Sociology of Work and Organizations Course

Lesson 1 • Contemporary Theoretical Frameworks

Post-industrial, feminist, and post-structuralist theories extend classical ideas to modern workplaces. Students learn to apply multiple lenses to the same phenomenon.

Lesson 2 • Classical Sociological Theories of Work

Marx, Weber, and Durkheim's core arguments about labor, bureaucracy, and division of labor are introduced. These theories form the analytical backbone of the course.

Lesson 3 • Research Methods in Work Sociology

Qualitative and quantitative methods used to study work and organizations are surveyed. Students develop skills to evaluate and design basic sociological research.

Lesson 1 • Unemployment and Underemployment

Unemployment is reframed as a social and structural problem rather than an individual failure. Students examine measurement, causes, and social consequences of joblessness.

Lesson 2 • Structure of Labor Markets

Primary and secondary labor market segments are distinguished by job quality, stability, and access. This segmentation explains persistent inequality in employment outcomes.

Lesson 3 • Precarious and Non-Standard Employment

Temporary, part-time, and gig arrangements are analyzed as structural features of modern labor markets. Students assess their consequences for worker security and identity.

Lesson 4 • Globalization and Labor Supply

Global supply chains and migration reshape labor markets in both sending and receiving economies. Students trace how global forces produce local employment conditions.

Lesson 1 • Organizational Change and Adaptation

Organizations change through planned reform, crisis response, and environmental pressure. Students assess how change processes affect workers and reproduce or disrupt inequality.

Lesson 2 • Human Relations and Behavioral Approaches

The Hawthorne studies and subsequent human relations theory shifted focus to social dynamics at work. Students trace how informal groups and motivation became organizational concerns.

Lesson 3 • Institutional and Ecological Perspectives

Institutional theory and population ecology explain why organizations adopt similar forms and why some survive. Students apply these frameworks to real organizational fields.

Lesson 4 • Classical Organizational Theory

Scientific management, bureaucracy, and administrative theory are analyzed as foundational organizational models. Students evaluate their enduring influence on modern workplaces.

Lesson 1 • Theories of Workplace Power

Power is examined through Weberian authority, Marxist class relations, and Foucauldian discipline. Students learn to distinguish coercive, normative, and structural power.

Lesson 2 • Surveillance and Monitoring Technologies

Electronic monitoring, algorithmic management, and performance metrics are analyzed as contemporary control tools. Students evaluate their effects on autonomy, trust, and well-being.

Lesson 3 • Management Control Strategies

Direct control, technical control, and bureaucratic control are compared as managerial strategies. Students assess how each strategy shapes worker behavior and identity.

Lesson 4 • Consent, Compliance, and Subjectivity

Workers often consent to conditions that disadvantage them through ideological and identity processes. Students analyze how consent is manufactured and maintained organizationally.

Lesson 1 • Race, Ethnicity, and Employment

Racial stratification in hiring, promotion, and wages is examined through structural and interactional lenses. Students distinguish between individual bias and systemic racial inequality.

Lesson 2 • Diversity Management and Its Limits

Corporate diversity programs are evaluated for their effectiveness in reducing structural inequality. Students distinguish symbolic diversity initiatives from substantive equity interventions.

Lesson 3 • Intersectionality in Organizations

Intersecting identities produce unique workplace experiences not captured by single-axis analysis. Students apply intersectional frameworks to organizational case studies.

Lesson 4 • Class, Social Mobility, and Work

Class background shapes access to desirable jobs and career trajectories beyond formal credentials. Students analyze how class reproduction operates through organizational practices.

Lesson 1 • Toxic Cultures and Organizational Harm

Toxic organizational cultures produce harassment, burnout, and ethical violations at scale. Students identify cultural mechanisms that enable harm and assess accountability structures.

Lesson 2 • Work Identity and Self-Concept

Work is a primary source of identity, meaning, and social status in modern societies. Students analyze how organizational contexts shape and constrain worker self-concept.

Lesson 3 • Concepts of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is defined through values, norms, rituals, and artifacts that shape member behavior. Students distinguish strong and weak cultures and assess their managerial uses.

Lesson 4 • Culture as Managerial Tool

Culture management attempts to align worker values with organizational goals through socialization and symbols. Students critically evaluate whether culture management constitutes a form of control.

Lesson 1 • Emotional and Aesthetic Labor

Service work requires managing feelings and appearance as part of the job, extending labor beyond physical tasks. Students apply Hochschild's framework to contemporary service occupations.

Lesson 2 • Career Trajectories and Social Structure

Careers are shaped by organizational structures, labor markets, and social identities, not just individual choices. Students analyze how structural factors produce unequal career outcomes.

Lesson 3 • Professionalization and Professional Power

Professions achieve market closure through licensing, credentials, and jurisdictional claims. Students analyze how professional power is established, maintained, and challenged.

Lesson 4 • Knowledge Work and Creative Occupations

Knowledge workers and creative professionals occupy a distinct position in post-industrial labor markets. Students examine autonomy, precarity, and identity in these growing occupational sectors.

Lesson 1 • Remote Work and Spatial Reorganization

Remote and hybrid work arrangements alter the spatial and temporal boundaries of employment. Students assess their effects on inequality, surveillance, and work-life boundaries.

Lesson 2 • Automation, AI, and Job Displacement

Artificial intelligence and robotics are assessed for their differential impact across occupations and social groups. Students evaluate competing predictions about automation's scope and pace.

Lesson 3 • Futures of Work: Scenarios and Critiques

Competing visions of post-work, universal basic income, and reskilling are evaluated sociologically. Students develop critical frameworks for assessing policy responses to technological change.

Lesson 4 • Technology and Work: Historical Patterns

Past waves of technological change reveal recurring patterns of displacement, adaptation, and new job creation. Students use historical cases to contextualize contemporary automation debates.