Date of Award

1976

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Sociology

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

First Advisor

Michael Bassis

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between school climate and career commitment among recruits to the merchant marine. In a crossnational sample of academies in England, Spain and the United States, commitment to a maritime career is found to be associated with the school climate in which training takes place. Specifically, recruits being trained in a climate of high structural rigidity are more likely than recruits being trained in less rigid environments to have made a career decision and to have made that decision in favor of a short career at sea.

Furthermore, the above relationship is shown to be contextual in nature. Regardless of their personal perceptions of the climate of their school, recruits in structurally rigid academies express less commitment to a maritime career. This finding is interpreted as a result of the normative order in a structurally rigid environment discouraging the formation of an occupational identity and encouraging an instrumental orientation to a maritime career.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.