EMPLOYEE ATTACHMENT AND NONCOERCIVE CONDITIONS OF WORK - THE CASE OF DENTAL HYGIENISTS

Recent sociological arguments have claimed that employee attachment in corporatist organizations is produced. not with direct coercive measu res, but indirectly by employers controlling various structural condit ions of work It is argued that this also occurs in smaller organizatio ns that do not exhibit internal labor markets nor other corporatist or ganization characteristics Specifically, in smaller organizations that are structured more traditionally with the employer deciding work sch edules, pay, distribution of profits, and so on, the features of emplo yee social integration, autonomy/participation, and legitimacy of the authority structure are just as important as they are in the larger co rporatist firms. This claim is generally supported with data on the jo b satisfaction, the organizational commitment, the intent to stay, and the turnover of dental hygienists working in dental offices that are controlled by the employer the dentist. Work group integration and leg itimacy-producing features were found to be especially important. In a ddition, job satisfaction, not organizational commitment (loyalty), wa s the crucial intervening variable in the causal process. These data i ndicate that certain basic conditions of work, such as social integrat ion and legitimacy of the authority structure, are essential for emplo yee attachment to form. The actual work structures that produce these conditions, however, can vary considerably.