Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:42:07.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Workplace Attachment and Meaning of Work in a French Secondary School

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2013

Liliane Rioux  and
Anne Pignault
Liliane Rioux*
Affiliation:
Paris Ouest Nanterre-La Défense University (France)
Anne Pignault
Affiliation:
Paris Ouest Nanterre-La Défense University (France)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Liliane Rioux, Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre-La Défense. ProTAPE, EA 4431. Département de Psychologie. 200, avenue de la République 92001. Nanterre (France). E-mail: rioux@wanadoo.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This research aims to gain a better understanding of the attachment of teachers to their workplace by identifying the areas to which they become attached and which give meaning to their work. Based on the belief that place attachment is an affective bond between a person and his or her environment (Bonnes & Secchiaroli, 1995), its aim is to identify the attachment of secondary school teachers to their workplace, which is viewed as a whole but also as a combination of specific places, and to show that the places that predict overall workplace attachment are also those that give meaning to work. A Workplace Attachment Scale was completed by 158 teachers in a secondary school in the Paris region (France). This questionnaire contained items evaluating attachment to each specific place of work and others adapted from the meaning-of-work scale evaluating the meaning given to each of these places. The results show that all the teachers were more closely attached to places that provide opportunities for informal communication than to those directly related to teaching. The main workplace attachment predictors also concern places constituting the essence of the profession and/or places where teachers can manage their organizational stress.

Keywords

place attachmentworkplacemeaning of workenvironmental psychology
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 16 , 2013 , E23
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altman, I., & Low, S. M. (1992). Place attachment. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Audebrand, L., & Morin, E. M. (2003, May). The relationship between meaning of work and organizational commitment. Identity and diversity in organizations. Paper presented at the XIth European Congress on Work and Organizational Psychology, Lisboa, Portugal.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M-S., Blehar, M-C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment. A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Altman, I., & Ginat, J. (1992). Place attachment: How many meanings? In Mazis, A., & Karaletsou, C. (Eds.), Socioenvironmental metamorphoses: Builtscape, landscape, ethnoscape, euroscape. (pp. 125–131). Thessaloniki, Greece: Aristotle University of Thessalonikia.Google Scholar
Beggs, J. J., Hurlbert, J. S., & Haines, V. A. (1996). Community attachment in a rural setting: A refinement and empirical test of the systemic model. Rural Sociology, 61, 407–426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1996.tb00626.x Google Scholar
Bonaiuto, M., Fornara, F., & Bonnes, M. (2006). Perception de la qualité résidentielle dans les villes italiennes de moyenne et petite étendues [Perceived residential environment quality in middle- and low-extension Italian cities]. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée, 56, 23–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2005.02.011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnes, M., & Secchiaroli, G. (1995). Environmental psychology. A psychological introduction. London, UK: Sage.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss. Attachment (Vol. 1). London, UK: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss. Separation: Anxiety and anger (Vol. 2). London, UK: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss. Loss: Sadness and depression (Vol. 3). London, UK: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-analysis.Google Scholar
Brown, B., & Perkins, D. (1992). Disruptions in place attachment. Human Behavior & Environment: Advances in Theory & Research, 12, 279–304.Google Scholar
Brown, G., & Raymond, C. (2007). The relationship between place attachment and landscape values: Toward mapping place attachment. Applied Geography, 27, 89–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2006.11.002 Google Scholar
Canter, D. (1977). The psychology of place. London, UK: Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Canter, D. (1986). Putting situations in their place: Foundations for a bridge between social and environmental psychology. In Furnham, A. (Ed.), Social behaviour in context (pp. 208–239). London, UK: Allyon and Bacon.Google Scholar
Carp, F. (1987). Environment and aging . In Stokols, D. & Altman, I. (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 329–360). New-York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Carp, F., & Carp, A. (1982). Perceived environmental quality of neighborhoods: Development of assessment scales and their relation to age and gender. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2, 295–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(82)80029-7 Google Scholar
Deasy, C. M., & Lasswell, T. E. (1985). Designing places for people: A handbook on human behavior for architects, designers, and facility managers. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications.Google Scholar
Devine-Wright, P. (2011). Place attachment and public acceptance of renewable energy: A tidal energy case study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31, 336–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.07.001 Google Scholar
Dubet, F. (2004). L’école des chances. Qu’est-ce qu’une école juste? [School opportunities. What is a fair school?] Paris, France: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Fried, M., & Gleisher, P. (1976). Some sources of residential satisfaction in an urban slum. In Proshansky, H. M., Ittelson, W. H., & Rivlin, L. G. (Eds.), People and their physical settings (pp. 550–563). New-York, NY: Rinehart & Winstin.Google Scholar
Fullilove, M. T. (1996). Psychiatric implications of displacement: Contributions from the psychology of place. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 1516–1523.Google Scholar
Gerson, K., Stueve, C. A., & Fischer, C. S. (1977). Attachment to places. In Fischer, C. S., Jackson, R. M., Stueve, C. A., Gerson, K., Jones, L., & Baldassare, M. (Eds.), Networks and Places (pp. 139–161). New-York, NY: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Giuliani, M. V. (1991). Toward an analysis of mental representations of attachment to the home. The Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 8, 133–146.Google Scholar
Giuliani, M. V. (2003). Theory of attachment and place attachment. In Bonnes, M., Lee, T., & Bonaiuto, M. (Eds.), Psychological theories for environmental issues (pp. 137–172). London, NY: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Giuliani, M. V., & Feldman, R. (1993). Place attachment in developmental and cultural context. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 13, 267–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(05)80179-3 Google Scholar
Giuliani, M. V., Ferrara, F., & Barabotti, S. (2003). One attachment or more? In Moser, G., Pol, E., Bernard, Y., Bonnes, M., Corraliza, J., & Giuliani, M. V. (Eds.), People, places, and sustainability: 21st Century metropolis (pp. 111–122). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.Google Scholar
Goudy, W. J. (1990). Community attachment in rural region. Rural Sociology, 55, 178–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1990.tb00679.x Google Scholar
Hammitt, W. E., Backlund, E. A., & Bixler, R. D. (2006). Place bonding for recreation places: Conceptual and empirical development. Leisure Studies, 25, 17–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02614360500098100 Google Scholar
Hidalgo, M. C., & Hernandez, B. (2001). Place attachment: Conceptual and empirical questions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 273–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jevp.2001.0221 Google Scholar
Hubiak, W., & Banning, J. H. (1994). The implication of place attachment for campus workplaces. The Campus Ecologist, 12(3), 1–4.Google Scholar
Hummon, D. M. (1992). Community attachment, local sentiment, and sense of place. In Altman, I. & Low, S. M. (Eds.), Place attachment, human behavior, and environment: Advances in theory and research (Vol. 12, pp. 253–278). New-York, NY: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, A. (1975). The loss of community: An empirical test through replication. American Sociological Review, 40, 537–552. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094194 Google Scholar
Inalhan, G. (2006). The role of place attachment on employees’ resistance to change in workplace accommodation projects. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Reading, England.Google Scholar
Inalhan, G., & Finch, E. (2004). Place attachment and sense of belonging. Facilities, 22, 120–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02632770410540333 Google Scholar
Isaksen, J. (2000). Constructing meaning despite the drudgery of repetitive work. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 40, 84–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022167800403008 Google Scholar
Jorgensen, B. S., & Stedman, R. C. (2001). Sense of place as an attitude: Lakeshore owners’ attitudes towards their properties. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 233–248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jevp.2001.0226 Google Scholar
Kasarda, J., & Janowitz, M. (1974). Community attachment in mass society. American Sociological Review, 39, 328–339. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094293 Google Scholar
Knez, I. (2005). Attachment and identity as related to a place and its perceived climate. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 207–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2005.03.003 Google Scholar
Kyle, G. T., Graefe, A. R., & Manning, R. E. (2005). Testing the dimensionality of place attachment in recreation setting. Environment and Behavior, 37, 153–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916504269654 Google Scholar
Lalli, M. (1992). Urban-related identity: Theory, measurement, and empirical findings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 12, 285–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(05)80078-7 Google Scholar
Lang, V. (2006). La construcción social de las identidades profesionales de los docentes en Francia. Enfoques históricos y sociológicos [The social construction of the professional identity of teachers in France. A historical and sociological approach]. In Tenti Fanfani, E. (Ed.), El oficio de docente. Vocación, trabajo y profesión en el siglo XXI. [The teaching profession. Vocation, work and profession in the 21st Century] (pp. 71–118). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
Lewicka, M. (2005). Ways to make people active: Role of place attachment, cultural capital and neighborhood ties. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 381–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2005.10.004 Google Scholar
Lewicka, M. (2008). Place attachment, place identity, and place memory: Restoring the forgotten city past. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28, 209–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.02.001 Google Scholar
Lewicka, M. (2011). On the varieties of people’s relationships with places: Hummon’s typology revisited. Environment and Behavior, 43, 676–709. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916510364917 Google Scholar
Low, S. M., & Altman, I. (1992). Place attachment: A conceptual inquiry. In Altman, I. & Low, S. M. (Eds.), Place attachment (pp. 1–12). New-York, NY: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
May, D. R., Gilson, R. L., & Harter, L. M. (2004). The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 11–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 Google Scholar
McAndrew, F. T. (1998). The measurement of ‘rootedness’ and the prediction of attachment to home-towns in college students. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18, 409–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jevp.1998.0078 Google Scholar
Mesch, G. S., & Manor, O. (1998). Social ties, environmental perception, and local attachment. Environment and Behavior, 30, 504–519. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001391659803000405 Google Scholar
Milligan, M. (1998). Interactional past and potential. Symbolic Interaction, 21, 1–33. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.1998.21.1.1 Google Scholar
Milligan, M. (2003a). Loss of site: Organizational site moves as organizational deaths. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 23, 115–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443330310790615 Google Scholar
Milligan, M. (2003b). Displacement and identity discontinuity: The role of nostalgia in establishing new identity categories. Symbolic Interaction, 26, 381–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/si.2003.26.3.381 Google Scholar
Morgan, P. (2010). Towards a developmental theory of place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 11–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.07.001 Google Scholar
Morin, E. M. (1997). Le sens du travail pour des gestionnaires francophones [The meaning of work for French managers]. Revue Psychologie du travail et des organisations, 3(2-3), 26–45.Google Scholar
Morin, E. (2003). Sens du travail. Définition, mesure et validation [Meaning of work. Definition, measures and validation]. In Vandenberghe, C., Delobbe, N., & Karnas, G. (Eds.), Dimensions individuelles et sociales de l’investissement professionnel [Individual and social dimensions of job commitment] (Vol. 2, pp. 11–20), Louvain la Neuve, Belgium: UCL Presses universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Morin, E., & Cherré, B. (2004). Réorganiser le travail et lui donner un sens [Reorganizing and giving meaning to work]. In Lancry, A. & C. Lemoine, (Eds.), La personne et ses rapports au travail [Workers and job relationships] (pp. 87–101). Paris, France: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Morval, J. (2007). La psychologie environnementale [Environmental psychology] . Montreal, Canada: Montreal University Press.Google Scholar
Moser, G., & Weiss, K. (2003). Espaces de vie. Aspects de la relation homme-environnement. [Living spaces. Aspects of the people-environment relationship] . Paris, France: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Pratt, M. G., & Ashforth, B. E. (2003). Fostering meaningfulness in working and at work. In Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E., & Quinn, R. E., (Eds.), Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 309–327). San Francisco, CA: Berret-Koehler.Google Scholar
Proshansky, H. M., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place identity: Physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3, 57–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(83)80021-8 Google Scholar
Riger, S., & Lavrakas, P. J. (1981). Community ties: Attachment and social interaction in urban neighborhoods. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 55–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00896360 Google Scholar
Rioux, L. (2005). L’attachement au lieu de travail. Etude dans une administration française [Attachment to the workplace. A study in a French public services department.] [CD-Rom]. In Battistelli, A., Depolo, M., & Fraccaroli, F. (Eds.), La qualité de la vie au travail dans les années 2000 [The quality of work life in the 2000s] . Bologna, Italy: CLUEB.Google Scholar
Rioux, L. (2006). Construction d’une échelle d’attachement au lieu de travail. Une démarche exploratoire [Construction of a workplace attachment scale. An exploratory study]. Canadian Journal of Behaviour Science, 38, 325–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cjbs2006018 Google Scholar
Rioux, L. (2007a, August). Attachement au lieu de travail et demande de mutation professionnelle dans l’Education Nationale [Workplace attachment and application for transfer by State Education personnel]. Paper presented at the 8th International Congress of Applied Social Psychology (CIPSA), Besançon: France.Google Scholar
Rioux, L. (2007b). Quelques prédicteurs de l’attachement aux lieux de travail. Etude auprès des agents hospitaliers [Some predictors of workplace attachment. A study carried out among hospital staff]. In Avram, E. (Ed.), Psihologie organizational-manageriala [Managerial and organizational psychology] (pp. 48–61). Bucarest, Romania: Editura Universitara.Google Scholar
Rioux, L., & Mokounkolo, R. (2005). Attachement au quartier et adolescence. Etude comparative dans deux banlieues à forte diversité culturelle [Neighbourhood attachment and adolescence. A comparative study carried out in two neighbourhoods presenting wide cultural diversity.]. Bulletin de Psychologie, 57, 611–620.Google Scholar
Rioux, L., & Pignault, A. (in press). Impact du sens du travail sur l’attachement des enseignants à leurs lieux de travail [Impact of the meaning of work on teachers’ workplace attachment] In Gangloff, B. (Ed.), Le travail dans tous ses états [Work in all its forms] . Paris, France: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Rivlin, L.G. (1982). Group membership and place meanings in an urban neighborhood. Journal of Social Issues, 38, 75–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1982.tb01771.x Google Scholar
Rollero, C., & De Piccoli, N. (2010). Place attachment, identification and environment perception: An empirical study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 198–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.12.003 Google Scholar
Roussel, P. (1996). Rémunération, motivation et satisfaction au travail [Pay, motivation and job satisfaction] . Paris, France: Economica.Google Scholar
Sampson, R. J. (1988). Local friendship ties and community attachment in mass society: A multilevel systemic model, American Sociological Review, 53, 766–779. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2095822 Google Scholar
Scannell, L., & Gifford, R. (2010). Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.09.006 Google Scholar
Shumaker, S., & Taylor, R. (1983). Toward a clarification of people-place relationships: A model of attachment to place. In Feimer, N. & Geller, S. (Eds.), Environmental Psychology. Directions and Perspectives (pp. 219–251) New-York, NY: Praeger.Google Scholar
Sixsmith, J. (1986). The meaning of home: An exploratory study of environmental experience. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 6, 281–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(86)80002-0 Google Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2003). Sense of place and forest science: Toward a program of quantitative research. Forest Science, 49, 822–829.Google Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2006). Understanding place attachment among second home owners. The American Behavioral Scientist, 50, 187–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764206290633 Google Scholar
Stokols, D., & Shumaker, S. A. (1981). People in places: A transactional view of settings. In Harvey, J. H. (Ed.), Cognition, social behavior and the environment (pp. 441–488). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Stokols, D., Shumaker, S. A., & Martinez, J. (1983). Residential mobility and personal well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3, 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(83)80018-8 Google Scholar
Tenti Fanfani, E. (1999). Una escuela para los adolescentes [A school for adolescents] . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Losada.Google Scholar
Tenti Fanfani, E. (2005). La condición docente. Datos para el análisis comparado. Argentina, Brasil, Perú y Uruguay. [The status of teachers. Data for comparative analysis. Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay] . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
Tenti Fanfani, E. (2007). La escuela y la cuestión social. Ensayos de sociología de la educación. [School and the social question. Essay in educational sociology] . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
Weiss, D. J., Dawis, R. V., England, G. G. W., & Lofquist, L. H. (1977). Manual for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. University of Minnesota, MN: Industrial relations center.Google Scholar
Windsong, E. A. (2010). There is no place like home: Complexities in exploring home and place attachment. The Social Science Journal, 47, 205–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2009.06.009 Google Scholar