Work and Organizations

Abstract

Contemporary societies are dominated by the twin imperatives of work and organization. Our social and economic system revolves around the production of goods and services within organizations. This chapter aims to examine the relationship between work and organizations and social transformation, from classical sociologists’ attempts to understand the impact of industrialization to contemporary sociologists’ analyses of the effects of new technological developments and the opening of global markets. Changes in work and organization have important implications for power relations, patterns of inequality and the question of globalization. This chapter should help you understand: The centrality of changes in work and organizations in the transition from traditional to modern society. Classical sociologists’ interpretation of industrialization and social change What is meant by Fordism and sociological interpretations of the ‘Fordist era’ The changes in contemporary societies giving rise to ‘post-Fordism’ Recent developments in economic sociology