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Occupational locking‐in: some correlates and consequences 1
Author(s) -
Wolpin Jacob,
Burke Ronald J
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-0597.1986.tb00932.x
Subject(s) - feeling , phenomenon , social psychology , psychology , position (finance) , business , finance , physics , quantum mechanics
Kay (1975) identified several factors associated with increasing discontent in middle management ranks. One of these was a ‘boxed‐in feeling’, which refers to the ongoing feeling when individuals had almost no opportunity to move from their present jobs or when the only position for which they were qualified was the one they currently held. Quinn (1975) used ‘locking‐in’ to refer to the same phenomenon. Quinn distinguished three components of locking‐in: (1) low probability of securing another job as good or better than his present one; (2) little opportunity to modify a presently disliked employment situation by securing a change in job assignments; and (3) low likelihood that a worker who was dissatisfied with his job could take psychological refuge in the performance of other roles not linked to his job.