THE PRESTIGE SYSTEM OF AN AIR BASE: SQUADRON RANKINGS AND MORALE.

One objective of a contract research project for the U.S. Air Force was to describe and analyze the stratification process and resultant hierarchies on Strategic Air Command, or bomber, bases, in terms of the differential allocation of authority, influence, prestige, and esteem. This article deals with the implications of data gathered to test six hypotheses about the prestige hierarchy of associations, in this case squadrons, within the social system of a Strategic Air Command base: First, squadrons ranked according to prestige will cluster in groups on the basis of similarity of activity; secondly, these activity groupings of squadrons will be ranked on the basis of the importance of their contribution to the social system; thirdly, personnel in each squadron will rank their own squadron higher than all other personnel rank it; fourthly, working conditions in a squadron will be more important as a prestige determinant than the supposed evaluation of the squadron by other persons; fifthly, a positive relationship will exist between the prestige of a squadron and the morale of its members; and finally, a positive relationship will exist between morale and certain personal background characteristics of airmen.