Work orientations (Goldthorpe and colleagues)

Work orientations associated with Goldthorpe, Lockwood and colleagues distinguish instrumental, bureaucratic and solidaristic perspectives. Instrumental orientation emphasises work as a means to economic rewards; bureaucratic orientation emphasises service, security and career advancement; solidaristic orientation emphasises identification and social relationships within a work community. These are analytical perspectives, not fixed personalities or categories that can be assigned from occupation alone. They are associated with the Affluent Worker research, not the “Cambridge Social Mobility Study” named in the old dictionary.