Transcript Chapter 12 Lecture Notes Page

Chapter 12
Work and the Workplace
Structural Changes in the Economy
• By 1800 - Industrial Revolution began
changing the nature of work, moving
people from primary sector jobs (produce
raw materials) to secondary sector jobs
(turn raw materials into finished products).
• After 1950 – Information Revolution
caused deindustrialization and move to
service jobs, tertiary sector of the
economy.
Deindustrialization
• Deindustrialization resulted in the closing
of many industrial factories. Many people
whose factory jobs disappeared ended up
with service jobs offering lower pay and
fewer benefits.
– Primary labor market vs. Secondary labor
market
Global Economy
• Global economy is linked to
deindustrialization in the United States.
– Many U.S. corporations moved manufacturing
plants abroad, where they could pay lower
wages (outsourcing).
Alienation
• Alienation
– (Marx) powerlessness in the workplace
resulting in the experience of isolation and
misery
– (Weber) a rational focus on efficiency and
bureaucracy, which causes depersonalization
in the workplace
Urbanization
• The concentration of humanity into cities
– Gemeinschaft – type of social organization by
which people are bound closely together by
kinship and tradition
– Gesellschaft – type of social organization by
which people have weak social ties and
considerable self-interest
McDonalization
• McDonalization defines work in terms of
four principles:
– Efficiency
– Predictability
– Uniformity
– Automation
Temp Work
• About 25% of the U.S. labor force lack job
security and have few benefits.
Temporary workers, contract employees,
and part-timers experience this problem in
the workplace.
Unemployment and Union Decline
• Unemployment – 8 million or 5.1% of the
labor force in 2005
• Union decline – Today, roughly 13% of
U.S. workers are union members. Labor
unions are worker organizations that seek
to improve wages and working conditions.
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
• Institutional Prejudice and Discrimination –
workplace segregation and limitation of
minorities and women.
– Concentration to lower-paying work
– “Glass-ceiling”
New Information Technology
• Computers and other new information
technology are redefining work in the
United States.
– Isolate workers
– “Deskilling” many jobs
Theoretical Analysis
• Structural-Functional
– Changes can disrupt established patterns of
work and/or unemployment
• Social-Conflict
– Marxist analysis on capitalism
– Weber’s analysis of workplace highlights
bureaucracy (impersonality, hierarchy)
• Symbolic-Interaction
– Primary, secondary, and tertiary sector labor