THE ATTITUDE OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS TO LABOUR 

Shinyaeva Ol'ga Viktorovna, Doctor of sociological sciences, professor, head of sub-department of political sciences, sociology and public relations, Ulyanovsk State Technical University (32 Severny Venets street, Ulyanovsk, Russia), olses@rambler.ru
Artem'eva Tat'yana Vladimirovna, Postgraduate student, Ulyanovsk State Technical University (32 Severny Venets street, Ulyanovsk, Russia), tati.art2011@gmail.com

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Background. The changes taking place in socio-economic structure of modern Russia associated with the redistribution of property, formation of market relations, changing production technologies are reflected in the attitude of all social groups to work, but it is a matter of primary concern with industrial workers. The marked tendencies of destruction of primary vocational education, reducing the number of stable enterprises led to the marginalization of industrial workers and expansion of the social boundaries of the working class at the expense of unskilled employees. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a typological analysis of industrial workers’ labour values, establishing promising types for modern enterprises.
Materials and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of our analysis is the theory of attitude towards labour by A. G. Zdravomyslov and V. A. Yadov, factor model of industrial workers’ attitude towards labour by A. L. Temnitsky. The empirical analysis is based on the sociological study of industrial enterprises of the
Volga region – automotive, aircraft, instrument engineering, building industry, light industry. The total volume of the quota sampling by the workers’ age and education is 1050 people. The data provided by the Federal State Statistics Service and the results of monitoring by the RAS Institute of Sociology have also been analyzed.
Results. The share of industrial workers having full- or partially paid treatment in medical institutions is declining; the employer’s failure to pay for a vacation or sick leave is observed. Under these circumstances, the hierarchy of industrial workers’ values is as follows: financial incentives take the dominant position, the second place belongs to the value of “moral incentives”, the third place is shared by “labour product” and “labour content”. The last value was named by every third worker only. There are no significant differences in the structure of motivation among workers employed in enterprises of different types (public, joint stock companies, private ones).
Conclusions. The character of the typological groups signifies workers’ acceptance of different labour values; the type which is only interested in the material motive constitutes only a seventh part of industrial workers. The most promising worker types under the post-industrial enterprise modernization are the ones responsible for labour results and the stability of the company, those having both material and moral satisfaction. Together they make up half of the workers employed in the industrial sphere. Further strengthening of the promising types of attitude towards labour is connected not only with enterprise modernization, but also with the development of the industrial democracy, corporate channels of expressing opinions in the company.

workers’ labour values, typology of workers’ attitude towards labour

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