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Abstract

This dissertation illustrates the attitudes of employees to work by pinpointing threedifferent phenomena. Two of these are related to the bond between a person and a worksituation, i.e. what is important as far as a person's readiness to commence or terminate aposition of employment is concerned. The third phenomenon deals with what people feel isimportant as regards satisfaction with their work situation, and this may also be an importantfactor in wanting to commence or terminate a position of employment. This dissertation studiesthe way in which the above mentioned phenomena are affected by a number of backgroundvariables on the one hand, and the way a person views his or her own work situation on theother. The basis is a survey which covers several places of work within the industry, healthtreatment and care, and public administration sectors. One of the central issues in this dissertation is whether people have an instrumental attitudeto work, i.e. if work is regarded mainly as a source of income. The results indicate that aninstrumental attitude is most common among certain categories of blue-collar workers. Thisapplies principally to unqualified, older and less well-educated male blue-collar workerswithin the industrial sector. An instrumental attitude is less common, on the other hand, notonly among white-collar workers but also among women working in the public sector, youngermale industrial workers without children and male industrial workers with a slightly higherlevel of education. At the same time, it should be pointed out that the factor that is usually considered one ofthe most important indicators of an instrumental attitude - the pay - stands out as animportant factor in many of the categories in the survey. Not only does this apply toblue-collar workers but also to white-collar workers, and then chiefly to male white-collarworkers. One explanation for this is that instrumental activities are essential for employmentactivities in a society such as ours. Keywords: Attitudes to work, job satisfaction, job mobility, working conditions, workenvironment, attachment to work.