Sociology of Work and Occupation Exam Review

Industrial form of management -Industrial relations usually come from the perspective of management, and labor relations usually come from the perspective of the workers. -Industrial is all about building consensus and relationships between managers and employees. -Industrial relations are sometimes called employment relations because. -Main principle of labor relationships is that the relationship between management and employees is not harmonious (pleasant sounding) but conflictual, and unequal and filled with cohesion. It is the critical approach to working and organization. -Industrial relations are about co-opting workers (making workers co-operate in the work place so that owners can make more money). -Changes in the way work is organized led to overall changes in the workplace. -You dont have the pay the laborer as much, and it never affected the relationship between managers and laborers -Labor (factory, manual laborers) vs. Work (administrative stuff, etc) -If you understand you workers then there are 3 ways that your workers can be controlled: Simple control takes places in small workplaces, often in secondary labor markets. It works through face to face interaction, through heavy levels of coercion, strict hierarchies, and rule and command. Rulers are more tyrannical.

Post-Industrial -The general thesis about how work is processed in a post-industrial society: knowledge economy, mass education, etc -Advances in technology, humans become subject to machines, instead of machines being subject to humans. This means that the technical system dominates the social system (machines dominate humans). We created a monster that now dominates us. Technology is used to dominate people. -Technical control (an example is fordism) is controlling people through machines, workplace design, and the authority of science (knowledge). The ideal is assembly line is fordism. The rule is the system, and the only form of control is technical. -Bureaucratic control is books on how to do stuff in the workplace, procedures. This is less physical and is a more cohesive way to get people to follow the rules.

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2. Is the Canadian labour market open, single, and fair? Does everyone have equal access to job opportunities?

Definitions -Alienation is when individuals have little or no control over (a) the purposes and products of the labour process, (b) the overall organization of the workplace, and (c) the immediate workplace itself. Overall, it is a condition of objective powerlessness. -To alienate is an act of separation, or the transfer of something to a new owner. -Post industrial society is the late 20th century society of technically advanced nations, based largely on the production and consumption of services and information instead of goods. -Industrial society refers to a society driven by the use of technology to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labor. Post Industrial Work -Alienation in the workplace continued on into the post-industrial society because the technological advance has been seen to cause alienation because people have their performance regulated based on the demands of machines. -Also, there are a lot of people unemployed nowadays so people do not have a sense of security at their jobs like they had with prior employment. This also causes dissatisfaction in jobs and alienation. -Things are less stable in the job market than in the industrial society. -Post Industrial society assumes that there are no more manufacturing jobs in the society, but many of the new knowledge or serviced based jobs are just as alienating and similar to the so-called manufacturing jobs -Many jobs in the service sector are precarious, underpaid, part-time, non-standard, and not stable (many formerly well paid workers in the manufacturing industries have to turn to poorly paid jobs in the service sector) -Whenever employees would feel unwelcome, imposed upon, harassed or ridiculed by their employer then resentment would be set up which distanced employees from their labor source. -Robots eliminate heavy manual labour, and this eliminated a lot of alienated labour and class struggle. -The key resource of post-industrial society is KNOWLEDGE. People require education and training to meet the demands of this very complex society. Therefore, people who cannot afford education usually get much poorer and exploited jobs which leads back to alienation in the workplace. -Most post industrial jobs are bad jobs -Most jobs in the white collar are de-skilled -The post-industrial society is dependent on developing nations to produce good manufacturing goods. This leads to greater exploitation in the developing nations, through the development of free trade zones (little labour laws, and rules about hours of work) which are highly exploitive conditions. Therefore, this

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results in alienation in the workplace in these developing nations because the people are separated and have no control over their labour, workplace, and the products they produce. -Whether inequality has changed, decreased, or increased in complete subjective. Once reading all the stuff above and below, you should be able to answer this. Industrial Work -In Marxs essay estrangement from labor, he discusses the ways that people are alienated in work and why they are alienated from their work in an industrial and capitalists society. There are 3 types of labor that Marx talks about: 1. Alienation from the products of labor This is being alienated from the work we produce (producing goods and giving them to our employers and being alienated from our own production, not being able to receive what we produce). 2. Alienation from the process This is having no control over the things that we produce, and we become alienated over our production because we have no control. It is no control over the way you produce things Deals with the way the division of labor is put out, the design of the workplace, and etc Basically alienate workers from the process in how they create their products. Technological control (using technology to control people) This results in the division of labor This results in the de-skilling of work 3. Alienation from species being Most of us build a sense of identity by through our work and production, so due to the fact that we have no control over our production, we become alienated from our identity, and loose a sense of who we are. We become alienated from our species-being which is basically who we are. We reflect upon the work we do, and objectify ourselves through our work in society Capitalism is built upon people not being able to objectify themselves. Everyone is alienated from their species-being. 4. Alienation from one from another Due to the fact that workers had to give up their products to owners and higher class people, it made the workers resent the people taking their hard work and production. This created alienation amongst workers and owners/the wealthy. -So overall, people were very alienated in the workplace during the industrial times.

Main characteristics: - Less reliance on manufacturing economy and more service sector based (like financial, educational, hospital, technological development, etc.) - Mass privatization, less nationalistic and more global - Shift from industrialization to liberalization

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Job Characteristics: - Flexible Labour force and Flexible Production - Specialized Products, with emphasis on process and quality over quantity and mass production - Often locally produced, rather than shipped all over the world - Innovation on a local, in workplace, rather than elsewhere - More autonomy over work General Characteristics:  Highly educated workforce  Less reliance on state for stuff like work and welfare  Society based on information and knowledge, etc.  Mostly a middle class society  Less stable than an industrial society  Deindustrialization of cities (like Detroit or Hamilton) Critiques: 1. Assumes that there is no more manufacturing in the society, but many of the new knowledge or serviced based jobs are just as alienating and similar to the so-called manufacturing jobs 2. Not really a middle class society, because many jobs in the service sector are precarious, underpaid, parttime, non-standard, and not stable (many formerly well paid workers in the manufacturing industries have to turn to poorly paid jobs in the service sector) 3. The post-industrial society becomes dependent upon developing nations who become the new industrial centres for the production of manufacturing of goods. Leads to greater exploitation in the developing nations, through the development of free trade zones which have little labour laws, rules about hours of work, and are highly exploitive conditions. This division also plays out in terms of labour market segmentation between the core & periphery sector jobs as well as along gendered, ableist lines. 4. The assumption was that machines and new technologies could do most of the manual work, but this has not happened. It was supposed to rid us of bad jobs. We still need manufacturing jobs, and we are not truly past industrialization (i.e. look at the Tar Sands projects in Alberta, the rust belt in the U.S., or drive along the 401 from London to Kingston, Ontario. It is all industrial landscape). 5. Society is still about productivity, creation, and progression (i.e. all are main aspects of the industrial society thesis). 6. De-Industrialization Crisis: Many former manufacturing cities have been severely hurt, such as in the North Eastern U.S. ==================================================== Labor market is the arena in which employers seek to purchase labor from potential employees who themselves are seeking jobs suitable to their education, experience, and preferences. In the labor market, workers exchange their skills, knowledge and loyalty in return for payment, status, career opportunities, and other job rewards. Overall, yes these critiques are still relevant to todays contemporary Canadian labor market. Go through all the critiques, and explain how they how still relevant to todays Canadian labor market

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