Attitude correlations may only hold within organizational joiners

Evidence

Various factors probably persuaded Mannesmann, or encouraged them to believe, that better management training and so on would be enough to improve further an already good working atmosphere and so promote industrial peace and increasing productivity, which in turn would give employees an increased sense of job security. Among the factors in the report encouraging such a view were the details of workers’ attitudes it provided; the way it repeatedly emphasized that the study was restricted to subjective reactions, and did not give any consideration to objective facts; and the overall results, the most striking characteristics of which included: overall satisfaction with the situation as it was; no evidence of any particular interest in the works council, which many saw as being too remote; almost no interest at all in having workers’ representatives on distant boards of directors and executive boards; and wishes which, so far as the company was concerned, concentrated mainly on matters that were obvious and personal. There was no doubt that the study was seen by Mannesmann in exactly this way. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 511 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Organizational self-reports of membership counts can be administratively frozen — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1905; Group category salience during contact enables attitude generalization to the outgroup — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1810; Intergroup contact’s usefulness depends on attitude change generalizing beyond the immediate situation. — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup…, 51 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Surveying only subjective attitudes let management read worker contentment into conflict-prone factories. #complicates (0.74) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 511