Abstract:
The study was conducted to investigate work alienation among manufacturing workers at selected
manufacturing industries of Adama Town. The study employed quantitative and qualitative research
method; and data was collected through questionnaire and in-depth interview guides. The
questionnaire was mixture of close ended questions consisting of five point scale response and
open ended questions. Interview guide was utilized for the purpose of in depth interview.
Respondents of the study were from four selected manufacturing industries of Adama town. The
study purposively selected 10% of manufacturing industries of Adama taking financial
constraints and convenience into consideration. The data was collected from one hundred eighty
six (186) randomly selected study participants using list of employees from each selected
manufacturing industries. In addition, 12 in depth interviewees were conducted with purposively
selected interviewees. Descriptive analyses were utilized to analyze quantitative data and
qualitative data were thematically analyzed. The study findings revealed that majority (61.8%) of
the respondents were alienated and centralization, formalization, lack of autonomy, and physical
working condition were important predictors of work alienation. The study also found that work
schedule (night shift), lack of transportation, low salary and promotion as other factors
determining workers experience of alienation. In trying to investigate the relationship between
workers’ well-being and experience of alienation absenteeism-induced low pay, depression, deskilling and dissatisfaction are mentioned. On the other hand, upgrading educational level,
Absenteeism, changing department and job termination are mentioned as copping strategies to
escape from work alienation and its effects. Generally, even though employees in the studied
manufacturing industries experience work alienation and it affects their well-being in different
ways, they used different copping strategies to escape from work alienation.
Management/owners of manufacturing industries, better to give attention to their workers and
use various mechanisms in such a way that can alleviate their negative attitudes towards the
work and work related activiti
