Student Name – Gurvinder Pal Singh

Student ID – 2002162
Module Leader - Dr Whyeda Gill-McLure
Module Code And Title - 4HR003 People Work and
Society

Question No. 1:
Main Features of Flexible Working Practices
Flexibility at the workplace is making arrangements in
the conditions of work which will suit both employer
and employee. The arrangements of work will be
flexible at workplace in such a way that this will benefit
both employer and employee. In this way, employer
will increase the efficiency of their business and thus
enhance productivity while employees will maintain a
good balance between work and life. The structure of
organisation requires increased plasticity as the market
scenario is highly fluctuating and very unpredictable, so
the arrangements of staffing are made flexible. Due to
the industrial policy of flexibility, male employment has
decreased and thus female employment increases.
Moreover, manufacturing employment decreases with
an increase in service sector employment which almost
doubles itself. Moreover, part time employment has
also increased with more of female employees. This
employment structure not only improved work life
balance but also reduced labour cost (Blyton and
Turnbull, 1998).
The flexible firm model by Atkinson, 1984 divides the
employees of organisation into two main groups – Core
group and Peripheral group.
1)Core Workers – They consists of workers who are
full time with security of job and good pay. They
are integral part of organisations functioning and
thus, deliver functional flexibility by displaying
versatility and flexibility.

2)Peripheral Workers – They consists of secondary

workers who are less skilled and are more
exploited with less security. They deliver
numerical, financial or distance flexibility. As these
workers are hired for part time works or contracts.

Main Forms of Flexibility

There are different types of flexibility. Some of these
forms are –
 1)Functional Flexibility – This type of flexibility is
linked with highly skilled workers from core group
which involves variability of tasks by relocating
core workers with variety of tasks.

2)Numerical Flexibility – This type of flexibility is

associated with peripheral workers who are part
time or contract based which means employers
can match demands of labour with number of
employees.

3)Financial Flexibility / Pay Flexibility – This flexibility

ensures that organisation can pay to employees
flexibly according to performance or set task.

There are other types of flexibility also like Temporal

i.e. working at weekends, geographical which means
flexibility of working in different sites, distancing i.e.
outsourcing etc.

Benefits and Drawbacks:

1)Employer – Flexibility will benefit employer as it
will result in efficiency and thus enhanced
 productivity. Employers can face difficulty as
employees can become lazy and thus
unsatisfactory output.
2)Employee – Flexibility will benefit employee as it
can result in maintaining work-life balance and
drawback to employee is, it results in job
insecurity.
3)Society – The society as a whole is benefitted as it
reduces stress of the society by maintaining work
and life balance. Whereas it results in enhanced
unemployment due to insecurity of jobs in society.
Conclusion
Thus, flexible working practices benefits both employer
and employee in one way or the other and most
importantly, it benefits the society as a whole.

Question No. 4
Outline of Marx and Weber’s views on Theories of
Class and Inequality:
Social Inequality – The social inequality is the inequality
which prevails in the society due to which different and
unequal opportunities and privileges are given to
different people or groups of people within the society.
So, these are basically the inequalities which are
created by the society only to differentiate among
people by creating different social groups which are
arranged in hierarchy on the basis of wealth, religion,
prestige etc.
There are four main systems of social stratification i.e.
formation of social categories. These are:
1)Slavery
2)Caste
3)Estates
4)Class
Class Inequality – The class inequality is the inequality
among the people on the basis of class. People with
lower class i.e. one’s who are poor are given less
opportunities as compared to one’s with the upper
class.
Marx Views on Theories of Class and Social Inequality
According to Marx, the main basis of the classes are
the economic relationships i.e. wealth, status, power,
prestige etc. forms the basis of social arrangement of
production system, there are two main classes –
1)Majority who are the producers
2)Minority who are the exploiters
The whole history revolves around the struggle among
the classes i.e. producers and exploiters.
Weber’s Views on Theories of Class and Social
Inequality
According to Weber, the classes are based on
inequality of power i.e. contract of employment.
Accordingly, main classes are –
1) BOURGEOISIE - i.e. employers who are exploiters
which controls and are owner of machinery.
2)PROLETARIAT – i.e. employees who are exploited
who sell their labour power.
There is worker resistance through action collectively.
Similarities between Views of Marx and Weber
Bother Marx and Weber considered that economic
relationships were the main reason for inequality.
According to their views, the economic position of the
person in society is determined by class and modern
societies are capitalist i.e. privately owned and based
on labour market.
Differences between Views of Marx and Weber
The views of Weber were different from views of Marx
on the basis of social and class inequality as he
considered economic relations was not the root cause
of social class inequality. The employer and employee
were not the two basic classes always. According to his
views, position in market i.e. skilled workers were main
source of inequality in society as compared to
ownership of property. Moreover, occupation was the
main reason for inequality in society.
Conclusion
Social inequality is the inequality in the society which
divides the society into separate groups on the basis of
differences in religion, region, caste, colour, creed etc.
Class inequality is the inequality which differentiates
and satisfies different classes in the society. This
inequality in society controls the society. Both Marx
and Weber gave theories of class system but with their
own viewpoints which were similar in some aspects
whereas different in other aspects. While Marx theory
on social inequality divided the society on the basis of
production system whereas Weber’s theory was based
on power.
References:
Question No. 1
 ResearchGate. 2020. (PDF) Impact Of Flexible
Working Hours On Work-Life Balance. [online]
Available at:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2602
19489_Impact_of_Flexible_Working_Hours_on_W
ork-Life_Balance> [Accessed 22 June 2020].

 Culture, O. and Model, F., 2020. Atkinson's

Flexible–Firm Model – Businessballs.Com. [online]
Businessballs.com. Available at:
<https://www.businessballs.com/organisational-
culture/flexible-firm-model/#:~:text=Origins,the
%20Institute%20of%20Manpower%20Studies
 %20.&text=The%20model%20suggests%20that
%20the,needs%20within%20a%20turbulent
%20market.> [Accessed 22 June 2020].

Question No. 4
 Ldoceonline.com. 2020. Inequality | Definition
From The Sociology Topic | Sociology. [online]
Available at:
<https://www.ldoceonline.com/Sociology-
topic/inequality> [Accessed 22 June 2020].

 Sparknotes.com. 2020. Social Stratification And

Inequality: Theories Of Stratification | Sparknotes.
[online] Available at:
<https://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/social-
stratification-and-inequality/section4/> [Accessed
22 June 2020].

 Uregina.ca. 2020. Multiple Sources Of Power �

Class, Status, And Party. [online] Available at:
<http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/250f2803.htm>
[Accessed 22 June 2020].