Sociology of Work and Industry

In this paper I will be comparing the sociology of work and industry to some sub-fields of sociology.

Industrial sociology is a field that deals with the study and examination of relation of human in labor markets, technological change, work organization, managerial practices and globalization. Industrial sociology got to do with work and industry. Sociology of work is all about the application of sociology to the world of work, sociological imagination is functional in the world of work, it attempts to explain the world of work in terms of the influence of the relations between individuals, social processes and structures and the entire society.

Industrial sociology looks at the way these changes are connected to inequality in modern societies and to the events that people and families and also the ways in which workers argue, oppose and do their contributions in shaping the social worlds. It is concerned with human social interactions in the work environment. Sociology of work and industry tries to understand society and work by looking at what is happening in the society and what is happening at work.

It focuses on the issues that involve work and industry, on issues that involve the working environment, the working men by looking at how men relate to one another as they are working and also how other things that are happening in the society influence human behavior, the way in which they influence human and social relationships within the working environment. Industrial sociology analyses the relationship among workers and managers within the working environment, it also observes the relation among the non-work and work domains of the society as well as the family, freedom and other social life features. Sociology of work and industry put its focus on the social organization, the nature and effects of work in capitalism (Rodeheaver et al.: 2017).

It highlights the labor chance structure located in the labor power, this structure is connected with firms, unions, industrial relations, professions, monopolies and occupation (Watson: 2018). Sociology of work and industry focuses on occupations that result from developments in division of labor, technology, division of statues and expressing class. It differentiates and observes good paid jobs as well as the background of job standards and bad jobs. It distinguishes non-standard and standard work and the arrangements of employment according to the difference among the good jobs and bad jobs.

Industrial sociology analysis processes of work within economic and other unions highlighting the systematic organizations of workers and work. This involves the influence of management, technology, organization and skills on workers and work. It is represented by the studies of decrease of skills, division and recurrence through mechanization (Rodeheaver: 2017). It observes their opposing influence on workers, although that mechanization also increases the level of skills and develops new work relations in difficult and unified processes.

Sociology of work and industry focuses on worker dignity and control within the working environment. It observes the relationship amongst the technical development and the movement to the decrease of skills. This movement is the disconnection of the labor procedure from worker skills by integrity of its becoming separated from tradition, craft and the knowledge of the workers, especially the degradation of work under the control of capitalism. According to Rodeheaver and Zafirovski, industrial sociology studies the relationship of wage labor and work to freedom and consumption reflected a remaining area of non-work from the position of wage labor. It also studies the relations between life and work as well as social aspects and family.

Industrial sociologists are interested in social organizations of the work environment, as well as how the workers interact with one another based on their roles in the work environment or who are affected by these roles. It is concerned about the relationship between economic subsystem and other subsystems, how the subsystem is shaped in terms of certain work organizations and roles and how each person fits in those roles. Industrial sociology studies human relations as they expand and function in the arena of industries. It is concerned with the sociological theories that are relevant to industry.

It studies the relationship between people and their roles in industrial organizations, industrial organizations are also look into by other fields such as industrial psychology, industrial engineering, industrial management and economics. However, they examine the facts of industry differently, their analysis overlaps sometimes. Economics focuses on problems such as wages, monopoly, finance, prices, taxation, full employment, marketing and profit. Industrial psychology deals with the choice of personnel, team spirit, job fulfilment, motivation and encouragement to work, behavioral problems and other personal problems. These sciences are not concerned about human or social features of industrial organizations. Industrial sociology is the only science that is concerned about human or social features of industrial organizations.

Industrial sociology studies industrial organizations as a human or social organization not as economic or technological organization. It lay emphasis on the interactional or social factors in formal and informal organizations, industrial relations, communication and teamwork. Industrial sociology deals with the entire organization of the work environment as well as the three various organizations that are considered as different but interconnected which are: union organization which refers to the function of trade unions and membership of workers in the activities of the union, trade unions are in charge of the formal and informal relations of the workers. Management organization refers to the relationship among the management and workers, it also involves policies, structure and the performance of the management. It puts emphasis on formal relations created by workers together with the management.

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And informal organization of workers involves informal relations created willingly by the workers, these relations are recognized by the people and little groups in the industry or factory. These organizations create their own norms in order to limit the behaviors of the members. The three organizations of the industry are influenced by the physical situations of the work environment, governmental control, techniques in management thinking, employees’ personalities and their knowledges in taking part in other organizations.

According to Etzioni, the subject matter of industrial sociology is industry, industry is taken from economics, common sense language and the poll of occupations with no sociological inspection. It is used in two ways, as protecting any wide-ranging employment of labor and capital and as a synonym for factory. Industry is viewed as a manufacturing unit, sociologists named industrial sociology plant sociology. There are many studies that can successfully apply the concepts and ideas of industrial sociology to the study of restaurants, transportation, grocery stores and offices, excluding these organizations from industrial sociology is an illogical decision.

According to Webster, industry is any branch of art or business; in particular, one that employs much capital and labor and is a separate branch of trade (Etzioni: 1958). Industrial sociology includes the study of restaurants, offices and other economic organizations that are not factories but excludes hospitals, universities, schools and other non-economic organizations. The suggested delimitation classifies organizations based on the systematic theoretical scheme. If study areas were classified according to their subject matter there would be unsystematic list for instance sociology of offices, financial institutions, mining, industry, agriculture, etc., in order for systematizing an applied field there must be an analytical base for restricting it, meaning that in the present case an analytical foundation on which organizational sociology can be subdivided.

Industrial sociology involves the study of economic organizations, human economic life is studied in these economic organizations. Economic organizations are those whose aim is to produce goods and services, to organize and manipulate financial processes. The profit purpose as an established primary goal might act as a useful empirical indicator but it is not dependable because some social clubs, schools and hospitals are geared to the exploiting of profit while managed industries or publicly owned industries might not focus on profit (Etzioni: 1958).

Political sociology studies various political movements of the society, it involves the study of various political view, its origin, progress and roles. Various parties of politics are said to be social institutions. Political sociology is involved with the nature and conditions of the legitimacy, state structure, the relationship of the individuals with their states and the way in which monopoly of force is. It focuses mainly on power, state, representation and participation, relations between political and economic growth and legitimacy and consensus. The study of political sociology involves informal and formal party organizations with its links which are activities of people’s participation on politics, bureaucracy, political culture, interest groups, social change, revolution and violence.

Urban sociology looks at the lives of urban people, it gives out facts about the social organization and urban society institution including social interaction and social structure. It also focuses on the social pathology of the society such as crime, discrimination, corruption, unemployment, theft, prostitution, environmental pollution and robbery. Urban sociology puts its focus on the psychology of people, studies urbanization, social process in which cities grow and societies be more urban. Lifestyles of the people may change because they are affected by population growth and slow reduction of natural resources.

Rural sociology looks at how rural people and societies are culturally, socially, economically and politically organized. It studies rural community in a way that is scientific. And also studies the social structure, life, social processes and social institutions of the rural community. The life patterns such as traditional norms, culture, behavior, values and beliefs are not the same as urban people. Rural sociology is applied in solving social matters because it focuses on social problem and social change.

Sociology of religion studies practices, organizational forms of religion and beliefs using methods of sociology. It studies every feature of religion from what is thought to how people act when worshiping and when living out their stated beliefs. Sociology of religion looks at the change in the role of religion in public area such as media, political and economic and in close interpersonal relations it is interested in the influence of religion on gender, sexuality and racial matters, the influence of media and world-wide religious diversity and conflict.

According to Aakansha, historical sociology studies social groups and social facts. It looks at the background of social events, its focus is on how communities have developed because of the past, it focuses on how structures in the community the outcome of difficult processes. It is concerned with how the state has grown later the Middle Ages. It analyzes the relationship between classes, political and economic systems and states.

So, in summary, the core difference between sociology of work and industry and other sociological sub-fields is that it focuses on work environment, on work and industry, focuses on the work men and the way they interact with each other in the work environment.

References

1. Aakansha. 2018. Historical Sociology Concept and Meaning: Historical Sociology [Online] Available at: https://www.sociologygroup.comhistorical-sociology-concept-meaning [Accessed on: 13 May 2021].
2. Etzioni, A. 1958, Industrial Sociology: The Study of Economic Organizations. Social Research.
3. Rodeheaver D, Zafirovski M. 2017. Sociology of Work [Online]. Available at: https://www.researchhate.netpublication322232978_Sociology_of_Work [Accessed on: 05 May 2021].
4. Watson T, Watson TJ. 2018. Sociology, Work and Industry. 5th ed. London: Routledge.