Occupational Structure of Community General Hospitals: The Harmonic Series Model

Zipf's (1949) generalized harmonic series model of occupational differentiation is tested in 91 community general hospitals. It was not possible to reject this model in the majority of cases and problems of measurement error make it difficult to claim a firm rejection in the remainder. Relation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social forces 1973-06, Vol.51 (4), p.455-462
Main Authors: Mayhew, Bruce H., Rushing, William A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community structure
Division of labor
Harmonic series
Hospital administration
Hospital/Hospitals
Methodology/Methodologies/ Methodological (see also Method)
Model/Modeling/Models
Nurses
Occupation/Occupations/Occupational
Practical nursing
Questionnaires
Reasoning
Registered nurses
State hospitals
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Summary:Zipf's (1949) generalized harmonic series model of occupational differentiation is tested in 91 community general hospitals. It was not possible to reject this model in the majority of cases and problems of measurement error make it difficult to claim a firm rejection in the remainder. Relationships among the generalized harmonic series parameters are essentially the same as those reported by Mayhew et al. (1972) for military organizations. Accordingly, from this model of occupational differentiation, we can deduce one of Blau's (1970) major theoretical propositions on the division of labor. The findings of this study broaden the base of empirical support for Zipf's model and Blau's proposition.
ISSN:0037-7732
1534-7605
DOI:10.1093/sf/51.4.455