Week 2: Work in a Societal Context
Work: the carrying out of task which enable people to make a living within the social
and economic context in which they are located
Sociology can help us understand:
o How broader social trends are reflected in and influence individuals’ experiences
of work
o The reasons why inequality and injustice at work arise
o How elites develop and utilize power
o The factors policymakers and gov should take into account when developing
employment policy
o The issues managers and employers should consider when designing jobs,
policies and organization
o Sociological thinking helps explain how work is organised in contemporary
society, and the factors that influence how individuals experience and respond to
their work
o Despite many advancements, work is still a site for the production and
reproduction of inequalities
History of work
o Our understanding of work’s role in society is not fixed
o Work has been viewed as a punishment, as slavery, as a means of worshipping
God, and as a source of misery and boredom
o Creative work has been seen as a source of dignity and as fulfilling and
meaningful
o Under industrialism, work was valorised as a duty and responsibility
o In contemporary society, we are told work can be fun, a means of self-expression,
a community and a source of income – a challenging ideal
The emergence of sociological thinking about work
o Sociology emerged as a discipline in the 18th-19th centuries: a time of great
change: industrialisation, mechanisation, urbanisation
o Key question: what impact do these changes have on where, how and why we
work?
Key ideas from Marx
o The labor process is concerned w/ improving efficiency and creating replaceable
workers – centrality of class under capitalism
o Workers are alienated due to commodification of work and degrading working
conditions
jobs are simplified and broken down into small alienating tasks
Hochschild’s concept of emotional labor – ex. Flight attendants, call
center workers
role of power and control in labor process
Key Ideas from Weber
o Protestant work ethic and work’s role in signalling we are leading a ‘good life’
o Bureaucracy as the most ‘rational’ and fair form of organising work – yet risks
stifling creativity
o ‘Social closure’ of elite groups that restrict access to resources and opportunities
, Why do we work? For money or fulfilment? – what happens to those
who don’t or can’t work?
The McDonaldisation of work: rational planning, precise calculations
and monitoring
Understanding how elite firms eg law firms exclude working class
applicants
Key ideas from Durkheim
o How do societies achieve stability? Simple ‘mechanical solidarity’ in traditional
societies based on similarity is replaced by ‘organic solidarity’ and inter-
dependence
o Anomie arises from social complexity and lack of social cohesion
o Institutions and shared values play a vital role in nurturing a sense of belonging
and social integration
Founding sociology as a discipline – how our experiences are linked to
the social fabric we inhabit
What role do associations play in ensuring social stability today?
Developing classical thinking: contemporary issues
o Globalization
o Growing diversity of the workforce
o Decline of manufacturing and growth of service work
o Technological change
o Growing diversity in forms of work
o Growing individualization and consumerism
Key takeaways:
o Marx, Durkheim and Weber lay the foundations for an understanding of work
o Our notion of what ‘work’ is and its significance in our lives has grown and
evolved over time
o Work in contemporary society offers new opportunities and challenges
Week 3: Sociology, Labor Processes and the Management of Knowledge Workers
Why do managers need control?
o Organizational survival depends on external factors and organizations (economy,
state, other companies) AND on internal constituencies (labor/shareholders)
o Overall managers want to be able to control the resources, especially those
considered at risk of greater uncertainty
o We focus on control over labor even tho the strategic relevance of constituencies
might shift
E.g. labour might become less important while shareholder become more
important -- uncertainty in case of labour: risk of scarcity/ risk of troubles
(e.g. unions)
Control: exercise of power in order to secure sufficient resources and mobilize and
orchestrate individual and collective action towards (more or less) given ends
Edwards’ 3 strategies of control
o Simple control: direct, authoritarian, and personal control
o Technological: emerges from physical technology
, o Bureaucratic: hierarchical relationship based on rules
o Direct Control
Two Control strategies
o Direct Control: managers prescribe work tasks in detail and monitor execution
and output
Deskilled and fragmented jobs
Narrowly skilled workforce
Doing v. thinking
Little choice over pace and task sequence
Hierarchy for monitoring
o Responsible Autonomy: employees are given some discretion and responsibility
in their work
‘rich’ jobs
Multi-skilled workforce
Doing & thinking
Choice over pace and task sequence
Workers’ discretion
o Responsible autonomy – more used (also in combination w/ direct control
practices) in post-bureaucratic organizations
Work design principles and HR bundles of practices (ideal types)
o Low commitment HR
Work designed following direct control principles
Low investment in training
Dead-end jobs
Ad hoc employment
Flexibility for predictability (external)
Instrumental relationship
o High commitment HR
Work designed following responsible autonomy principles
High investment in training
Opportunities for personal and career development
Long term employment
Flexibility for adaptability (internal)
Emotional involvement
Decentralizing control: teamworking?
o Team: group-based work activity in which a (variable) degree of discretion is left
to group members, acting in a cooperative manner, about how they perform the
tasks allocated to them
Teams don’t necessarily make a difference for employees’ discretion; they
can actually be used also in direct control/low commitment HR systems
Control takes place through peers – it is just decentralized and more
‘indirect’
Connection: concertive control is used to overcome the pitfalls of
bureaucracy
Teams and Concertive Control (I)
o Phase 1
, Creation of shared values on what good work is (good quality
product/delivered on time) thru discussions]
Immdediate outcomes:
Personal responsibility and guilty feeling if shipment gets missed
Working overtime becomes a pattern
o Phase 2
Shared norms become formalized rules:
They can be easily understood/adopted by recently hired workers
Enforcement thru naming and shaming w/in the group and peer
pressure
Culture and (indirect) control (I)
o They are all forms of control, just indirect – winning hearts and minds and
aligning employees w corporate culture
Culture and (indirect) control (iI)
o Culture involves employees to a greater extent than just fulfilling their tasks; but
culture might clash w/ occupational logics of employees and practices of
company – ex. Downsizing fam business
o Shared values are communicated thru anecdotes, myths and fairy tales
replacement for written policy manuals and rules
Culture and Control (III)
o Win hearts and minds v. brainwashing and colonization of affective domain
o Socio-ideological/normative control v. direct control – or both?
Control at Global
o Technocratic (direct) control:
Senior partners decide over promotion, appraisals and distribution of tasks
Monitoring and evaluation by project managers
Output measurement and performance-based management
Standardized qualifications
o Socio-ideological (indirect) control:
Meritocratic ideology
Instrumentalism
Elite identity
Technology and direct control
o Increased opportunities for managerial direct control:
Supervision
Monitoring of individual and collective performance
Routinization and standardization of work
Customers’ feedback
Technology and responsible autonomy
o But also, opportunities for greater employees’ responsible autonomy:
Home-working
Continuous learning
Upskilling
More discretion over working time
Summary:
o This section has illustrated a number of different forms of control exist
Work: the carrying out of task which enable people to make a living within the social
and economic context in which they are located
Sociology can help us understand:
o How broader social trends are reflected in and influence individuals’ experiences
of work
o The reasons why inequality and injustice at work arise
o How elites develop and utilize power
o The factors policymakers and gov should take into account when developing
employment policy
o The issues managers and employers should consider when designing jobs,
policies and organization
o Sociological thinking helps explain how work is organised in contemporary
society, and the factors that influence how individuals experience and respond to
their work
o Despite many advancements, work is still a site for the production and
reproduction of inequalities
History of work
o Our understanding of work’s role in society is not fixed
o Work has been viewed as a punishment, as slavery, as a means of worshipping
God, and as a source of misery and boredom
o Creative work has been seen as a source of dignity and as fulfilling and
meaningful
o Under industrialism, work was valorised as a duty and responsibility
o In contemporary society, we are told work can be fun, a means of self-expression,
a community and a source of income – a challenging ideal
The emergence of sociological thinking about work
o Sociology emerged as a discipline in the 18th-19th centuries: a time of great
change: industrialisation, mechanisation, urbanisation
o Key question: what impact do these changes have on where, how and why we
work?
Key ideas from Marx
o The labor process is concerned w/ improving efficiency and creating replaceable
workers – centrality of class under capitalism
o Workers are alienated due to commodification of work and degrading working
conditions
jobs are simplified and broken down into small alienating tasks
Hochschild’s concept of emotional labor – ex. Flight attendants, call
center workers
role of power and control in labor process
Key Ideas from Weber
o Protestant work ethic and work’s role in signalling we are leading a ‘good life’
o Bureaucracy as the most ‘rational’ and fair form of organising work – yet risks
stifling creativity
o ‘Social closure’ of elite groups that restrict access to resources and opportunities
, Why do we work? For money or fulfilment? – what happens to those
who don’t or can’t work?
The McDonaldisation of work: rational planning, precise calculations
and monitoring
Understanding how elite firms eg law firms exclude working class
applicants
Key ideas from Durkheim
o How do societies achieve stability? Simple ‘mechanical solidarity’ in traditional
societies based on similarity is replaced by ‘organic solidarity’ and inter-
dependence
o Anomie arises from social complexity and lack of social cohesion
o Institutions and shared values play a vital role in nurturing a sense of belonging
and social integration
Founding sociology as a discipline – how our experiences are linked to
the social fabric we inhabit
What role do associations play in ensuring social stability today?
Developing classical thinking: contemporary issues
o Globalization
o Growing diversity of the workforce
o Decline of manufacturing and growth of service work
o Technological change
o Growing diversity in forms of work
o Growing individualization and consumerism
Key takeaways:
o Marx, Durkheim and Weber lay the foundations for an understanding of work
o Our notion of what ‘work’ is and its significance in our lives has grown and
evolved over time
o Work in contemporary society offers new opportunities and challenges
Week 3: Sociology, Labor Processes and the Management of Knowledge Workers
Why do managers need control?
o Organizational survival depends on external factors and organizations (economy,
state, other companies) AND on internal constituencies (labor/shareholders)
o Overall managers want to be able to control the resources, especially those
considered at risk of greater uncertainty
o We focus on control over labor even tho the strategic relevance of constituencies
might shift
E.g. labour might become less important while shareholder become more
important -- uncertainty in case of labour: risk of scarcity/ risk of troubles
(e.g. unions)
Control: exercise of power in order to secure sufficient resources and mobilize and
orchestrate individual and collective action towards (more or less) given ends
Edwards’ 3 strategies of control
o Simple control: direct, authoritarian, and personal control
o Technological: emerges from physical technology
, o Bureaucratic: hierarchical relationship based on rules
o Direct Control
Two Control strategies
o Direct Control: managers prescribe work tasks in detail and monitor execution
and output
Deskilled and fragmented jobs
Narrowly skilled workforce
Doing v. thinking
Little choice over pace and task sequence
Hierarchy for monitoring
o Responsible Autonomy: employees are given some discretion and responsibility
in their work
‘rich’ jobs
Multi-skilled workforce
Doing & thinking
Choice over pace and task sequence
Workers’ discretion
o Responsible autonomy – more used (also in combination w/ direct control
practices) in post-bureaucratic organizations
Work design principles and HR bundles of practices (ideal types)
o Low commitment HR
Work designed following direct control principles
Low investment in training
Dead-end jobs
Ad hoc employment
Flexibility for predictability (external)
Instrumental relationship
o High commitment HR
Work designed following responsible autonomy principles
High investment in training
Opportunities for personal and career development
Long term employment
Flexibility for adaptability (internal)
Emotional involvement
Decentralizing control: teamworking?
o Team: group-based work activity in which a (variable) degree of discretion is left
to group members, acting in a cooperative manner, about how they perform the
tasks allocated to them
Teams don’t necessarily make a difference for employees’ discretion; they
can actually be used also in direct control/low commitment HR systems
Control takes place through peers – it is just decentralized and more
‘indirect’
Connection: concertive control is used to overcome the pitfalls of
bureaucracy
Teams and Concertive Control (I)
o Phase 1
, Creation of shared values on what good work is (good quality
product/delivered on time) thru discussions]
Immdediate outcomes:
Personal responsibility and guilty feeling if shipment gets missed
Working overtime becomes a pattern
o Phase 2
Shared norms become formalized rules:
They can be easily understood/adopted by recently hired workers
Enforcement thru naming and shaming w/in the group and peer
pressure
Culture and (indirect) control (I)
o They are all forms of control, just indirect – winning hearts and minds and
aligning employees w corporate culture
Culture and (indirect) control (iI)
o Culture involves employees to a greater extent than just fulfilling their tasks; but
culture might clash w/ occupational logics of employees and practices of
company – ex. Downsizing fam business
o Shared values are communicated thru anecdotes, myths and fairy tales
replacement for written policy manuals and rules
Culture and Control (III)
o Win hearts and minds v. brainwashing and colonization of affective domain
o Socio-ideological/normative control v. direct control – or both?
Control at Global
o Technocratic (direct) control:
Senior partners decide over promotion, appraisals and distribution of tasks
Monitoring and evaluation by project managers
Output measurement and performance-based management
Standardized qualifications
o Socio-ideological (indirect) control:
Meritocratic ideology
Instrumentalism
Elite identity
Technology and direct control
o Increased opportunities for managerial direct control:
Supervision
Monitoring of individual and collective performance
Routinization and standardization of work
Customers’ feedback
Technology and responsible autonomy
o But also, opportunities for greater employees’ responsible autonomy:
Home-working
Continuous learning
Upskilling
More discretion over working time
Summary:
o This section has illustrated a number of different forms of control exist
