Citation

Afonja SA. J. Occup. Accid. 1979; 2(3): 209-226.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The work behaviour of coloured immigrant workers in Britain was examined, using an objective index -- industrial accidents. The theoretically important results were the falling and rising weekly distributions, the interaction of which was assumed to show the complementary nature of intrinsic and extrinsic work alienation. This is the interaction of the propensity to withdraw from work at the risk of a loss of earnings and of the job, and of the need to stay as a result of the instrumentalism of the worker in spite of the severe estrangement and deprivations of industry. Performance and alienation were determined by analysing all reportable accidents for white and coloured workers in five British Inspectorate districts, differentiating between minor and serious accidents. It was suggested that the steeper trends of both distributions for coloured workers were indicative of poorer performance and more alienation. The predominance of intrinsic alienation for the coloured workers in three districts suggests that the current assumption of coloured worker instrumentalism is probably over-emphasized. In two districts, white workers were more intrinsically alienated than coloured workers and the latter showed more extrinsic than intrinsic alienation. It was suggested that coloured workers' alienation reflects conflict rather than equilibrium in the process of absorption and the differences between areas are due to socio-economic differences between the coloured workers living in the areas.