this research it was concluded that cynicism is a partial mediator in the relationship between job stress and work alienation. The results indicate that cynicism and work alienation on the part of the participants differs according to organization seniority. The main objective of this study is to focus on the problem of job stress, cynicism and work alienation. Few studies have been carried out on these topics in the health sector in the context of a developing country. The original nature of this research is that it fills in the gaps in this topic. The health care sector was selected for this study for a number of reasons. First, health care is one of the most important and rapidly growing sectors in Turkey. Second, it is a huge economic power in the Turkish economy. Third, a literature review demonstrates that job stress, cynicism and work alienation are important topics for success in the health sector. Thus, it is expected that this research will contribute to the success of the health sector.

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"Capitalist logic, its impact on the practice of archaeology,
and on the professional lives of those who participate within its political economy are the subject for this analysis. I have chosen as my unit of analysis commercial archaeology in Quebec, Canada. This context was chosen because of its progressive transformation from a semi, state-regulated archaeological system to one that is competitive and comparable to those found in the UK and the USA. Commercial archaeology, as governed by a neoliberal economic system, has fundamentally altered how archaeology‟s contributions are brought about, maintained and disseminated. But what about those who produce archaeology, has their relationship to the profession changed as a result of neoliberal economics?
The objective of this thesis is to address and evaluate the argument against neoliberal economics and contribute to current critiques regarding capitalist economics by posing the following question: does the implementation of a neoliberal economy in
archaeology sustain the accomplishment of a meaningful and valuable archaeological activity for archaeologists and the public?
Within this dissertation, an ethnographic approach to data collection permits the exploration of the experience of socioeconomic changes upon the lives of archaeologists, experience which is articulated in their own discourses. I also employ qualitative demographic and economic data, and participant observation. The
characteristics of the archaeological network in Quebec are further illustrated through a comparative analysis with the system of commercial archaeology in the UK.
Research results demonstrate that the present market economy is harmful to the development of archaeological products, primarily because of the alienation of the product from the archaeologists and the public. Alternatives to the current economic system have been developed. However, these options suffer from under
-funding. I propose that new models of practice for archaeology must be explored and given credence, if there is to be a perpetuation of the profession within the cultural landscape of western societies."

"Aim
The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of work alienation on organizational commitment, work effort and work-to-family enrichment.

Background
There is substantial research on the effects of work alienation on passive job performance, such as organizational commitment. However, studies analyzing work alienation on active performance, such as work effort, and outside work, such as work-to-family enrichment, are scarce.

Method
Two dimensions of work alienation are considered: powerlessness and meaninglessness. Hypotheses are tested using surveys collected among a national sample of midwives in the Netherlands (respondents: 790, response rate 61%).

Results
Findings indicate that work alienation (powerlessness and meaninglessness) influence organizational commitment, work effort and – to a lesser extent - work-to-family enrichment. High work meaninglessness, in particular, has negative effects on these outcomes.

Conclusion
When people feel that they have no influence in their work (hence, when they feel ‘powerless’) and especially when the feel that their work is not worthwhile (when they feel ‘meaningless’), this has substantial negative effects.

Implications for nursing management
Managers should increase the meaningfulness people attach to their work, thereby maintaining a high-quality workforce. Possible strategies include: 1.Improving person-job fit, 2. Developing high-quality relationships, 3. Better communicating the results people help deliver."

"Description
‘Why do pubic sector professionals resist change? Tummers offers a compelling account of the alienation of professionals following new public management reforms. This timely and methodologically innovative book shows public managers how to implement organisational change, and provides scholars with a set of new measurement scales. Policy Alienation and the Power of Professionals is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how professional organisations operate, and why professionals resist some changes, while embracing others.’
– Steven Van de Walle, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Contents
Contents: Preface 1. Introduction to Policy Alienation and the Power of Professionals 2. Historical Background of Alienation 3. Public Policies and Alienation 4. Measurement Instrument of Policy Alienation 5. Antecedents of Policy Alienation 6. Policy Alienation and Resistance to Change 7. Policy Alienation, Organizational Context, Personality and Resistance to Change 8. Discussion and Conclusions References Index

Further information
‘Tummers’ book resurfaces alienation as an established and useful concept, but also as a forgotten and ignored reality. Shifts in policies affect the meaning of these policies, and reforms affect power balances. The analyses in this book are crucial to help understand why policies fail and why there is resistance to change. Tummers coins “policy alienation” as an increasingly indispensable concept. Reforms would have been different if Tummers’ analysis on powerlessness and meaninglessness was more taken into account.’
– Geert Bouckaert, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and former President of the European Group for Public Administration

‘Lars Tummers has written a must-read book! While systemic changes ushered in by market-oriented reforms have received attention, little is known about the plight of the individual in modern bureaucracies. Tummers presents a masterful and authoritative account of policy alienation that public service professionals experience. The breadth and depth of Tummers’s scholarship is impressive! This book has something of value for everyone from the casual reader to public management scholar.’
– Sanjay K. Pandey, The State University of New Jersey, US

‘Why do pubic sector professionals resist change? Tummers offers a compelling account of the alienation of professionals following new public management reforms. This timely and methodologically innovative book shows public managers how to implement organisational change, and provides scholars with a set of new measurement scales. Policy Alienation and the Power of Professionals is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how professional organisations operate, and why professionals resist some changes, while embracing others.’
– Steven Van de Walle, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Professionals often have problems with governmental policies they have to implement. This ranges from Israeli teachers striking against school reforms, via British civil servants quitting their jobs as they have problems with New Public Management reforms focused on cost cutting, to US healthcare professionals feeling overwhelmed by a constant flow of policy changes, resulting in tensions, conflicts, and burn-outs.

This eloquent book by Lars Tummers develops a framework to understand these important issues with policy implementation, using the innovative concept of ‘policy alienation’. Policies in healthcare, social security, and education are analyzed. The conclusions challenge the common assertions regarding the reasons why professionals resist policies. For instance, the impact of professional influence, often viewed as an end in itself, is nuanced. Lars Tummers reveals that it is far more important for professionals that a policy is meaningful for society and for their clients, than they have an influence in its shaping.

Policy Alienation and the Power of Professionals is essential for public administration scholars, policymakers, change managers and professionals. To improve its academic and practical significance, a ‘policy alienation’ questionnaire is developed to measure the degree of policy alienation felt by implementers. This instrument can be used to first understand and then improve policy performance in various settings."

From nineteenth-century romanticism to contemporary industrial psychology, discussions about the importance of work for human flourishing have often centred on having the right kind of relation with one’s work. Fundamentally, this paper asks what that relationship might be, and how it might be conceptualised in the context of the increasing number of people signed off work due to mental health problems. At the centre of theargument, the paper seeks to demonstrate how the relationship between work and worker is not as has sometimes been implied a natural connection but instead takes place in the realm of ethics and values and is thus always already subjective, contextualised and theory-laden. The point of this paper is to reconceive the ethical nature of man’s connection to work without the normative and even moralistic connotations that talk of ethics can also bring. In the first part of this paper, I begin by outlining some key ways in which the relationship between worker and work have been conceptualised in classic theories of work. I then move on to explore how focusing on connections or relationality can be both a useful and yet a troubling strategy in attempting to understand the narratives of so-called ‘mad’ people. In the final section, I return to the notion of ethics and what a non-normative ethics of work might look like. Case studies are drawn from narrative interviews conducted by the author with individuals in the North East of England who have experienced long-term mental health difficulties.

""This study examines the effect of work alienation in the relationship between work values, materialism and organizational commitment. The main motivation of the study is to examine whether different work values (intrinsic and extrinsic work values) will have differing effects on affective, continuous and normative organizational commitment. The effects of work values and materialism on organizational commitment are believed to change as work alienation is included in the relationship. Work alienation represents the extent to which a person is disengaged from the world of work (Hirschfeld and Feild, 2000). Therefore, it is predicted that those employees who score high on work alienation will have lower levels of affective commitment regardless of their work values. Similarly, those employees with materialist value orientations will have lower levels of organizational commitment.
This study aiming to examine the relationships between work values, materialism, work alienation and organizational commitment should be regarded as a preliminary attempt. Turkish employees working in SME’s are targeted to fill out a questionnaire which includes Turkish work values inventory developed by Tevrüz and Turgut (2004), Mottaz’s (1981) work alienation scale, Richins and Dawson’s Material Values (1992) and Meyer and Allen’s (1997) organizational commitment inventories. In total 201 employees participated in the study. The preliminary findings showed that work alienation did not mediate the effects of work values and materialism on organizational commitment as predicted.""