Abstract
Social change is one of the most conspicuous features of American society. Social change is taking place even more significantly among Negroes, and this has had many important effects in various areas of life-economic, political, social and psychological. Economic forces have had a profound effect on the life of minority peoples in American society, particularly on race relations in our society. Occupational groups have played an important role in the Negro community. Professional and proprietary groups have played crucial roles in changing and molding Negro community life. Businessmen as a group are considered here as one of the key groups. In this study "successful" Negro businessmen have been chosen as the object of the study. The study began with an assumption that a study of this group would throw some light on changing race relations in the United States. A cursory review of literature in the field of race relations, particularly in the field of occupations among Negroes revealed that the economic approach placed emphasis on the description of economic characteristics of occupations among Negroes, either historically or contemporaneously. Sociological and cultural approaches placed a considerable emphasis on social stratification, social organization and structure. It seemed that a study of Negro businessmen not only as an occupational group but also as a sociological group offers a new approach in the field of race relations. As a device to construct such an approach, we borrowed sociological and social psychological consepts of identity, identification, and competence, which concepts have been tested by various students, but seldom in the field of race relations. This study has been framed in the context of study of culture and personality by undertaking an analysis of occupational culture and personality making use of such concepts. The hypothesis for this study was stated as the greater one's occupational identification, the greater one's occupational competence. In testing this hypothesis, it is well to keep in mind that businesses among Negroes have a short history in American society and the group as a whole is placed in a disadvantageous position in the free market because of race. These were two constant variables that needed to be considered in the study and will serve as two major factors to be controlled in future studies. One's occupational identification is developmental, and factors that are responsible for this developmental process are (a) development of interest in problems and pride in skills, (b) acquisition of ideologies, (c) investment, (d) the internalization of motives, and (e) sponsorship. (See competence was defined as follows. The respondents were asked to name five successful businessmen among Negroes in Nashville. As a result, it was possible to see their rating of each other. Tentatively, it was proposed that we would accept this self-grading as an operational definition of occupational competence scale and as one of the dimensions in this study, assuming that businessmen who were highly graded by fellow businessmen would have a greater competence than those who were lowly graded. The hypothesis has not been fully substantiated. However, in respect to sponsorship, investment and development of interest in problems and pride in skills we have been able to show that there exists a relationship between these and occupational competence. No satisfactory reasons could be given for the fact that some businessmen were graded by fellow businessmen higher than others. Although they gave accounts for their fellow businessmen's success and for their own success, there is still a need for making the scale more precise and meaningful.
