Sociology 171

Questions on Hodson
Be Ready to Answer the Following Questions in Class on Thursday, May 14, 2015.
1. Hodson compares five forms of workplace organization: assembly line, bureaucracy,
craft, direct supervision, and worker participation. Of these [ANSWER ALL FIVE PARTS],
a. Which came first in Blauners historical sequence of technologies?
Craft
b. Which comes closest to Edwards concept of simple or personal control?
Direct supervision
c. Which is closest to Edwards concept of technical or "technological" control?
Assembly line
d. Which represents the most important emerging form, according to Hodson?
Worker Participation
e. Which one is built around workers who have both formal training and informally
acquired skills based on long periods of on-the-job experience?
Craft

2. In coding which form or forms of work organization were present in each ethnography,
under what circumstances was each of the following considered to exist or be indicated?
[ANSWER BOTH PARTS]
a. Bureaucratic workplaces: exist when operational control of daily procedures resides
in written rules
b. Worker participation: is indicated by formal organizational structures that actively
incorporate workers in operating decisions.
3. According to Hodson's Table 4 and Figure 1, which form of work organization is
associated with the highest scores on the variable "Effort Bargain" (level of effort)?
Worker participation
4. In Table 4, which form of workplace organization scores highest in Insider
Knowledge? Bureaucratic
5. In Figure 1 and Figure 2, [ANSWER BOTH PARTS]
a. Which form of workplace organization has the highest scores on most measures?
Craft
b. Which form of workplace organization has the second highest scores on most
measures? Worker participation
6. Hodson says that instead of a U-shaped pattern of falling then rising freedom and selfactualization, the pattern in his figures is better described as a reverse J-shape. What finding is
the only one that deviates from this reverse J-shape? Effort Bargain