Week 11: Work and Rationalization

Enlightenment, or Age of Reason

Marked a decline in Religion’s role in society. People increasingly looked to science.

Disenchantment of the world

The term used by Weber to describe the change from explaining phenomenon through magical or other-worldly forces to using rational thought and science

Rationalization

According to Weber, are ways of solving problems by focusing on the optimal means toward an end. The process is based on predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control

Predictability

Means the things can be repeated with the expectation of the same results

Calculability

Focuses on things that can be counted and quantified

Effeciency

The best means to a given end

Age of Reason

allowed us to make sense of the world and afforded us some control over it.

1. argued that disenchantment is also a process of disillusionment.

2. less creative, emotional, and spontaneous

Downsides of rationalization

bureaucracy

Literally, “the rule of the office or desk,” an organizational form that predominates in modern society and focuses on rationality. Weber described these as human machines

1. based on hierarchically organized “offices.

2. have a vertical chain of command. At the head office of a big company, the designers report to their managers who report to the board of directors

3. They have a clear, formal division of labour. they do not switch from one task to the other—there is a clear separation of roles, with different people doing different tasks.

4. They are dominated by technical qualifications.

5. They have impersonal decision making.

6. They are staffed by full-time, salaried employees

Six core features of bureaucracies

McDonaldization

Ritzer’s term to describe the movement from traditional to rational methods of thought. Where Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent this change, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as representing this transformation

1. It allows us to produce a wider range of goods and services and to make them available to a much larger portion of the population.

2. goods are convenient and cheap alternatives to higher-priced customized goods.

3. allows us to create goods of uniform quality and to provide a sense of familiarity and stability for the consumer

important benefits to rationalization

Irrationality of rationality

Weber’s concept that rationalized systems can create negative outcomes.

1. high amounts of waste

2. poor health outcomes (obesity, cancer, etc.)

Negative consequences of rationalization of fast food: [2]

Red tape

an excessive adherence to formal rules that hinders the functioning of organizations

Commodity

An item of value and uniform quality produced in large quantities by many producers. Consumer goods, such as clothing, cars, and food

Commodification

The process of reducing social relations to an exchange relation (i.e., assigning them with a monetary value)

mechanical solidarity

The type of solidarity that involves societies being held together by similarities among people. Durkheim argued that in early societies, people shared a collective consciousness that created solidarity, despite the fact that each unit (such as a family) basically provided for its own production and consumption needs and subunits could survive in isolation from one another

Division of labour

A focus of Durkheim’s work, the specialization of cooperating individuals who perform specific tasks and roles

organic solidarity

The type of solidarity that occurs when people in a society are dissimilar and specialized. They depend on one another to provide what they cannot supply for themselves

Scientific management (Taylorism)

The application of scientific principles and methods to the management of labour. These practices were popularized by Frederick Taylor in order to rationalize work and make it more efficient by dividing it into increasingly smaller tasks

1. standardization of products

2. use of special equipment

Ford practised two main principles of scientific management:

1. increased effeciency

2. increased productivity

two main benefits of scientific management:

1. workers become dissatisfied with work

2. separating head from hand

disadvangages of scientific management [2]

Automation

The operation of equipment with minimal or reduced human intervention.

1. saves labour

2. which saves money

3. can improve quality and precision of labour process

benefits of automation

1. lead to loss of jobs

2. changes the nature of work

disadvantages of automation

Outsourcing

Contracting work, usually manufacturing or supporting processes, to another country

1. capitalism transforms naturally social and collective activity into a process that is about pursuing one’s own interests

2. workers create wealth through their labour and the goods they produce, but only get a small portion of that money

3. As division of labour in jobs increases, more surplus is created for capitalists

4. separates workers from the products they make, production processes, other workers, and themselves.

According to Marx, capitalism distorted work in four ways:

Alienation

Generally, the separation of things that naturally belong together. According to Marx, workers become this from the product they make, the process of production, other workers, and themselves

primary sector

The economic sector concerned with extracting or harvesting products from the earth.

Agriculture (both subsistence and commercial farming), mining, forestry, and fishing are primary sector activities

primary sector activities [4]

secondary sector

The economic sector that manufactures finished goods.

Metalwork, automobile production, textile production, and engineering industries

part of the secondary sector [4]

tertiary sector

The economic sector that provides services to the general population and to businesses.

Retail sales, transportation and distribution, entertainment, banking, health care, and law

part of the tertiary sector [7]

precarious employment

Employment in dead-end, low paying, and insecure jobs (sometimes called McJobs). In this area, employers have full control over the labour process; they are able to hire and fire employees with ease and frequency because that kind of work makes them readily replaceable

1. dirty

2. dangerous

3. demeaning

precarious labour is characterized by the three Ds

emotional labour

Work, especially in the service sector, that requires emotional performances from employees. This labour is commodified and controlled by management.