WPW - Topic 4 Flashcards
(33 cards)
What is the labour process?
The circumstances in which people apply their labour at work to produce goods and services.
— eg. how they work, who controls their work, what skills they have.
What is the division of labour?
Work/range of occupations divided into a large number of specialised tasks or jobs carried out by workers.
What is productivity?
How much workers produce during the labour process, their output in terms of items made of processed in a given time or period.
What is the means of production?
Means of producing goods and services.
What are the different spheres of work?
> CORE ECONOMY: Unpaid work from families, friends and neighbours
— eg. cooking, cleaning, gardening, voluntary work
— Usually acts of duty of affection
+ Often taken for granted, but essential to the working of society.
> FORMAL ECONOMY: Paid work, careers, jobs, professions
— eg. involves employers, employees, the self-employed
— Where National Insurance and Income tax comes from
+ Regulated by the state
> SHADOW ECONOMY: Paid work - hidden from the state
— eg. the grey economy: work that is legal but undeclared for tax purposes i.e. repair work that is done cash-in-hand.
+ The black economy: illegal work i.e. drug dealing, prostitution, smuggling, selling stolen goods.
What is the role of technology according to Abercrombie et al.?
- Technical control: controlling individuals
— Control by application of technology - ensures that productivity of individuals are just as fast as the machines. - Responsible autonomy: controlled by individuals
— Workers are given responsibility and independence with their productivity
What is Scientific Management? (Taylorism)
Taylor (1911)
+ Labour process or ‘work’ should be looked at scientifically i.e. logically and systematically.
In doing so, management, control, productivity and efficiency should improve.
— By using machinery, management would have tight control of the workforce and of their performance (because it is automatics and therefore the worker would have to work as fast as the machine).
What is the process that according to Taylor provides Efficiency and Control?
- Removing all autonomy, removing all decision-making, removing all creativity from the process.
- ‘Time and Motion’ study:
— Working out exactly how long each task should take in a production line
— Defining it in its smallest detail - Removing as much skill as possible, making each task small, simple and repetitive (the division of labour)
What has been the impact of Scientific Management?
Scientific Management / Taylorism creates an obedient workforce who lack the skills to break free and find employment elsewhere.
— This is because beach worker was only involved in a tiny process, they lacked skill and motivation to achieve any higher.
— This meant that management could control them and maximise profit
What is Fordism?
Based on Henry Ford’s application of scientific management to the production of the Ford Model T car.
+ He mass-produced the car very cheaply using an assembly line
+ Production was broken down into simple, small and repetitive tasks, requiring little skill (division of labour).
Ford’s first car cost half the price of previous cars that were produced using ‘craft’ skills. But consumer choice such as model, style or colour was limited.
Workers were controlled closely by managers and supervisors who planned, coordinated and controlled the production process.
What impact did Fordism have on employees?
— Workers were removed from decision making at work and had no autonomy / independence.
— They had no knowledge of the production process, only of the role that they played themselves.
— The speed at which they worked was controlled by the machines on which they worked.
— Therefore, efficiency and productivity was maximised to benefit the profit of management.
EVALUATION: Scientific Management
LIMITATIONS:
— Workers lacked motivation and commitment, they didn’t see the bigger picture and never saw the finished product as well as never felt a sense of achievement.
— Workers were insufficiently trained and lacking in skill because they were only part of the smaller process, not the overall process (division of labour). This also meant they were unable to ‘problem-solve’.
— There was conflict with management due to the lack of trust shown, the constant supervision and surveillance and the repetitiveness and dullness of their work
— Employees ‘bunked off’ they would not turn up for shifts and would be absent because they were unhappy and resented the management process. This lead to high labour turnover.
What is a contemporary example of the way work today employs similar Taylorist/ Fordist principles of scientific management?
Ritzer : McDonaldisation
— Process whereby the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society, with those doing such work often described as ‘McJobs’.
— Ritzer argues that the labour process in fast-food chains like McDonalds involve four inter-related aspects;
1) efficiency
2) calculatability
3) predictability
4) control
What is deskilling?
The process through which technology is replacing the need for skilled workers, and thus reducing the skill of work.
Scientific management, Taylorism, Fordism and McDonaldisation has lead to what is known as the ‘deskilling thesis’.
What is degradation?
Where the labour process is often subdivided and simplified (division of labour), losing the need for skill and creativity, where workers have no control.
What is upskilling?
To teach/ learn new/ additional skills.
What does Braverman (1974) say about deskilling?
> Braverman (1974) - MARXIST:
According to Braverman deskilling aims to:
— control the workforce
— reduce bargaining power of workers
— increase production
— raise profits
He says that the labour process in capitalist economies reflects the conflict between the owners of production (bourgeoisie) and the exploited working class (proletariat).
In this conflict, managers do not trust workers to work efficiently and therefore managers maximise their control over the labour process and minimise the autonomy of workers and their ability to resist the management control.
What are contemporary impacts of deskilling?
1) Self service in supermarkets
2) ATMs to withdraw cash/pay in cheques, rather than going into the bank (HSBC, Santander)
3) When you phone companies the messages are automated - ‘press 1 for… 2 for…’
4) Accountancy programs have removed the skill needed in banking and financial companies.
EVALUATION: Deskilling Thesis
> LIMITATIONS
— Middle-skilled jobs are most at risk of being made redundant at the hands of technology (eg. office jobs and service jobs)
— High-end jobs are at risk such as lawyers, doctors and accountants, as their jobs are broken down into components and replaced by machines and algorithms and advanced technology (machine that is able to spot skin cancer through a photo)
— Self-help services such as legal and medical advice and robot doctors are reducing the need for these professions.
What is Human Relations (HR) and Management?
HR and management highlights the role of technology in the labour process.
HR and management is a response to the impact of deskilling and degradation on workers.
— Some sociologists go further to suggest that there are a variety of techniques that can be used to create a happier workforce.
What is the Human Relations Theory?
Mayo (1920)
— After seeing the effects of Scientific Management, Mayo proposed that alienation can be prevented.
— Workers were better controlled and more productive if they felt valued and less controlled by management during the labour process.
— Mayo conducted an experiment to prove this:
> Case Study: Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company of Chicago - Mayo (1920)
+ Conducted the study to see what factors impacted productivity the most
+ Workers were aware that they were partaking in an experiment
+ Participants altered the following conditions in the factory:
— Temperature
— Working hours
— Rest breaks
What is the Hawthorne Effect?
When individuals being studied or observed change their behaviour because they know they are being watched.
How could Human Relations be implemented in a place of work?
1) Job enrichment : giving workers more challenging jobs
— Independence
— Autonomy
— Creativity
— Decision-making
2) Job rotation : wide variety of jobs and tasks to do
3) Job enlargement : giving workers more jobs
— A wide range of skills to learn
4) Teamwork
— Everyone responsible together for the end product, not just a small part of it (i.e. move away from the division of labour)
EVALUATION: Human Relations Theory
STRENGTHS:
— Based on evidence in Mayo’s research which increases it’s validity
— Attempts to overcome worker resistance in the labour process
LIMITATION:
— If the workers knew they were being observed in Mayo’s study, it could have impacted the results and factors such as temperature in the workplace could have more influence (potentially lacks validity).
— Some sociologists would argue that this is simply a new form of control, while still maintaining management control and power.
