Workers' Bureaucratic Predispositions and Job Requirements / Amitai Etzioni and Others.

To develop and validate two devices to measure individuals' tolerance for structure and the degree of structure in job requirements as well as to measure the correlates of tolerance for structure and job-personality congruence, 2,500 persons in varied occupational capacities were administered the Tolerance for Bureaucratic Structure (TBS) Instrument and Job Description Questionnaire (JDQ). Findings seem to suggest that people have some set preferences in terms of their work, which are not easily changed once they reach maturity. It would follow from the study that all main categories of jobs should be characterized from the viewpoint of the level of bureaucratization (or tightness) they presently require and that persons seeking jobs or transfers be given the opportunities to test themselves or be tested by the TBS scale with their score interpreted to them. Further, people should be advised to seek jobs which are compatible with their predispositions or at least to avoid those in which they are likely to be uncomfortable. (Author/SN)

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