SOCIOLOGY OF WORK AND EMPLOYMENT: TOPIC 1
Introduction and Definitions to sociological of work and employment, Brief
History, - Critical Examination of Changing Nature of Work
The term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste Compte in the 1830s when
he proposed a synthetic/artificial science uniting all knowledge about human activity.
This is a time when in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans were
exploring the world and voyagers returned from Asia, Americas, Africa, and
the South Seas with amazing stories of other societies and civilizations. It was
obvious that the different social practices challenged the view that European life
reflected the natural order of God.
Still in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western Europe was rocked by
technical, economic, and social changes that forever changed the social order. Eg.
Science and technology were developing rapidly; James Watt invented the steam
engine in 1769, and in 1865 Joseph Lister discovered that an antiseptic barrier could
be placed between wound and germs to inhibit infection. These and other scientific
developments spurred social changes and offered hope that scientific methods
might help explain the social as well as the natural world. This trend was part of a
more general growth in rationalism/philosophical system.
Additionally, the industrial revolution began in Britain in the late eighteenth
century. By the late nineteenth century, the old order was collapsing “under the twin
blows of industrialism and revolutionary democracy” (Nisbet, 1966:
21). Mechanical industry was growing, and thousands of people were migrating to
cities to work in the new factories. People who once rooted in social communities
where they farmed, found themselves crowded into cities. The traditional authority
of the church, the village, and the family were being eroded by interpersonal
connections in the city life. Capitalism also grew in Western Europe in the nineteenth
century. This meant that relatively few people owned the means of production, such
as factories, while many others had to sell their labour to owners of factories. At the
same time, relatively impersonal financial markets began to expand. The modern era
was also marked by the development of administrative state power, which involved
increasing concentrations of information and armed power (Giddens, 1987: 27).
Finally, there was enormous population growth worldwide in this period, due to
longer life expectancy and major decreases in child death rates. These massive
social changes lent new urgency to the development of the social sciences, as early
sociological thinkers struggled with the vast implications of economic, social and
political revolutions. All the major figures in the early years of sociology thought
about the “great transformation” from simple, preliterate societies to massive,
complex, industrial societies, hence the emergence of the sociology discipline/study.
Today and in the academic world, sociology is considered one of the social sciences
and is the study of human social relationships in communities and institutions, with
a purpose of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are
shaped by cultural and social surroundings. Sociology can also be defined as a social
science that focuses on society, human social behaviour, patterns of social
relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life.
People who have been well trained in sociology know how to think critically about
1
, human social life, and how to ask important research questions. They also understand
the way the social world works and how it might be changed for the better. A key
insight of sociology is that the simple fact of being in a particular group changes
your behaviour eg. a football team, music team, workers team etc.
Social/interpersonal life overwhelmingly regulates the behaviour of humans, largely
because humans lack the instincts that guide most animal behaviour. Humans
therefore depend on social institutions and organizations to inform their decisions
and actions. Given the important role which organizations play in influencing human
action, it is sociology’s task to discover how organizations affect the behaviour of
persons, how they are established, how organizations interact with one another, how
they decline, and ultimately, how they disappear. Among the most basic
organizational structures are economic, religious, educational, and political
institutions, as well as more specialized institutions such as the family, the community,
the military, peer groups, clubs, and volunteer associations.
Start here next -Sociology of work and employment is concerned with the social
relations, normative/standard codes, and organizational structures that inform the
behavior, experience, and identities of people during the course of their working lives.
“Work” has of course taken a wide array of institutional forms across different
cultures and historical periods, ranging from forced labor, slave systems and other
coercive contexts to non-market work (subsistence farming or household labor) and
wage labor or paid employment. Nowadays, the wage labour or paid employment
has been viewed as the predominant form of production under modernity and
has provided the central focus of the sociology of work and employment field.
The field of sociology of work and employment has its theoretical foundations
reaching back to the classical theories of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile
Durkheim; more recent inspiration is found in the perspectives of the Chicago School,
feminist sociology, and social network analysis. Following World War II, industrial
sociology flourished for a time, developing classic studies on systems of managerial
authority, the informal group behaviors that govern workplace life, and the lines of
conflict that arise as workers informally negotiate with their managers. Since then, the
field has grown increasingly complex and internally differentiated. Sociologists of
work and employment are most often found in academic departments of sociology,
business schools, and governmental agencies concerned with equal employment
opportunity.
While much research has focused on the characteristics of workers‟ jobs (such as
changes in skill requirements or the closeness of supervision), other areas of concern
have proliferated/grown, including studies of new, post-bureaucratic forms of work
organization; the influence of race and gender in shaping the allocation of workers
into jobs and occupations; the distinctive features of service occupations; the
operation of labor markets (whether within the firm or beyond its boundaries); and the
relations between work organizations and their wider institutional environments. The
study of sociology of Work and Employment emphasize that, no matter what
society one lives in, all human beings depend on systems of production to survive.
Work and Employment
Work, in sociology, is defined as the carrying out of tasks, which involves the
expenditure of mental and physical effort, and its objective is the production of goods
2
Introduction and Definitions to sociological of work and employment, Brief
History, - Critical Examination of Changing Nature of Work
The term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste Compte in the 1830s when
he proposed a synthetic/artificial science uniting all knowledge about human activity.
This is a time when in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans were
exploring the world and voyagers returned from Asia, Americas, Africa, and
the South Seas with amazing stories of other societies and civilizations. It was
obvious that the different social practices challenged the view that European life
reflected the natural order of God.
Still in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western Europe was rocked by
technical, economic, and social changes that forever changed the social order. Eg.
Science and technology were developing rapidly; James Watt invented the steam
engine in 1769, and in 1865 Joseph Lister discovered that an antiseptic barrier could
be placed between wound and germs to inhibit infection. These and other scientific
developments spurred social changes and offered hope that scientific methods
might help explain the social as well as the natural world. This trend was part of a
more general growth in rationalism/philosophical system.
Additionally, the industrial revolution began in Britain in the late eighteenth
century. By the late nineteenth century, the old order was collapsing “under the twin
blows of industrialism and revolutionary democracy” (Nisbet, 1966:
21). Mechanical industry was growing, and thousands of people were migrating to
cities to work in the new factories. People who once rooted in social communities
where they farmed, found themselves crowded into cities. The traditional authority
of the church, the village, and the family were being eroded by interpersonal
connections in the city life. Capitalism also grew in Western Europe in the nineteenth
century. This meant that relatively few people owned the means of production, such
as factories, while many others had to sell their labour to owners of factories. At the
same time, relatively impersonal financial markets began to expand. The modern era
was also marked by the development of administrative state power, which involved
increasing concentrations of information and armed power (Giddens, 1987: 27).
Finally, there was enormous population growth worldwide in this period, due to
longer life expectancy and major decreases in child death rates. These massive
social changes lent new urgency to the development of the social sciences, as early
sociological thinkers struggled with the vast implications of economic, social and
political revolutions. All the major figures in the early years of sociology thought
about the “great transformation” from simple, preliterate societies to massive,
complex, industrial societies, hence the emergence of the sociology discipline/study.
Today and in the academic world, sociology is considered one of the social sciences
and is the study of human social relationships in communities and institutions, with
a purpose of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are
shaped by cultural and social surroundings. Sociology can also be defined as a social
science that focuses on society, human social behaviour, patterns of social
relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life.
People who have been well trained in sociology know how to think critically about
1
, human social life, and how to ask important research questions. They also understand
the way the social world works and how it might be changed for the better. A key
insight of sociology is that the simple fact of being in a particular group changes
your behaviour eg. a football team, music team, workers team etc.
Social/interpersonal life overwhelmingly regulates the behaviour of humans, largely
because humans lack the instincts that guide most animal behaviour. Humans
therefore depend on social institutions and organizations to inform their decisions
and actions. Given the important role which organizations play in influencing human
action, it is sociology’s task to discover how organizations affect the behaviour of
persons, how they are established, how organizations interact with one another, how
they decline, and ultimately, how they disappear. Among the most basic
organizational structures are economic, religious, educational, and political
institutions, as well as more specialized institutions such as the family, the community,
the military, peer groups, clubs, and volunteer associations.
Start here next -Sociology of work and employment is concerned with the social
relations, normative/standard codes, and organizational structures that inform the
behavior, experience, and identities of people during the course of their working lives.
“Work” has of course taken a wide array of institutional forms across different
cultures and historical periods, ranging from forced labor, slave systems and other
coercive contexts to non-market work (subsistence farming or household labor) and
wage labor or paid employment. Nowadays, the wage labour or paid employment
has been viewed as the predominant form of production under modernity and
has provided the central focus of the sociology of work and employment field.
The field of sociology of work and employment has its theoretical foundations
reaching back to the classical theories of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile
Durkheim; more recent inspiration is found in the perspectives of the Chicago School,
feminist sociology, and social network analysis. Following World War II, industrial
sociology flourished for a time, developing classic studies on systems of managerial
authority, the informal group behaviors that govern workplace life, and the lines of
conflict that arise as workers informally negotiate with their managers. Since then, the
field has grown increasingly complex and internally differentiated. Sociologists of
work and employment are most often found in academic departments of sociology,
business schools, and governmental agencies concerned with equal employment
opportunity.
While much research has focused on the characteristics of workers‟ jobs (such as
changes in skill requirements or the closeness of supervision), other areas of concern
have proliferated/grown, including studies of new, post-bureaucratic forms of work
organization; the influence of race and gender in shaping the allocation of workers
into jobs and occupations; the distinctive features of service occupations; the
operation of labor markets (whether within the firm or beyond its boundaries); and the
relations between work organizations and their wider institutional environments. The
study of sociology of Work and Employment emphasize that, no matter what
society one lives in, all human beings depend on systems of production to survive.
Work and Employment
Work, in sociology, is defined as the carrying out of tasks, which involves the
expenditure of mental and physical effort, and its objective is the production of goods
2
