Lecture 2: Theoretical Approaches to Work

Major Message
 Social theories provide a lens through which we can look at work differently
 They can reveal:
1. Aspects of our social experiences
2. Connections between our experiences and others’

Theory
 Theory: attempts to explain observable phenomena
- Understanding by connecting it to something broader
 Social theories: extended and systematic explanations of the way the world works
- An analytical tool to help us interpret and understand events and circumstances

Theoretical Approaches to Work

 Focus on sociological theories (or portions of theories) used by a variety of researchers
to shed light on:
1. The organization of work in modern capitalist societies and/or,
2. Workers’ experiences of working
 Also, introduce some emerging theories that provide new perspectives

Five Major Theorists (Macro theories – they are broad)

1. Marxist Theory
 He studied the nature of production in capitalist economies
- Mainly exploitation and alienation (very work centric)
 For him, the organization of work reproduced social inequalities
 Work under capitalism is organized differently than any other system
- Part of the difference is that is more closely managed, and focused on profit
 Two key assumptions/beliefs:
a. Labour theory of value
o Labour is the source of all value (in things) in society
o Nothing has value unless labour is expended on it
 For example: an apple has no value to us unless someone first picked
it from a tree
b. Work is what distinguishes human beings from animals
o People demonstrate creativity and humanity through labour
 Conception and execution
 Animals work is driven by instinct
 Being able to think execute tasks is what distinguishes humans
from animals
 Exploitations
- Workers get rich off the labour of workers
 o Through the extraction of surplus value
- Workers aren’t being paid for the full value of their labour
o Making $200 worth of chairs, but only being paid $100
o The price of labour is not equal to value produced
- Work is inherently conflictive
o Owners and employees have different interests
o Owners want to increase surplus value by increasing productivity through
organization and technology; employees want to be paid for what they make
- Workers compelled to find employment
o Need it to survive
- Overall, work under a capitalist society is not fair
 Alienation
- Robs workers of control over production
- Work is only done to get paid
o Loses the ability to fulfill higher human needs
a. Estrangement from product
o An objective condition where human beings are being separated from some
social experience
 We spend all day making chairs, but these products belong to the
employers
b. Alienation from labour process
o In most manufacturing sectors, we don’t get to choose how we make
something/how we talk to customers
o Since we don’t have the freedom, people don’t have the power to make
decisions at work
c. Alienation from himself
o Separated from what makes us human, working
o May have to transform your being in order to fit into a box that was created
by somebody else
d. Estrangement from others
o Separation from coworkers, employers and customers
 Interaction from customers may be scripted
o Workers are forced to compete with each other
- Alienation is a continuum
o There may be more jobs where people are alienated more
o Or, people argue they don’t feel alienated
 It isn’t soul-crushing when they can’t make connections
- For Marx, this objective condition of alienation should manifest itself in
psychological distress
- Later Marxist thinkers argue that often it does not as people have come to seek
fulfillment in material things
 Final points on Marxist theory and work
 - Marx believes this division between workers and owners (proletariat and
bourgeoisie) was the fundamental class cleavage in society
- Organization of work shaped primarily by capitalists and their search for profit
- There is a possibility for employees to push back
o This happens through unions

2. Labour Process Theory (A Neo-Marxist Approach)

 Focuses on the conflict between managers and workers, especially at the point of
production
 Strategies to control workers, by controlling what they do
- Taking autonomy away from workers, and subjecting them to control by others
 Also, focuses on workers’ resistance to managerial control
- More of a framework of studying work, than an actual explanation

3. Weberian Approaches
 Work takes place within bureaucratic settings with hierarchal structures, complex
divisions of labour, and formal rules and procedures
 Max Weber highlighted social action and social organization
- Social action: behaviour to which an actor attaches meaning that considers (and/or
is directed towards) the behaviour of others
o Core focus of sociology
o We act, but we take other people/their reactions into consideration
o Interested in the type of actions people participated in
 Rational Action: goal-oriented
 Value-Rational action: shaped by values (ethics, honour, what
is the ‘right thing to do’ in each social situation)
 Instrumentally Rational action: aims to achieve specific
‘calculated ends’
o Obtain money, influence, or some other concrete goal
o Taking a job because it pays well
 Any action you take to get to an end goal
- Social organization: collectivities made up of individual engaging in social action to
achieve their goals
o Based on bureaucracy and rationalization
o Rationalization: a process through which people (and organizations)
continually strive to find the optimum means to reach a given end in a rule-
driven and formalized way
 Like Marxist theory with changing
o Bureaucracies: hierarchical structures with advanced divisions of labour,
specialized workers and highly rule-driven work
 University is a bureaucracy
 Lots of different departments
 McDonaldization (George Ritzer)
 - An extreme form of rationalization
o Fast food restaurants are the epitome of a rationalized organization
o The principals of the fast food organization are being generalized to other
organizations
 For example, success in education is tested through standardized
testing instead of qualitative measures (calculability and efficiency)
- Considered a neo-Weberian approach
- There are 4 elements of this rationalization:
a. Drive for Efficiency
o Choosing the best possible means to a given end
o Fast food restaurants simplify products, they have a limited menu, pre-
packaged ingredients, have customers do work formally done by employees
b. Calculability
o A concern with quantity over quality
o When McDonalds does advertisements, they emphasize how many meals
they serve (focus on statistics)
c. Predictability
o Keeping things the same from one point in time, and place, to another
o Fast food restaurants are familiar to us, as we know what we’re going to get
 Lack of variety, scripted interactions
o Can be comforting
d. Control
o Replacing human with non-human technologies
o Efforts to control people in order to achieve efficiency, calculability and
predictability
- Concern is that there may be an element of dehumanization
o Also, workers are more prone to stress and burnout in highly controlled, fast-
paced environments

4. Michael Foucault
 Social control and changes in social organization were central to his analyses
 Power linked with knowledge
- Knowledge brings power, and power produces knowledge
- People who know things about you, potentially have power over you
 Over the past 100 years or so, we have seen the rise of a disciplinary society
- People are less often ruled by the threat and exercise of physical force, but rather
through surveillance, discipline and treatment
o Now, people behave on their own
 Architecture that enabled surveillance = the panopticon design
- This became an ideal type on how to organize society
- Round, with cells on the outside and prisons in each of the cells, mirrors on the
other side so they are visible to everyone
o Prisoners couldn’t see the guards
 o Idea was if the guards were watching, the prisoners would behave
- This type of organization allows the mechanization of power
a. Power is visible, but unverifiable (don’t know exactly when they are looking)
b. Promotes self-discipline
c. Efficient (only takes a few to watch many)
d. If we think we are being watched, then we are more likely to follow the rules
(whether we are actually being watched or not)
e. Increases productivity, efficiency and gets more done
o Workers who are being watched are more likely to be diligent
- Panoptic design applied to prisons, schools, hospitals and workplaces
o Generalized surveillance with small, invisible cameras
o Increases conformity
o The threat of being watched, more than the act of being watched
 The threat used to be being punished if you broke rules, but now it is
the threat of being watched
- Electronic panopticon: achieving the same ends (surveillance) through technology
- While the exercise of power in a disciplinary society is efficient, its forced conformity
and constant judgement create pressures that can be experienced negatively by
those of us subjected to it

5. Pierre Bourdieu
 French sociologist
 Most known for research on:
- Reproduction of social inequalities across generations
- Sociology of culture
- Sociology of education
- Concerned with power and society
 Main contributions are the study of how people obtain work, promotions and become
successful
 Labour markets and workplaces are part of broader social fields infused with power and
inequality
- Felt there were a several areas, and these fields had power structures within them
 To navigate these structures and to acquire jobs, individuals draw on capital
- Those with more capital have greater access to good jobs and opportunities, while
others may be disadvantages
 Capital
- Economists focus on human capital
o Accumulated education, training, skills
o Our human capital can help us get jobs and win promotions
- Bourdieu focused on other kinds of capital: cultural, social, symbolic and economic
- Cultural capital: a set of abilities, understandings, and dispositions related to a
specific cultural setting (what you know)
 o Valued knowledge about cultural phenomenon, ways of speaking,
pronunciation, food and drink, art and elite tastes
- Social capital: who you know – social connections, networks and group
memberships
 Capital in the labour market
- We may think that our human capital is all we need to find work, but Bourdieu says
that our cultural and social capital are also very important
- Since the wealthy and privileged hold more cultural and social capital, they have
more advantages
- These advantages are hidden
o As it appears that human capital is more important

Other Theories and Approaches

Symbolic Interactionism
 Focused on people’s experiences, and the meanings they attach to work
 Thomas and Thomas – something perceived to be real, and is real in its consequences
- It is through interactions where we learn about the world around us
- People act based on their understanding of what is going on
 Examples: workers’ socialization, workplace cultures, identity and work, careers, and the
tensions and conflicts experienced by people in the daily course of their work

Feminist Theory
 Critiques the masculine lens of established theories, and seeks to correct it in two ways:
1. Revisiting existing theories to add a gender lens, or include the experiences of
women
- Marxist-Feminism, Neo-Weberian Feminist Approaches, Foucauldian Feminist
Approaches
2. Feminist standpoint theory
- Most associated with the work of Canadian Feminist Theorist Dorothy Smith
- Began research and theorizing from the standpoint of women (or the
standpoint of the disadvantaged)
- Seek to understand social structures by looking at individuals and the forces
and institutions shaping their experience
 Applied to work:
- Can be used to document patterns of advantage and disadvantage at work by
gender
- Explore the significance of gender to the organization and experience of work

Critical Race Theory

 Sees racism as a structural, institutionalized system that upholds the power of White
people at the expense of racialized others
 Argues that racism is material and structural, continually reproduced through social
practices, and social institutions which are infused with racial power
  Race is a social construction
 Applied to work:
- Seemingly objective hiring criteria reproduce racial inequalities through a focus on
merit and accomplishments
o That themselves are racially infused and tend to privilege White people
- Institutions and organizations are racialized, and this can limit opportunities for
employment, promotion, and work-related benefits among the marginalized

Intersectional Approaches
 Considers the ways in which race, gender, and other structured inequalities combine to
shape experiences
 Race, gender, class and age combine in socially and historically specific ways to shape
labour market opportunities and experiences

Human Capital Theory (popular economic theory)

 Focused on “supply-side” factors
- For example, it’s based on investment  if you pay for university tuition, you will
get a better job
 Human capital can be looked at an individual level or a social level:
- Those with more human capital (skills, education, training, ability) will do better in
the labour market (better jobs, better income)
- Societies with more educated, skilled individuals will prosper more than those with
less
o Put more investment into societies that prosper more, increasing their
abilities to produce educated workers
 Underlying factor is the assumption that we all have an equal chance
- Our free and unrestricted “choice”
o A woman who chooses to stay at home chose to invest in her family
 Widely criticized because:
- Overlooks important constraints on the choices individuals make
o A woman might have to stay home with children due to inadequate childcare
o Some may not be able to pay for university tuition
- Certain groups receive different returns on their investments:
o Men get more out of their investment
o Recent immigrants receive smaller returns than Canadian-born workers
- Overall, ignores structural factors that limit acquisition of human capital