A profession in process: the relationship between occupational ideology, occupational position and the role strain, satisfaction and commitment of Protestant and Reformed ministers of religion

• Main Author: Jarvis, Peter
• Published: Aston University 1977
• Subjects: 305; Management studies
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.460733

Unlike many previous studies of the clergy, this research is concerned with occupational ideology rather than theological belief. Occupational ideology, it is claimed, comprises-a combination of the three dimensions of professionalism, semi-professionalism and bureaucratism. Each of these dimensions is sub-divided (high/low) and eight different occupational ideologies are postulated. Seven different segments of ministry are isolated in this study: administrative, parish, specialized, team, priests in orders, auxiliary and extra-ecclesiastical. A random sample was selected from the clergy of the Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches to include ministers from each of these segments. 999 ministers completed a long questionnaire and it is their replies which constitute the data for this analysis. The relationship between occupational position and occupational ideology is examined in this thesis. In order to analyse the pressures that clergy experience, both occupational position and occupational ideology are correlated with role strain, satisfaction with the ministry, commitment to the ministry and commitment to the ecclesiastical organization. Analyses of these data show administrators to be at the heart of the ministry, by whatever yardstick their attitude to their work is assessed, while extraecclesiastical clergy lie at its periphery. In addition, ministers having professional or ritualistic dispositions are shown to experience powerful centrifugal pressures away from the ecclesiastical organization, while those clergy whose ideology is strongly bureaucratic are subject to equally powerful centripetal tendencies. This finding is further confirmed by a separate analysis of potential resignees. The thesis is presented in four sections: theory; methodology; analysis of data; conclusions. In addition to these, there are eight appendices and an extensive bibliography.