The literature on the Black person's concept of work has been more descriptive than empirical, more based on an intuitive feeling level than upon any kind of definitive research evidence. In general, it has been stated that the lower socioeconomic Black has a negative concept of work, that there is little ego involvement in their work, and that Blacks tend to be less satisfied than whites with their jobs even when socioeconomic status is held constant (Tyler, 1967; Neff, 1967; Ash, 1972; Murphy, 1973).
Comparing the differences in job satisfaction between Black and white clerical workers at a large metropolitan state university campus, Ash (1972) found that the mean score of the Black clerical workers on each of five areas of the Job Description Index was lower than the mean score for the white workers. The following indices of job satisfaction were used: (1) type of pay; (2) work; (3) opportunity for advancement; (4) supervision; and (5) co-workers on the job. Given his findings, Ash concluded that Blacks have a noticeably less favorable attitude toward their jobs than do whites, even when workers in the same occupations are compared.
In an earlier study, Singer and Steffire (1956) explored the area of racial differences in job values of white and Black senior high school males. After matching subjects on the factors of age, sex, grade, and socioeconomic level, the authors established that Blacks chose significantly more frequently than whites value E, "a job which you were absolutely sure of keeping" and whites chose significantly more frequently value B, "a very interesting job." From these results, the authors concluded that an individual's racial membership is related to the job value of risk taking. Singer and Steffire affirm that race was correlated with job values independent of the occupational level of the subject's home, but compatible with the then existing relationship of race and opportunity.
Champagne and King's (1967) study of job satisfaction factors among underprivileged Black and white workers in project STEP (Special Training Program for Economic Progress) supports those of Singer and Steffi re. Given 16 factors in a paired fashion dealing with work motivation, trainees were required to select for each pair the factor which was more important to them. The subgroup analyses based on race indicated that while "duty to do one's best" was first in importance across racial groups, white workers were more concerned with liking the job than Blacks. On the other hand proving that one can do the job was a greater motivating factor for Blacks than for whites. The authors hypothesized that the greater need among Blacks to prove their capability to others may have been precipitated by their desire to disprove generalized societal notions of their racial inferiority.
Several authors have explained differences in job values-particularly those that relate to risk taking-in terms of Maslow's need hierarchy theory (Lieberson and Fugitt, 1967; Lipsman, 1967; Grier, 1963). The dominant motif herein is that lower socioeconomic Black youth respond to the major vocational decision points in their lives according to unsatisfied needs for job security rather than for self-fulfillment.
Slocum and Strawser's (1972) investigation of Black and non-Black certified public accountants lends partial support for many of the assumptions made regarding job values and need satisfaction. The authors report that although self-actualization and compensation need categories were the most important but, nevertheless, the most deficient areas for both Black and non-Black certified public accountants, the Black certified public accountants expressed greater need deficiency than their colleagues in all given categories.
Some 21 years after Singer and Steffire's study, Lieberson and Fugitt (1967) reexamined the issue of race and occupational opportunity, ostensibly to answer the question: Have changing times, or at least the illusion of changing times, had any measurable effect on occupational value differences observed between Black and white people? Using a Markov model to project future Black-white occupational patterns, the authors concluded that even if racial discrimination were eliminated tomorrow in the job market, broad societal processes which operate at the pervasive disadvantage of Black people would not immediately eliminate racial differences in occupations. Blacks would still have a disproportionate high percentage of low status jobs.
If Lieberson and Fugitt's findings are accurate, they would seem to lend support to Singer and Stefflre's earlier observation that race is still associated with job values. That is to say, that the caste-like system in which some Black people live would not only predispose them toward work alienation but would also encourage them to search for positions which meet the lower order need of security rather than the higher order need of self-actualization.
Departing from the approaches of other researchers, Bloom and Barry (1967) used the motivation-hygiene theory to investigate possible differences and/or similarities in work attitudes between Black and white workers occupying blue and white collar positions. Their findings indicate that hygiene factors are more important than motivator variables to Blacks. Beyond this observation, however, the authors concluded that the work motivations of Blacks are too complicated to be explained by their two-factor theory. One possible explanation might lie in the reactions of Black people against jobs wherein a great deal of "dirty work" is involved. As noted, Blacks have been historically located in lower status and menial positions. Therefore, to such individuals, a job which offered them the opportunity to remain "clean" while performing their work would seem to indicate a step up the occupational ladder.
According to the research cited on the Black individual's concept of work, the following profile emerges: The average lower socioeconomic black worker is work alienated, evidences low risk-taking in job preferences, tends to value job security over self-fulfillment and generally responds to major occupational decision points in terms of unsatisfied lower order needs.
Self-concept, Identity Foreclosure and Work
Although educational literature is replete with references concerning the self-concept of Black people (Ausubel and Ausubel, 1963; Clark, 1967; Grambs, 1965; McGrew, 1971), few authors have systematically explored the possible relationships between the self-concepts of Black people and their outlooks on work. The same may be said for their job values and self-concepts. Some crucial questions are: Are there significant differences in job values and concepts of working according to their individual self-perceptions? Do Black people who tend to have positive self-images also tend to have more positive outlooks on work than those who do not? Do their job values change as their self-images become more positively or negatively oriented?
Throughout vocational literature theorists have generally assumed that Black youth have low self-esteem and consequently negative concepts of work. Researchers have tended to operate on the premise that if they can change the self-concepts of Black youth, they can simultaneously modify their outlooks on work and job values. The work of Leonard and Petrofesa (1969) and Youst (1967) illustrate this approach. In both instances, the authors used a variety of methods ranging from the provision of cameras for children to take pictures of people in the world of work to deliberate curricula intervention techniques to assist the disadvantaged child in his development of a more positive picture of himself and his life chances in the occupational structure.
Along these lines, Hefland (1967) maintains that peer group support is an effective way of boosting the self-confidence of minority youth seeking employment. Relating his experiences with socially rejected youth in the Mobilization for Youth Program, Hefland asserts that group sharing of common employment problems helps such individuals to gain psychological support in their occupational endeavors. The problem, as Hefland conceptualizes it, is not so much one of disadvantaged youth not wanting to work but rather that they lack self-confidence in themselves. Hefland submits that group support for those experiencing employment difficulties makes it easier for minority youth to face their own limitations without losing status among their peers or feeling greater destructive erosion of their self-concept. The group affords a kind of dress rehearsal to help overcome employment shock.
Hauser's (1971) research on identity formation and foreclosure in the vocational development of adolescents is a landmark in the field. Using Erickson's conceptual model of identity formation, Hauser employed a combination of personal interviews and data gathered from a number of Q sorts to examine the vocational development of 14-to 16-year-old lower socioeconomic Black and white adolescents.
According to Hauser, the Q sort findings for Black adolescents indicated little structural integration of their ego or self-image. Quite the contrary, their structural integration over a 4-year period was static. In comparison, the intra-year averages of the structural integration of white youth rose steadily, so much so that there was a progressive structural integration at three different intervals.
In addition, Hauser reports that whereas the self-images of Black males were relatively fixed, whites demonstrated greater flexibility in their self-image content during the taped interviews. Black males also experienced a significantly higher degree of identity foreclosure-that is, they evidenced a rigid closing out of vocational possibilities, primarily on the basis of their fixed sense of self and direction.
Although work was a dominant theme of both groups, Black and white males also contrasted in the content of their work themes during taped interviews. Whereas Blacks talked about their current employment frustrations, their repeated disappointments and degradations, their failure to secure satisfactory work, and the absence of abundant work heroes, the discussions of whites centered around their own free will, the probability of living up to their ideal, the plethora of men and boys to emulate for their future occupational plans, favorable work experiences and promotions, and the general idea that many work opportunities were available to them after high school graduation.
In short, the socio-cultural predicaments of Black males were potent factors not only in the formation of a rigid, negative self-identity but also in the sense of identity foreclosure. Translated into occupational terms, minority adolescents stopped far short of the white youth in their exploration of their own personal and vocational identity. While white youth saw themselves in the process of developing a personal and occupational identity, Black youth saw themselves as defeated before they even started. Hence, according to Hauser, the primary differentiating factor between Black and white youths' vocational development is a matter of reinforcement of a positive self-identity and continual integration rather than foreclosure of that identity.
Studies have indicated that racism and its deleterious effects should be taken into consideration when analyzing the minority person's career development. Limitations of job opportunities not only tend to perpetuate the "like father like son" syndrome, but also lead toward alienation and a low self-concept. Hence, for the Black youth and the adult, two conditions may exist: (1) a global, impersonal societally imposed negative image of himself; and (2) the feeling that he has little control to affect his self-image by way of his occupational decisions.
Two things seem quite evident in the majority of the studies cited. First, in considering the black individual's concept of work, work values, or vocational self-concepts, one must understand the importance of his cultural and racial background. Secondly, one must be aware that the majority of the research cited pertains to mainly the lower socioeconomic Black and not to those who are members of the middle class. In short, there are serious questions as to the generalizability of many of the findings to other Black populations.
