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KENDALL: CHAPTER 13: ECONOMY AND WORK: GLOBAL?
Why should we worry about what happens in other countries? Kendall says:
"We're Interconnected."
Kendall begins with an anecdote of a technology work who becomes unemployed
by OUTSOURCING as a way to show interconnectedness of the world economy:
DEF: OUTSOURCING is the elimination of jobs in the US and exporting them
to other countries where labor is cheaper. Different from relocating
companies (as in building plants). Outsourcing keeps plants in the US
put "exports" the jobs (eg, AOL using "help desk" in India to answer
US users' questions).
Who benefits: U.S. stock/shareholders, investors, and consumers
(also country getting the jobs, which increases their buying power while
helps a bit in purchasing US goods)
Who loses: Wage earners
What gets outsourced? technology, auto parts, services (eg, United
Airlines outsourcing much mechanical work on planes to China)
Why outsource? Countries with cheaper labor keep US costs down
ECONOMY (DEF): The social institution that ensures the mainentance of society
through the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and
services.
GOODS: Tangile objects that are necessary (food, clothes)
Several basic types of economies:
PREINDUSTRIAL:
These are societies that have not yet developed collective manufacturing,
and most workers engage in PRIMARY SECTOR production.
PRIMARY SECTOR PRODUCTION: Extraction of raw materials and natural resources
from the environment. (examples: Much of sub-Saharan Africa, and other
third-world countries). People in these countries are generally poor,
have SUBSISTENCE life styles (ie, produce what they need to live),
and tend to be exploited either by their own government or by foreign
powers.
Once people produce a SURPLUS, they can begin "trade."
Example: Agrarian revolution in the US (pre-industrial era/1600s-1700s).
INDUSTRIAL:
Most workers engage in SECONDARY SECTOR production, the process
of transforming raw materials (from the primary sector) into finished
goods.
--features:
1) New forms of energy, mechanization and growth of factor system
2) Increased division of labor and specialization among workers
3) Universal application of scientific methods to problem solving
4) Introduction of wage labor, time/work discipline and delayed gratification
5) Strengthening of bureaucratic organizational structures (formal rationality)
Things change. In 2003:
--35 pct in management, profesional, and related occupations
--26 percent in sales/office occupations
--16 percent in service occupations
--13 percent in production, transportional, and material moving occupations
--10 percent in construction, extraction, and maintenance
--under 1 pct in farming
POSTINDUSTRIAL: Tertiary secor production, provison of services rather than goods
1) Information displaces property as central economic preoccupation
2) Workplace settings shift from factories to diversified locales
3) Conventional boundaries between work and home (public/private) blurry
4) Education becomes more important
Why is it of global importance?
--we are becoming a GLOBAL village
--Capitalism (econ system characterized gy private ownership of means of
production, from which personal profits can be derived through
market competition and w/o government intervention) spreads world-wide
--Corporations (large-scale organizations that have legal powers) dominate,
especially trans-national corporations (e.g., Exxon, McDonalds, Sony)
--Conglomerates become increasingly powerful (these are combinations of
businesses in different commercial areas, all owned by one holding company)
SOCIALISM: An economic system characterized by public ownership of the
means of production, the pursuit of collective goals and centralized
decision making (REMEMBER: These are IDEAL TYPES)
COMMUNISM: An econ AND SOCIAL system in which property is communaly
owned by all and no social distinctions made on basis of
people's ability to produce SOCIALISM--ECON AND SOCIAL system in which
means of production and distribution are collective.
(NOTE: These will be addressed further in chapter 14)
Theoretical perspectives:
KNOW:
--Conflict
--Interactionist
--Functionalist
ASPECTS OF WORK
generally, we work for pay. We call this our job or our occupation or our
profession. Although these often mean the same thing in the broad sense,
there are some distinctions.
PROFESSION: and occupation requiring extensive knowledge that is governed
by code of ethics and other professional policies.
OCCUPATION: An occupation is less formal, and generally refers
to what we do on a regular scale for money.
as an example medicine and law are professions, the driving a taxi were
attending bar is an occupation.
These are important distinctions because they tend to describe the role of
work in our lives. Those with the profession generally are more
integrated into their work in the work is more integrated into their life.
Those who have simply an occupation that is not a profession, or that is
simply a job, tend to have little commitment to their work, tend to be
more dissatisfied with their work than those in professions, and tend to
be more alienated.
ALIENATION: alienation refers to an emotional distance in between a person
and his or her social or other environment. Characteristics of
alienation include:
a) feelings of powerlessness,
b) feelings of detachment
c) Anomie (normlessness)
d) Little commitment
FOR MARX, capitalism contributes to alienation in:
a) separation from our work processes
b) separatio from our work products
c) Separation from others
d) separation from self
WORKER SATISFACTION
sociologists are concerned with issues of burnout and satisfaction. For
blue-collar workers especially the repetitive nature of their work and the
dehumanizing nature of it, can lead to decreased satisfaction.
Americans are working more hours than ever before, in part because of
short staffing, and in parts to make ends meet. In 1995, 45 percent of
absent workers identified personal illness as a reason. But in 1998, only
22 percent gave that reason. Instead, 16 percent cited stress, and
another 16 percent indicated a sense of entitlement to time off.
What makes a job tolerable? Positive relations with co-workers, nonwork
tasks and job-related gratification results that come from wages. This is
why some workers say they would not choose the same line of work if they
could begin their lives over even though they say that they are satisfied
with their jobs.
Compare the Japanese with the American workers. In Japan, until recently,
workers took a collectivist approach and saw their jobs as being lifelong
and entailing a commitment to their employer.
THE ECONOMY IS CHANGING
the workforce is changing for several reasons.
1. Affirmative-action
2. Ethnic and racial diversity
3. Technological and other changes that changed the nature both jobs and
work
DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
the term deindustrialization refers to the systematic widespread
withdrawal of investment in basic aspects of productivity such as
factories and plants. This often involves relocation to other countries,
or simply abandoning a particular product or manufacturing center.
DOWNSIZING refers to reductions in the Company's workforce. About 75
percent of downsized employees find new jobs. Fourteen are forced into
retirement, and 11 percent do not find new jobs. The bulk of downsizing
or being laid off falls on minorities, such as Hispanics and
African-Americans. In fact nearly 20 percent of Hispanics and
African-Americans are unemployed after two years of being laid off, while
the figures half that for whites.
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