Sociology of work

            
            
             ATTAINING EMINENCE AND SATISFACTION IN HIGH PRESSURE OCCUPATIONS.
            
            
             People take their leisure activities very seriously. The importance that people place on their leisure has received large amounts of attention from many noted sociologists. Juliet B. Schor indicates that the average American's leisure time is declining and consequently.
             becoming even more important (1992). Results of a study on the lack of leisure time back these findings "The average American has lost 2 hours of leisure time a day- (Robinson and Converse 1972:79). These factors have stimulated the significance of the entertainment industry in America. The exposition of this paper is concerned with the members of two occupations, professional athletic coach and professional musician, considered to be within the social entertainment industry. The productions of these occupations facilitate their own social institutions and provide leisure for an entire subculture of fans. David Brinkerhoff and Lynn White have documented the qualification of sports as a social institution. "Sport is indeed a distinctive social structure with norms and values that set it apart from other institutions. It is also an increasingly important institution- (Brinkerhoff and White 1985).
             The working question for this paper looks into how the members of these occupations view the meanings of their subjective careers in terms of derived satisfaction, the effects that intrinsic and extrinsic influences have on there satisfaction, and how a strong sense of ambition has helped to propel them to eminence. The fields of coaching and musical performance were selected for both their similarities and differences. I will begin by explaining my research methods and providing a brief description of what the subjects work involves. This will be followed by a presentation and analysis of my findings supporting the argument that these are in fact high-pressure occupations and that attaining meaning and satisfaction from them is dependent upon a marked degree of success, ambition, and the desire for intrinsic rewards.