23
The Economic Order
MorganC.Brownn/an/an/an/a
The Status of Jobs and Occupations as Evaluated
by an Urban Negro Sample1
This paper is a brief report of a study dealing with the status of jobs
and occupations as evaluated by Negroes of Columbus, Ohio. The author
attempted to make a small-scale test of the hypothesis that Negro
evaluation of jobs and occupations differs significantly from that of white
Americans as reflected in the North-Hart job-scale of the mid-1940’s.2
The latter scale includes ninety different jobs
of varying occupational levels as evaluated by a nation-wide cross-section
of the adult white U. S. population. North and Hart discovered that white
respondents gave the highest status rating to the U. S. Supreme Court
Justice. Physician and State Governor tied for second place, with Cabinet
Member in the Federal Government, Diplomat in the U. S. Foreign Service,
and Mayor of a Large City occupying the next highest positions, in
descending order. Respondents gave the lowest prestige or
status ratings to the jobs of Bartender, Janitor, Garbage Collector, Street-sweeper, and Shoe shiner.
Since the North-Hatt study, new considerations have arisen with respect
to how Negroes might have rated the occupations, or how the total list of
jobs might have appeared in scalar order had Negro persons been included in
the study sample. Interest in the evaluations by Negroes may have had its
genesis partly in the finding that characteristic attitudes and values
derive from the social and cultural setting, and that, due to conditions
which differentiate the white and Negro populations sociologically, Negroes
tend at times to respond to social and economic factors quite unlike the
larger population. Among the purposes of the present study, therefore, were
the following: (1) to discover the evaluation of a list of jobs and
occupations by Negro respondents; (2) to determine how the obtained
evaluation compared with that of white Americans during 1947 as reflected
in the nation-wide North-Hatt study,3 and (3) to
attempt to arrive at some attributes of job prestige and, thereby, obtain
total measurements of values (jobs) through the technique of measuring
specific identifiable components.
METHOD
A list of 129 jobs and occupations was obtained by interviewing adult
Negroes who lived in various sections of the city of Columbus, Ohio and who
were thought to be representative of all socio-economic categories.4
These jobs were ranked by a sample of thirty
Negroes from various socio-economic backgrounds by the use of the 5-point
alternate response scale used by North and Hatt.5
When the obtained rankings of sixty-five of the
jobs were correlated with the rankings which these same sixty-five
occupations received in the North-Hatt study, a +.92 rho resulted. Ten
jobs from each extreme of the obtained continuum of occupations were then
listed on 3″ by 5″ cards, labelled Card A and Card B, and respondents were
asked, randomly, to state factors which they thought differentiated one set
of jobs as a whole from the other, the assumption being, of course, that
the two sets of jobs were of dissimilar status levels. The procedure was
continued until, instead of new suggestions, the responses tended to
represent mere extensions of previously obtained information. This latter
technique was an attempt to "get behind" the prestige rankings in order to
obtain some knowledge with respect to the configuration of factors or
"inner qualities" assessed by persons as having relationship to the status
rankings. It was noted, accordingly, that respondents designated the
"better jobs" as those which appeared at the upper extreme of the
aforementioned job continuum, and which were listed
on Card A. Respondents characterized the jobs listed on Card A as
follows:
1. The jobs were greatly necessary for the public welfare.
2. Persons within the community who performed the jobs were accorded more
than usual respect.
3. The jobs were clean.
4. Extensive education or training was required for entry
into the jobs.
5. In terms of talent or skill, persons who could perform
the jobs were rare.
6. Good salaries were earned.
7. The jobs afforded considerable leisure time for recreation
and/or vacations.
8. Persons performing the jobs were accepted as authorities in the
community.
9. The occupations had high standings which could be traced back
into history.
10. Great muscular effort or physical exertion was not
required when performing the jobs.
11. The jobs had a religious-moral-altruistic tradition in
connection with the social life of the people.
No respondent, singly, suggested all of the eleven a priori
items; rather, the above dimensions or "inner qualities" were thought to be
especially associated with high-status jobs by a cross-section of the adult
Negro population of Columbus, which included housewives, laborers, business
and professional persons, college students, "men on the street," and
others, each of whom jotted down his or her viewpoints on sheets of paper
which were supplied for this purpose. The total viewpoints were broken down
by a panel of three sociologists and classified under thirteen relatively
distinct headings. Two of the categories—"Job permanence" and "Relative
absence of physical danger in connection with job performance"—were later
discarded because items pertaining to these categories had been suggested
by too few respondents.6
Although the above items or dimensions were recognized as not mutually
exclusive, a 5-point arbitrary response scale was devised to measure the
degree to which a final study sample of 200 respondents would feel that the
specific attribute denoted in each statement is associated with each job.…
Standardization of the Instrument. With respect to validity, high
and low scores of selected occupations, after use of the instrument, tended
to conform to the generalized evaluations of persons who were interviewed
during the early stages of the investigation, and with common-sense
judgments. At the same time, the instrument threw statistical light upon
the problem at hand.
Concerning reliability, the instrument was tested by having the thirty
original judges re-rate each job in terms of the eleven dimensions, a
Pearsonian r of +.83 resulting. A retest four weeks later among the
same thirty judges yielded a Pearso-nian r of +.89. When the scores
obtained in the latter operation were correlated with the verbal scores
which the jobs originally had received, a Pearsonian r of +.81
obtained. A version of the split-half technique—separately computing the
rankings of males and females, and correlating these with each
ether—yielded a rho of +.91.
The Sample. In this investigation the study sample consisted of
200 persons who were obtained by random selection from the universe of
46,000 Negro residents of Columbus. The sample was based in part upon data
obtained through study of the Seventeenth Census of the United States.
Examination of census figures pertaining to characteristics of the Negro
population of Columbus with special reference to the local housing of
Negroes, number of persons per dwelling unit, sex ratio, and related data,
revealed that a representative study sample could be secured through field
visits to every seventh house in each of the four predominantly Negro
districts of the city. In pursuing this plan, provisions were made for
inclusion in the sample of "secondary families"—those living in the
households of other people. In the place
of thirteen persons who were never found at home, substitutions were made from
the specific streets or neighborhoods concerned. The factors of sex, approximate
age, home ownership, occupation, and type or worth of house lived in, were held
constant in the substitution process. Chi-square tests revealed that the obtained
sample did not differ significantly from the non-white universe in terms of sex,
age, educational, and occupational characteristics.
Although the original study dealt with a comparison of the status scores
of sixty-five jobs, Table 1 presents the scores of only forty-five of the
more representative jobs and occupations as evaluated by the study sample
of 200 respondents.
FINDINGS
Table 1 discloses that many of the North-Hatt mean scores which pertain
to the jobs under comparison are similar to the mean scores in this study.
The combined mean score for the total sixty-five jobs as rated by the
nation-wide sample of whites was 72.16, with a standard deviation of 15.66.
The combined mean score for the sixty-five jobs, as rated by the 200 Negro
respondents of Columbus, Ohio, was 71.60, with a standard deviation of
14.74. The critical ratio for the difference between the two combined mean
scores was .52 (insignificant), while the Pearsonian correlation between
the two columns of mean scores was found to be +.94, with standard
error of +.01.
Notwithstanding the general conformity in ratings between the two
samples, there were eleven instances (italicized in Table 1) in which the
rating of a job by the Negro respondents was five or more points lower than
the rating by the North-Hatt sample. Among jobs having great variation in
mean score are those of Farm Tenant and Farm Owner. These deviations by
Negro respondents from the nation-wide ratings may be interpreted as
responses related to the life experiences of the population under study,
and as expressive of tendencies implicit in the established social
relations. Personal background data pertaining to the sample revealed that
55 per cent were born, and partly reared, in southern United States. It is
probable that some of these persons, when rating the above jobs, may have
associated farm tenancy with inequitable landlord-tenant relations, based
in poverty and exploitation—a phenomenon with which some respondents from
southern areas were familiar. As a matter of fact, subsequent interviews
revealed that some respondents, when commenting upon the status and role of
the Farm Tenant, made frequent reference to "unfair crop share," "poor
schools," and "lack of … [technical] … devices"—characteristic
land-tenure conditions associated with the farm tenancy of the southern
region in past decades. It is likely, furthermore, that relative cultural
isolation and the unequal competition encountered by rural Negroes for
productive farm lands may have been associated, in similar manner, with the
related job of Farm Owner. Irrespective of whether these aforementioned
phenomena are real or fancied in the South today, such background
experiences on the part of a responding population would be expected to be
reflected objectively in the job ratings.
With respect to other italicized jobs in Table 1, data of U. S. Bureau
of the Census reveal that Negro workers are greatly underrepresented in
each of them. The latter suggests that the discrepancy in the ratings of
many of these remaining jobs may have resulted to some extent from relative
unfamiliarity of respondents with the jobs, in addition, of course, to
numerous other factors.
Concerning the ten jobs (capitalized in Table 1) which were rated at
least five points higher by the Negro study sample than by white
respondents in the North-Hatt study, it may be stated that Negro workers
have not as yet had the opportunity
to participate freely in the economic spirit and tradition of urban, competitive,
community life. As a consequence of this differentiation, it sometimes has been
assumed that selected jobs might be assessed more valuable or prestigeful by Negroes
from the standpoint of the status and meaning of these jobs in the restricted
Negro society than when evaluated from a broader perspective. The jobs of School
Teacher, Mortician,
TABLE MEAN SCORES OF FORTY-FIVE JOBS AND OCCUPATIONS
AS EVALUATED BY THE STUDY SAMPLE AND COMPARED WITH NORTH-HATT SCORES, COLUMBUS, OHIO,
1954
TABLE 1—CONTINUED
and Social Worker particularly have been known to represent the "top" jobs at which
Negro persons are employed in many cities. When considered in terms of this study,
the disparities in the mean scores of these jobs suggest a differential evaluation.
Moreover, it should be pointed out that the matter of limited
occupational employment for urban Negroes constitutes a problem-situation
which is observed with rather considerable concern by some social
actionists, and consequent efforts directed toward the expansion of job
opportunities for Negro workers have become social-action goals of numerous
human relations organizations in urban areas. Theoretical students may
obtain some understanding both of the social actionists’ concern with this
phenomenon and of the interrelations of relatively narrow occupational
horizon and aggregate response through observing the status scores of the
capitalized jobs which are found at the lower end of the job continuum in
Table 1. These latter jobs received low mean scores which revealed that
Negro respondents considered them of low status and generally distasteful
in the light of present-day occupational trends; however, the jobs were
evaluated in a slightly less distasteful light, statistically and
comparatively, by the Negro study sample whose respondents had only a
limited number of jobs to choose from, than by the North-Hatt sample which
doubtless had less restricted occupational opportunities.
Many additional inferences may, of course, be drawn from these above
data.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, and by the specific techniques employed, the
hypothesis pertaining to the existence of significant differences in the
evaluations of jobs and occupations by Columbus, Ohio, Negroes from those
held eight years ago by a nation-wide sample of adult white Americans was
not substantiated.
Like the white respondents who rated the jobs in 1947, Negro respondents
in the Columbus study did not evaluate all jobs as being of equal social
status. The mean scores of occupations differed widely, resulting in the
formation of a rank system or continuum of jobs.
Only forty-five of the total sixty-five jobs under comparison were
presented in this report. Negro respondents, however, rated ten of the
sixty-five jobs five or more points higher than did the North-Hatt
respondents, and eleven jobs were rated by them five or more points lower.
An attempt was made to interpret the differential evaluation in the light
both of the prevailing social situation and life experiences of the
populations under comparison.
The present investigation suggests a need for comparative studies among
other population aggregates of varying status levels for purposes of
comparison with present findings.
1 From , 1955, 20:561–566.
By permission.
2 Cecil C. North and Paul K. Hatt, "Jobs and Occupations: A
Popular Evaluation." Opinion News (September 1, 1947), p. 3.
3 It was assumed that although there may have been changes in
the values of white persons with respect to jobs and occupations since
1947, these changes would not be of such magnitude as to render a
comparison useless.
4 The ninety jobs listed in the North-Hatt scale were not
used in this study because there was no assurance that Negroes were
familiar with the North-Hatt jobs. In the selection of jobs for the above
study, preliminary interviews were made with more than 1,000 Negro
residents, each of whom was asked to enumerate as many jobs, irrespective
of status, as he could think of. Listing of a specific jab by five
respondents was arbitrarily taken as indicating that the job was familiar
enough to Negro respondents for inclusion in the total listing of jobs. Of
129 jobs obtained, 65 had been rated in the North-Hatt study.
5 According to the North-Hatt response pattern, a job
evaluated as "Excellent" was assigned an arbitrary weight of 100; "Good,"
80; "Average," 60; "Somewhat below average," 40; and "Poor," 20. "I don’t
know" answers, evaluated as 0, were not included in the computation of mean
scores.
6 "Job permanence" was suggested by only three respondents,
while "Absence of physical danger" was suggested by four respondents. Items
pertaining to each of the other categories were suggested by not less than
fifteen persons.