Soc. 340 Exam 1
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, neo-Fordist organizations invest in their workers and seek to elicit their cooperation and effort through commitment rather than economic anxiety, fear and coercion. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, the less secure jobs are, the more interrelated the economic and noneconomic job rewards tend to be. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 1), everywhere and always "any job is a good job". True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and WORK (Chapter 3) the service sector of the contemporary economies of advanced industrial societies is very homogeneous, consisting almost entirely of poorly paid, insecure, contingent, nonstandard, 'bad jobs'. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, from 1945 to the mid-1970s, blue-collar workers were mostly protected from layoffs while white-collar workers and management tended to be laid off when the economic health of the firm was threatened and hired back once business conditions improved. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, the reduced role of capital markets and institutional investors in corporate governance since the 1980s has promoted a short-term, bottom-line mentality among managers, a reluctance to make investments in the skill-development and loyalty, or simply maintaining the size, of their companies' workforce. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, workers may obtain power only relative to employers but not relative to other workers. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, in the period between the end of WWII and the late 1970s, most small, nonunionized peripheral firms operating in competitive markets put in place a system of internal labor markets in which employee loyalty and obedience were exchanged for job and pay security and predictable career advancement. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), the decline in unions and union power is due primarily to workers increasingly not wanting to form or join unions. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 3) and class discussion, nearly all of the post-1970s immigrants to the United States have been undocumented, poorly educated and unskilled, and therefore unlikely to be regular and active members of the labor force. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapter 3) and class discussion, the increased proportion of women with children, in dual-earner or single-parent family households, in the labor force since the late 1970s has created reduced demand for flexible work schedules and for control over the time workers spend on the job. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2) and class discussion, changes in the distribution of job quality are an inevitable outcome of technological developments and market forces. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2) and class discussion, in liberal-market, non-inclusive advanced industrial societies there has been a decrease in the polarization of both economic and noneconomic aspects or dimensions of job quality. True or False
False
According to JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2), changes in the composition of the labor force of the United States have led to an upgrade and homogenization of job quality. True or False
False
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and class discussion, fewer work activities are commodified and rationalized in an industrial capitalist, than in a feudal agrarian, society. True or False
False
According to WORK (Chapter 1), an activity or function means the same thing and involves the same experiences regardless of whether the person performing it is being paid money for performing it or fulfilling a social (e.g. familial) obligation. True or False
False
According to WORK (Chapter 1), for sociologists, work is viewed merely as an economic transaction. True or False
False
According to WORK (Chapter 3) and class discussion, postindustrial/post-Fordist theories maintain that workers are becoming increasingly attached to particular firms or organizations rather than their occupation. True or False
False
According to WORK (Chapters 1), for sociologists, technological, efficiency and market/profitability imperatives shape the workplace more than cultural norms and institutional influences do. True or False
False
According to Harry Braverman, division and sub-division of previously combined tasks, and their assignment to different individuals exclusively, tend to both reduce labor costs and enhance managerial control over the work process. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, it is possible, often desirable, and at times necessary to combine research methodologies and sources of data to advance sociological understanding of workers and workplaces, including (changes in) job quality. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, whether economic and noneconomic job rewards are strongly or weakly interrelated in practice depends on the degree to which work is governed by shared cultural values and social norms, and subject to moral and legal sanctions. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 1), and class discussion, inclusive labor market institutions, like centralized and solidarisitic collective bargaining arrangements and institutions, and strong minimum wage laws (or employment or minimum income guarantees), extend the gains made by workers with relatively high labor market- or within-organization-power to those with relatively low levels of such power. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, "downsizing" refers to dismissing workers for reasons other than their individual poor performance or problems with the organization's overall profitability and economic performance. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, changes in industrial and occupational structures since the late 1970s have led to declines in traditional private sector union strongholds (e.g. mining and manufacturing) and increases in the types of work (e.g. interactive service work, white-collar professional and semi-professional work) with a weak history of unionization. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, despite the strong productivity growth in the United States since the 1970s, economic compensation (wages, salaries and employer-provided health and pension benefits) has not kept pace, and in some cases has declined, for nonsupervisory workers. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, employers' strategies and the decline of worker power and worker protections are interrelated and mutually reinforcing forces. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, ideological changes toward greater individualism and personal responsibility for work and life supported and promoted the economic and political structural changes that began in the late 1970s. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, since the late 1970s, increases in connectivity (made possible by advances in communication and transportation technology) have enhanced employers' ability optimally to locate their business operations so as to access cheaper sources of labor, energy, raw materials and intermediate inputs, and to take advantage of favorable tax and regulatory policies in different jurisdictions. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, the employment relationship is fundamentally a political and power relationship, as well as an economic relationship. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, the very legislative protections of the 'security' (and therefore relative rigidity) associated with the post-WWII 'standard' employment relations may have indirectly and unintentionally encouraged the growth of subcontracting and other nonstandard work arrangements by companies seeking greater flexibility in response to increased domestic and international competition. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, companies facing increased price competition, in increasingly volatile and differentiated markets for their products, are more likely to require increased flexibility in their internal organization structure, from their suppliers, and from their workers. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, neoliberalism emphasizes the centrality of markets and market-driven approaches, the privatization of public resources and services, and the removal of government and other collectivist or communitarian protections. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, something akin to a social contract or accord between labor and capital existed from the end of World War II until the mid- to late-1970s in the United States. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, the notion that the workplace is a community is an idea grounded in the Human Relations approach to management, and was one of the values emphasized in both of the dominant models of employment in large corporations of the period between 1945 and the mid-1970s in the United States. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, the shift from the post- WWII "age of security" to the "age of flexibility" that began in the mid-1970s represents the most recent 'swing' of Karl Polanyi's pendulum-like "double movement". True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 3) and class discussion, gaps in both economic and noneconomic aspects of job quality between people with different amounts of formal education has been increasing since the late 1970s in the United States. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 3) and class discussion, rapid and substantial increases in the employment of married women with pre-school-age children have, in part, been caused by the stagnating or declining wages of men. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 3) and class discussion, the principle that employers are entitled to demand that workers not allow their domestic, family, romantic, educational etc. concerns and responsibilities to interfere with their work performance persists, despite the increased proportion of workers in dual-earner families with children, and in single-parent households in the labor force. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 3), much of the stress and anxiety facing poor, working and middle-class families in the United States results from recent rapid changes in the paid employment of women, especially mothers, combined with much slower changes in the norms and institutions that support paid market work and unpaid care work. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapter 3), the impact of increased immigration on the economic conditions and prospects of native-born or longer-resident workers depends in part on whether immigrants are substitutes or complements to native- born or longer-resident workers. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapters 1 and 2) and class discussion, while all jobs have become more precarious since the late 1970s, some workers have become less, and some more, insecurely employed than others, resulting in an increasingly polarized or bifurcated labor force. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapters 2 and 3) and class discussion, new information technologies have enabled the elimination of some layers of middle management, provided the infrastructure necessary for outsourcing and offshoring, permitted the automation of many routine manufacturing and clerical jobs, and allowed employers to shed older and less well-educated workers in favor of younger, better or more-recently educated workers able to work comfortably with the new technologies. True or False
True
According to JOBS (Chapters 2 and 3), WORK (Chapter 3), and class discussion, the more securely one can access basic subsistence, health care, housing, education and training, childcare etc independently of one's employment, the more 'mobile' and 'flexible' he/she is going to be with regard to one's employment. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapter 1), groups, organizations, and economic institutions tend to develop characteristic features that operate according to their own logic, quite apart from the individuals that (happen to) make them up. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapter 1), sociologists of work argue that beneath the formal rules and procedures in workplaces and organizations one can find a second, informal web of rules and procedures that exerts a powerful influence over what actually occurs at work. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapter 1), whether an activity or function warrants the term 'work' depends on the social and organizational context in which it occurs. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, the mass-production/mass-consumption systems introduced in the first quarter of the 20th century become stable and accepted only after the end of WW II. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapters 1), workers do not behave merely as isolated individuals responding to material incentives and sanctions. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapters 2 and 3), the nature of the employment relationship is an important explanatory variable for both "labor process" and "post-Fordist/flexible capitalism" contemporary theoretical approaches in the sociology of work. True or False
True
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, Harry Braverman ___________________________. a) concentrated on the input/cost and production process dimensions of capitalist firms and employers (not on the marketing, selling and 'realization' dimensions) b) maintained that the problems of minimizing the cost (including the 'wage- bill') of inputs and maximizing managerial control over the production/work process and workers are unrelated, under capitalism c) insisted that, under capitalism, all work is de-skilled, simple and monotonous, and all workers are unskilled or at best semi-skilled d) did all of the above e) did none of the above
a) concentrated on the input/cost and production process dimensions of capitalist firms and employers (not on the marketing, selling and 'realization' dimensions)
According to WORK (Chapter 1), the "primacy-of-production" thesis asserts that a society's structural arrangements and patterned practices relating to production and work ______________: a) have far-reaching effects on the social order as a whole b) are primarily the result of the interaction between human genetics and the natural environment c) are governed by, and result from, that society's common culture and traditions d) have all of the above features e) have none of the above features
a) have far-reaching effects on the social order as a whole
According to WORK (Chapter 2), Michael Burawoy's research and theorizing _________. a) indicates that the workplace culture that workers themselves develop and practice may simultaneously make their work life more bearable, or even fun, but also contribute to their own more effective exploitation by their employers b) focuses most strongly on the physiological and technological conditions that underpin the exercise of managerial power over labor c) detects and foresees a broad historical shift from 'hegemonic' to 'despotic' production regimes d) have all of the above features e) have none of the above features
a) indicates that the workplace culture that workers themselves develop and practice may simultaneously make their work life more bearable, or even fun, but also contribute to their own more effective exploitation by their employers
According to WORK (Chapter 3) and class discussion, _____ is/are associated with 'mass production' or 'Fordism'. a) large, vertically-integrated bureaucratic organizations b) a lot of worker autonomy with respect to method or pace of their work c) general-purpose tools and machines used in production d) all of the above e) none of the above
a) large, vertically-integrated bureaucratic organizations
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, ____________. a) the breaking up or 'dis-integration' of large, vertically integrated firms, and the abandonment of highly centralized forms of organizational control, result in the dissolution of bureaucratic structures that insulated workers from volatile labor markets and provided them with opportunities for predictable career mobility b) the increasing 'casualization' of employment has not affected the job quality (pay, fringe benefits, job security, autonomy, etc) of those who remain steadily employed under 'standard' work arrangements c) the financialization of work implies an infusion of the computer and IT model into the innermost recesses of workplace life in a large number of industries d) all of the above are correct e) none of the above is correct
a) the breaking up or 'dis-integration' of large, vertically integrated firms, and the abandonment of highly centralized forms of organizational control, result in the dissolution of bureaucratic structures that insulated workers from volatile labor markets and provided them with opportunities for predictable career mobility
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, what may be termed "liquid capitalism" has (so far) been accompanied by __________. a) increased provision of governmental support and protection of the rights of workers to form or join labor unions or other forms of 'collective bargaining' organizations b) declining support for unemployed workers and the privatization of much previously public employment c) the emergence of a much less punitive and stigmatizing conception of poverty and the poor d) all of the above e) none of the above
b) declining support for unemployed workers and the privatization of much previously public employment
According to WORK (Chapter 1), work and working for wages, outside/away from one's (own family's) household, farm, workshop, office, etc. for non- relatives ____________.: a) were the culturally preferred norm for all in the 19th century American South b) have become the most familiar, expected and recognized forms of work and working arrangements for us in advanced Western societies c) are always and necessarily objectively, empirically different from work and working inside one's (family's) household, etc. with and for relatives d) have all of the above features e) have none of the above features
b) have become the most familiar, expected and recognized forms of work and working arrangements for us in advanced Western societies
According to WORK (Chapter 1), in recent years _____.: a) the boundary between work and "non-work" has become increasingly easy to draw b) the boundary between the job and private life has begun to break down c) the number of ambiguous (work vs. non-work, job vs. private life) situations has remained steady d) all of the above have been true e) none of the above has been true
b) the boundary between the job and private life has begun to break down
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and JOBS (Chapters 1, 2), ___________. a) all employees respond the same way to the same objective features of their jobs and workplace arrangements b) people's expectations about job rewards, and thus the explicit and implicit standards by which they evaluate the quality of past, current and prospective jobs are fixed by the time they reach adulthood c) all aspects of job quality cannot be measured and evaluated, by people themselves and by sociologists of work, equally easily and reliably d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
c) all aspects of job quality cannot be measured and evaluated, by people themselves and by sociologists of work, equally easily and reliably
According to WORK (Chapter 1), at the most abstract level, work, as addressed by the sociology of work, ________.: a) does not necessarily involve the expenditure of human effort b) always has a tangible, material, objective outcome c) is aimed at producing a socially valued good or service d) has all of the above features e) has none of the above features
c) is aimed at producing a socially valued good or service
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, ___________ is NOT a principle of 'scientific management'. a) knowledge of the production process should not reside with the workers doing the work but with management b) existing complex work tasks should be carefully analyzed into their constituent simple parts and reformulated according to standards of time- and-motion efficiency and maximum productivity c) the tools and machines to be used should be fitted to the skills and expertise of the available workers d) initiative and improvisation on the part of workers should only be encouraged or tolerated if can be transformed into procedures or methods controlled by management e) worker training should not be under the control of workers themselves or their collective organizations
c) the tools and machines to be used should be fitted to the skills and expertise of the available workers
According to WORK (Chapter 1) ________.: a) work that is not performed in exchange for money is not 'really' work b) wage labor in relation to the labor market is the most natural form of work for human beings c) work has been defined and performed entirely outside and independently of labor markets for most of human existence on the planet d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
c) work has been defined and performed entirely outside and independently of labor markets for most of human existence on the planet
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, _____ is/are forms or types of managerial control proposed by Richard Edwards. a) 'simple' (coercive power wielded by managers and supervisors over workers) b) 'technical' (control through the material underpinnings of the production process which impose a given method and pace of work on workers) c) 'bureaucratic' (control through a complex web of rules, regulations, job descriptions, handbooks, formal evaluations, etc) d) All of the above e) None of the above
d) All of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, which of the following claims did Braverman's work challenge? a) Work involving machines or computers is necessarily more skilled than work that does not make use of machines or computers. b) The more science is incorporated in the planning of the production and work processes, the more skilled must all the workers be. c) Office and professional work and workers are immune to deskilling and degradation. d) All of the above. e) None of the above
d) All of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, which of the following would be an example of the ways in which workplace cultures can engage, absorb, or take over the identities, energies and affiliations of workers? a) Disneyland employees who work dressed (and acting) as Disney characters b) Employees of high-tech Silicon Valley firms who, upon failing to meet high standards of risk-taking and innovative thinking, are not laid off but retained to be used as tragic heroes of cautionary tales for other employees c) Employees in upscale retail clothing company stores who are expected to not only be dressed in the clothes and clothing style of the company, but also embody and project the aspirational ideal which the company seeks to project about, and onto, its customers/clientele d) All of the above e) None of the above
d) All of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1), and class discussion ________________. a) there are often practical and political consequences that flow from the way we think about work b) how we conceive of work is inevitably affected by the flow of economic and political events c) macro-structural and historical contexts constrain work and the study of work but are also neither eternally fixed and unchangeable nor easily changed through acts of the will or voluntary agreement. d) All of the above are true. e) None of the above is true..
d) All of the above are true.
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and JOBS (Chapter 2), which of the following is/are true based on Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation? a) There is nothing natural or essentially human, individually or collectively, about having work (and economic life in general) being organized around 'individual gain' and market exchange b) Markets (including markets for labor) cannot long endure, if they can even arise, without moral, legal and political regulation. c) There has been a historical 'double movement' between 'flexibility' and 'security' since the advent of capitalism and industrialization. d) All of the above. e) None of the above.
d) All of the above.
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, _______________ is/are a determinants of, or factors affecting, people's understandings of job quality. a) individual innate and acquired characteristics, tendencies, preferences, etc. b) regional, community, and larger cultural ideals, norms and traditions regarding desirable job attributes in general, and for members of different groups and categories in particular (e.g. for men vs. women, for younger vs. older people, etc) c) the currently existing opportunities that are available for the attainment of various rewards through jobs d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1) _____ is/are among the features of the 'symbolic interactionist' approach to the study of work and occupations. a) treating the division of labor and occupational structure as the relatively stable but changeable basis and product of past and ongoing processes of interaction, negotiation, bargaining, compromises and conflicts between individuals and groups over the meaning and relative moral/social worth of different kinds of work and workers b) a focus on the active responses of workers to the structural constraints they confront at work c) an emphasis on the subjective and symbolic, social psychological and cultural, dimensions of work d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1) _________ is/are a common property(ies) of Marxist analyses of work? a) treating the sphere of production (as opposed to exchange or consumption) as an especially determinative institutional nexus b) treating the wage-labor relationship between employers/capital and labor as inherently conflictual and antagonistic c) treating the division (or non-division) between conception/mental labor and execution/manual labor as crucial for understanding work organization and workplace dynamics d) all of the above e) none of the above.
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1), ______ is/are part of the 'job' of sociologists of work. a) explaining why work itself is defined in certain ways b) explaining the differential allocation of jobs to members of different groups and categories c) how changes in the structure of work and employment are likely to affect social structures and personal lives d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1), research suggests that the actual or perceived nature and status of the work one does (or the occupation one has) affect ____. a) the qualities that others attribute to one b) one's perception of the world c) the criteria one uses to evaluate oneself and others d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, _______________ is/are an answer(s) offered by adherents of the labor process school to the question//problem of managerial control over work and workers. a) Taylorism and 'scientific' (or 'rational') management, involving the 'degradation' of labor, separation of 'conception' from 'execution', the management-controlled detailed division of labor, de-'skilling' of work and workers, etc. b) symbolic, normative and formal-bureaucratic control within, and built- into, work organizations c) the 'colonization' and 'assimilation' of workers' identities, through making claims and imposing expectations on aspects of workers' being beyond those 'normally' associated with market- and contract-based relationships and associations d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, which of the following is/are (a) contemporary example(s) of Taylorism? a) Toyota's (now generally adopted) "lean-production" and "just-in-time" approaches b) "lean retailing" c) the Walmart-led "logistics revolution" d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3) and class discussion, ______ is/are associated with the 'craft production' conception of work or technological paradigm. a) a "high trust" conception of work b) skilled workers with significant autonomy over method or pace of their work c) multiple- or general-purpose tools and machines used in production d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, 'Fordist mass-production' and large, vertically integrated organizations require, and are associated with, ______________. a) large, stable, and predictable markets/demand for the organizations' outputs b) large, stable and predictable markets/supply for the organizations' inputs, including labor, energy, raw materials, etc c) natural, technical, capital and artificial/legal protections against competition in both input and output markets d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2) and class discussion, __________ tend(s) to undermine the viability and/or profitability of 'Fordist mass production'. a) volatile, sharply fluctuating, or simply saturated/exhausted (input) supply market conditions b) widespread diffusion and lowered cost of sophisticated information technology and computer- (or numerically-) controlled production equipment c) volatile, sharply fluctuating, and highly differentiated (output) demand market conditions d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, ____________ is/are associated with post-Fordist organizational arrangements and work-structures. a) contracting-out and outsourcing b) work organized around 'projects' rather than fixed 'jobs' c) growth in the variety of output/product markets and clienteles of organizations d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapter 2), and class discussion, _______________ is/are a conclusion(s) regarding the claims of the proponents of workplace flexibility and post-Fordist production systems. a) while many of the most lauded forms of corporate job redesign have in fact been diffused quite extensively, they have not resulted in generalized worker empowerment and/or employee involvement b) new, flexible production networks impose significant costs on non- core workers and smaller companies (increasing insecurity and risk, reducing pay and benefits, etc) c) corporations and other big organizations are empowered through the removal or weakening of restraints on their practices towards employees, suppliers and sub-contractors d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 3), and class discussion, _________ is/are true about the actual shape or contours of flexible production networks. a) Vertically integrated organizations have often been replaced by networks, alliances, short-and long-term financial and technology agreements between big firms, governments and with large numbers of generally smaller firms acting as their suppliers and sub-contractors b) A shift from 'producer-driven' to 'buyer-driven' regional and global commodity chains has taken place c) While production networks have taken a wide variety of forms, the most predominant appear likely to reproduce or even deepen the stark inequalities of the Fordist regime d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to class discussion, which of the following is/are important descriptive categories used in the sociology of work? a) industry b) establishment c) occupation d) all of the above e) none of the above
d) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and JOBS (Chapter 1), ___________.: a) work institutions are important agencies of both socialization and social control b) various aspects and dimensions of work have significant physical and mental health effects on people c) while the importance of work influences on the production and presentation of self has varied, both across time and between different groups and categories, work has had, and continues to have, strong effects on personal and social life d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
d) all of the above are true
According to WORK (Chapter 1), ____________________. a) the organization of work is often governed by social, cultural and political factors which are only incidentally or indirectly related to technical or economic efficiency considerations b) how work is defined, how technologies are selected, and how production processes take shape are often officially presented and justified as examples of technical or economic rationality maximization while actually being the outcome of unofficial and informal struggles and compromises over relative power and prestige c) the logics of 'efficiency' and 'sentiments' may or may not complement each other in motivating and governing the actions and interactions of members of work groups d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
d) all of the above are true
According to WORK (Chapter 1), _________________________. a) some theorists have challenged claims regarding the continuing salience of work (paid or unpaid) for people's personal and social identity b) the increasing importance of non-work (e.g. consumer or cultural) influences on identities may, indirectly, also increase the importance of paid work (e.g. as sources of adequate disposable income) for people c) the expansion of occupations and industries that are less tied to particular geographical locations tends to weaken or undermine the influence of important non-employment interactions, obligations and ties on people's identities d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
d) all of the above are true
According to WORK (Chapter 3), JOBS (Chapters 1, 2) and class discussion, _____________. a) temporary workers, the intermittently employed, those on fixed-term contracts or performing state-subsidized work, project, freelance, fractional and undocumented immigrant and other legally vulnerable workers are among the 'precariat' b) rejections of neoliberal versions of post-Fordist employment arrangements, work conditions, etc may take forms that seek to preserve the self-determination/autonomy that flexibility could provide for workers c) the emancipatory promises and possibilities immanent within the concept of workplace and work flexibility are not, and need not be, entirely illusory but realizing them is likely to require more than what market-based processes and mechanisms alone can provide d) all of the above are true e) none of the above is true
d) all of the above are true
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, in the United States, beginning in the late 1970s __________. a) changes in the work structures, institutions, and rules and norms governing the employment relationship led to changes in work and job quality b) changes in the composition of the labor force by sex, educational attainment and skill-level, immigration status, race and ethnicity, age, and marital and parenthood status affected the types of jobs people valued as well as the kinds of jobs they were able to obtain c) there has developed a polarization (or bifurcation) of jobs and employment relations with regards to all aspects of job quality d) all of the above have taken place e) none of the above has taken place
d) all of the above have taken place
According to WORK (Chapter 2), labor process theory and the labor process approach to the sociology of work _______________. a) treat the distribution of power and authority within work organizations as a technical issue related to the functional needs of such organizations b) interrogate the social processes that underlie the design, selection, and use of particular production processes and technologies in work organizations c) are centrally concerned about the problem of managerial control over work and workers d) b) and c) only e) a) and b) only
d) b) and c) only
According to WORK (Chapter 2) and class discussion, the first-wave of labor process theoretical analyses of work ______________. a) revived and updated the analysis of the labor process, and changes therein, in the development and growth of capitalism initially developed by Marx but then generally neglected by Marxist scholars in the first two-thirds of the 20th century b) was a response to, and critique of, the benign image of industrial society that predominated in academic, managerial and mainstream/respectable political circles c) focused specifically and self-consciously on understanding the structure and dynamics of labor processes within and under capitalism, and either bracketed other types (e.g. unpaid household) of labor processes or analyzed them only as they affected, or were affected by, those within and under capitalism d) had all of the above features e) had none of the above features
d) had all of the above features
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and JOBS (Chapter 1), neoliberalism _____. a) is a market-centered and market-driven doctrine or approach b) argues against, and seeks to limit or eliminate, the influence of public, government, collectivist, and other non-individualist, non-market logics or commitments in the allocation of resources, opportunities, and rewards c) predicts that the spread of markets as the primary or only mechanism for allocating resources, opportunities and rewards will result in the elimination of biases, such as racism or sexism, in work institutions and social life in general as, and because, they interfere with the efficient and rational allocation of resources, opportunities and rewards d) has all of the above features e) has none of the above features
d) has all of the above features
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and your instructor, the institutionalist perspective on work _____________________. a) stresses the legal, political and cultural influences and constraints on work that emanate from the external environment of work organizations b) focuses on, and begins to explain, the frequently greater concern shown by organizational elites with wider perceptions of the work organization than with the knowledge and inclinations of its own employees c) treat organization as both 'connected to' and 'constructed by' their wider, societal environments d) has all of the above features e) has none of the above features
d) has all of the above features
According to WORK (Chapter 1), sociological work conducted in actual work settings ________. a) has discovered patterns of covert defiance, subterfuge and restriction of output even among the most subordinate-level workers exposed to the most stringent forms of attempted managerial control b) demonstrates that rank-and-file workers accumulate tacit knowledge about the quirks of the production process which they do not readily share with newcomers or management c) reveals the existence of hidden and unauthorized practices and uses of workplace resources, technologies and facilities by workers which variously resist, undermine, alter, complement or crucially support the operation and legitimacy of official rules, regulations, policies and norms d) has made all of the above contributions to our knowledge and understanding of work e) has made none of the above contributions to our knowledge and understanding of work
d) has made all of the above contributions to our knowledge and understanding of work
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and class discussion, the feminist (and intersectional) approaches to the study of work ________________. a) critically analyze how gender (and other ascriptive structures and processes) shapes the nature of the work that people do and the meanings work holds both for those who perform it and others b) focus on discovering the causes and effects of job, occupational and industrial differentiation (including segregation) by sex (and race, ethnicity, and other qualities and category memberships) c) stress both the resilience but also the complexity of gender (and other ascriptive types of) inequality with regard to all aspects of work d) have all of the above features e) have none of the above features
d) have all of the above features
According to WORK (Chapter 2), recent research and theorizing about 'interactive service work' ____________. a) indicate that a widening gulf is developing between low-paying and 'low-skill' proletarianized work and workers, on the one hand, and professional, autonomous and empowered interactive service work and workers, on the other b) and the infusion of market-based discourse into previously formal work organizations, suggest that elements of instability and precarity increasingly are dimensions of work that used to be governed by relatively stable and predictable structures, rules and norms, as well as order-givers and performance evaluators c) point to the possibility of both employing firms gaining enhanced capacities to control and manipulate workers' subjectivity but also of workers whose selves, technical, and cognitive skills are such as to enable them successfully to resist, and even themselves manipulate, firms' strategies of worker control d) include all of the above e) Include none of the above
d) include all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 2), the infusion of market discourse into firms, especially those whose offerings are services provided directly to clients or guests, _____________. a) reshapes not only workers' world-views, but also their personal style b) renders employees' ability to project aesthetic tastes and personal style subject to the employing firm's demands c) turns self-presentation, patterns of speech, fashion-sense, make-up and physical appearance into not only employee selection hiring criteria but also employee training (or 'grooming') goals d) may have all of the above effects e) may have none of the above effects
d) may have all of the above effects
According to WORK (Chapters, 2, 3), JOBS (Chapters 1, 2) and class discussion, it is easier for companies and organizations to introduce new production technologies, work arrangements and employment relationships ___________ . a) in new industries and occupations than traditional/established ones b) with previously excluded, marginalized or under-privileged workers than with established, entrenched or privileged workers c) when companies/organizations are under strong competitive or budgetary threat than otherwise d) under all of the above conditions e) under none of the above conditions
d) under all of the above conditions
According to WORK (Chapters 1 and 2) and class discussion, the changes in work and economic life associated with the transition to, and operation of, industrial capitalism had which of the following effects? a) Disrupted customary earlier gender and family arrangements and norms. b) Reconfigured social stratification systems (class structures, status orders, etc) c) Imposed, and generalized beyond the world of work and production, discipline, punctuality, regularity and compliance with organizational demands. d) Redefined people's conceptions of 'human nature' e) All of the above
e) All of the above
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, ________ is/are an aspect(s) or dimension(s) of 'job quality'. a) earnings and fringe benefits (like health insurance, paid vacations, parental leave, pensions, etc) b) protection from arbitrary, capricious and sudden employment termination c) control over the kind and pace of one's work activities d) control over the overall number and scheduling of one's work hours e) all of the above
e) all of the above
According to JOBS (Chapter 1) and class discussion, differences in the reaction of different workers to changes in the organization of their work (pace, autonomy, etc) may be explained by differences ______________. a) in workers' political and legal rights outside the work/employment relationship b) in workers' available alternatives: sources of income, different types of employers, non-market access to means of subsistence, etc c) in their prior experiences and related expectations d) in the scope of their enforceable bargaining rights (if any) e) all of the above
e) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1) __________ is a/are key school(s) of thought in the sociology of work. a) Marxist theories of work b) the interactionist perspective on work c) feminist (and inter-sectional) theories of work d) the institutionalist perspective on work e) all of the above
e) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1, 2), JOBS (Chapter 1, 2) and class discussion, _________ is/are among the ways that workers have responded to changes in their working conditions, intensity of work, autonomy required of or allowed them at work, task allocation, pay, etc. they perceive/experience as negative? a) quitting b) absenteeism and loafing c) 'working to rule' d) sabotage and vandalism e) all of the above
e) all of the above
According to WORK (Chapter 1) and JOBS (Chapter 1), the willingness and capacity of workers (individually or collectively, in one workplace/firm/employer or across regions, occupations or industries) to resist and challenge managerial expectations, commands and demands _________. a) are completely determined by the technical features of the work process b) are lower when they are subjected to harsh and abusive treatment by supervisors and managers or, conversely, when supervisors and managers are competent and act in ways that elicit the workers' respect c) are at their maximum among professional employees and at their minimum among skilled manual workers d) have all of the above features e) have none of the above features.
e) have none of the above features.