14.2 Theories Of Work And Economic Life

Question 1

Corporations

Answer 1

Business firms or companies

Question 2

4 Stages in the Development of Business Corporations

Answer 2

1. Family Capitalism
2. Managerial Capitalism
3. Welfare Capitalism
4. Institutional Capitalism

Question 3

Family Capitalism

Answer 3

Capitalistic enterprise owned and administered by entrepreneurial families

Question 4

Entrepreneur

Answer 4

The owner/founder of a business firm

Question 5

Managerial capitalism

Answer 5

Capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners

The corporation thus emerged as a more defines economic entity, with professional management

Question 6

Welfare Capitalism

Answer 6

The practice by which large corporations protect their employees from the fluctuations of the economy

Question 7

Institutional Capitalism

Answer 7

Consolidated networks of business leadership in which corporations hold stock shares in one another, resulting in increased concentration of corporate power

Question 8

Interlocking Directorates

Answer 8

Linkages amoung corporations created by individuals who sit on 2 or more corporate boards

Question 9

One Reason For The spread of Institutional Capitalism

Answer 9

Is the shift to investing individually in money market, trust, insurance, and pension funds controlled by large financial organizations

Question 10

Global Capitalism

Answer 10

The current transnational phase of capitalism, characterized by global markets, production, finances

a transnational capitalist class whose business concerns are global rather than national

And a transnational system of governances that promote global business interests

Question 11

Fordism

Answer 11

The system of production pioneered by Henry Ford, in which the assembly line was introduced

Question 12

Taylorism

Answer 12

À set of ideas, also referred to as «scientific management», developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, involving simple coordinated operations in industry

Question 13

Low-Trust Systems

Answer 13

Organizational or work settings in which people are allowed little responsibility for, or control over, the work task

Fordism and Taylorism involve low-trust systems, as jobs are set by management and are geared to machines

Question 14

High-Trust Systems

Answer 14

Organizational or work settings in which individuals are permitted a great deal of autonomy and control over the work task

Typically concentrated at the higher levels of industrial organizations

Question 15

Aliénation

Answer 15

The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by others

The term was originally used by Karl Marx to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods

Marx used this term to refer to the loss of workers’ control over the nature and products of their labour

Question 16

Post-Fordism

Answer 16

The periods characterized by the transition from mass industrial production, using Fordist methods, to more flexible forms of production favouring innovation and aimed at meeting market demands for customized products.

This can be confusing because it is used to refer to a set of overlapping changes that are occurring not only in the realm of work and economic life but also throughout society as a whole

Question 17

Mass Customization

Answer 17

Modern businesses must cater to their customers’ ever-changing demands, which are shaped by a constant flow of media advertising

Mass Customization combines large-volume production with the flexibility required to tailor products to consumers’ neeeds

Question 18

Mass Customization + Taylorism and Fordism

Answer 18

Taylorism and Fordism successfully produced mass products but they were unable to produce small orders of goods, or goods specifically made for an individual customer

Question 19

Flexible Production

Answer 19

À manufacturing system involving a complex network of contract factories that enable both the process of production and the product itself to be quickly modified in order to meet changing demand and market conditions

Question 20

Outsourcing

Answer 20

À business practice that sends production of materials to factories around the world

Question 21

Job Insecurity

Answer 21

To keep jobs in the US, many workers have to accept pay cuts and reduced benefits packages

Many workers have lost their jobs to overseas competition

Question 22

Informal Economy

Answer 22

Economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of orthodox paid employment