Sociology of Work: Course Outline

Instructor: My name is Bill Bailey, and my office is in room 321 of Harvey Hall. My phone extension is 2226; my home phone is 235-0510. My email address is baileyb@uwstout.edu, and although I have a web site (http://www.uwstout.edu/socsci/bailey/bailey.htm) the best way to access materials relevant for this course is through the e-scholar portal (see below)

•My office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:30-3:30 and Tuesday & Thursday, 1:00-3:00.. If these times are inconvenient for you, talk to me after class and we'll set up an alternative time.

•For those issued a Stout laptop computer, you will be in the e-scholar site when you open your computer. For others, the e-scholar site can be accessed by clicking on e-scholar when at Stout's home page (www.uwstout.edu) When at the e-Scholar page, log in and then make sure that you are in the correct semester and year by checking in the upper right area of the e-Scholar site where your classes are listed including this class. In the following sections of this syllabus I will detail the information to be found and accessed at the various e-Scholar modules but in general, we will be using the Resources and Links modules of e-Scholar. The e-Scholar site also allows for e-mailing students in the section and some opportunities of creating web chat rooms through e-scholar.

Course Purpose: The Sociology of Work is primarily concerned with the performance of work as it is expressed through, influenced by and, in turn, influences salient social roles and structures. We will examine work in general as well as in certain specific kinds of work and occupations.

Requirements:

1. Attendance: Class lectures and discussions are an important part of the course and, for that reason, attendance will be taken and poor attendance may affect your grade. Specifically, if you miss more than eight classes, for whatever reasons, your course grade will be reduced one "level" (with levels being A,A-,B+,B,etc.). Note that "legitimate" absences must come from within the eight permitted absences.

2. Readings: You are required to read all of the assigned reading (see the outline below). Read the assignments before they are discussed in class.

3. The basic testing "instrument" will be longish quizzes (taking between twenty minutes and a half an hour) These quizzes will cover both readings and class lectures-discussions, and will consist of ten multiple choice and four identification/short answer questions YOU MAY NOT TAKE THE QUIZZES EARLY OR LATE, but the lowest quiz will be dropped. We'll have a quiz every time we finish a topic/chapter--probably seven-eight quizzes depending on how quickly we go through the material

Question Sheets are available at my web site for Sociology of Work. .This site can be accessed through e-Scholar site at the Links portal. Click on question sheets and select from the list of question sheets that are organized by chapter.

Group discussions: On a regular basis the class will break up into discussion groups. I will hand out a set of questions and the groups will answer the questions. Generally, we'll have these discussion groups prior to a quiz and they will serve as a review for the quiz. If you miss a group discussion assignment, you can do the assignment on your own but I'll reduce the maximum potential score by one "unit".

Occupational Case study: You are to analyze an occupation using a sociological perspective--an approach that focuses on the social patterns of work and its surroundings. Your selected occupation should be categorized as withing the following occupational categories: (1)executive-managers, (2)professionals, (3)clerical and (4)sales workers, (5)skilled workers, and (6)semi-unskilled workers. In your description of the work organization, detail the socio-economic environment within which it functions. The point of the exercise is for you to demonstrate skill and insight using the concepts of the course

More specifically, you should include the following five sections in your paper

Describe the job ,its tasks, and at-work social relationships
Locate the job in one of our (above) occupational categories, and make an argument for why it belongs there
Identify the larger organization within which the job is found. and describe the organizations social structure/hierarchy
Emphasize the informal as well as the formal social aspects of work.
Indicate how work impacts on the worker's life: family life, leisure, off-work relationships
Point out the job's rewards and problems

In general, use the conceptual framework provided by text and lectures--some of these concepts will be specific to the occupational category and available only after we discuss the occupation in class

Job Selection: Choose a job you are familiar with, ideally one that you currently hold or have held in the past. If nothing comes to mind, choose a job held by someone close to you. Supplement your personal experiences with other sources of information as mentioned, below.

Sources of Information: Incorporate material from your text (unassigned as well as assigned readings), the lectures, interviews with existing workers, personal experiences, library readings and any other information you have available from movies, TV or other books that you've read. The project grade will depend, in part, on the breadth of the sources.

The Paper: The paper should be at a minimum, four pages long, double spaced and with a consistent referencing scheme. All sources of information should be referenced including your experiences, lectures, text, interviews, etc. The paper is due Thursday, December 2^nd but you should talk to me about your selected occupation and the organization of your paper by Tuesday, November 2^nd . I'll provide a sample paper, both handed out and in the Resources module at your e-Scholar site.

Evaluation: The final report will be evaluated on (1)if the paper meets the minimum length requirement; (2)if the work organization is profiled; (3)if an argument is made about the job's occupational type; (4)if the relevant course concepts are incorporated; (5)report organization and writing. This report will comprise about a nineteen percent of the course grade.

Graduate student requirement: Graduate students will substitute a research paper for the occupational case study. The topic of the research paper will be the occupation/profession that your graduate work is preparing you for. In writing this paper, include interviews with selected professionals as well as the traditional library/web sources of information. Graduate students should meet with me about this paper, early in the semester. The required length of this paper is ten pages. If this doesn't work for your field, the requirement would be the above occupational case study plus a log of articles about the social nature of your field or a book report if that doesn't work. Anyhow, talk to me about this early in the semester.

Take Home Final Essay: The essay question will be given to the class approximately a week before the end of the semester. The final essay will probably involve Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickled and Dimed in some way. The take home final will be due on the date and time of our evaluation week class.

Summary of Requirements and Maximum Points

1. Eight quizzes, each quiz worth 40 points, 240 possible points, 60% of grade.

Seven discussion assignments, 10 points each, 70 points total, 10% of grade.
Occupational case study, 60 possible points, 15% of grade
Take home final, 60 possible points, 15% of grade

The Grade Distribution for each Quiz

A =90-100, A-=88-89, B+=86-87, B =80-85, B-=78-79, C+=76-77, C =70-75, C-=68-69,

D+=66-67, D =60-65, D-=58-59, F =57 & under

Scores and grades are available on the Internet. All quizzes and assignments will be returned to you graded but you can also access your quiz/assignment scores and a progress report on your grade from the Web by entering the following web address: http://www.rredware.com/smreports.asp

This site's URAL is also found in this class's e-Scholar site in the Links module under "Grades". On reaching the score/grade report site, you will be asked to enter your student code and password. Codes and passwords will be assigned by me early in the course. The score on your most recent assignment will be available the day after I've entered the score on my computer.

Texts:

1. The Social Organization of Work by Hodson and Sullivan

2. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Selected articles available at the Resources site in the e-Scholar portal. The bibliography for this list of articles follows.

Hass, Jack. Educational Control Among High Steel Workers in Learning to Work, 1968.

Jackall, Robert. Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. New York: (Oxford University Press) 1988. pp. 25-32.

Levine, David. Reinventing The Workplace. (Washington, D.C.: Brookings) 1995. 10-35.

Mander, Jerry. The Rules of Corporate Behavior in The Case Against the Global Economy. (Sierra Club Books) 1996.

Ritzer, George. Working, Conflict, and Change. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.) 1972.

Wallulis, Jerald. The Death of Company Loyalty and the Birth of Corporate Support in The New Insecurity: The End of the Standard Job and Family (State University of New York Press) 1998.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

I. Introduction to Work⁽¹⁾ Chapter 1

A. Work defined

B. The evolution of work meanings

C. The evolution of work

II. Autonomous Work

A. Professionals Chapter 11

B. Skilled workers Ritzer, Hasss⁽²⁾

III. Corporate Work

A. The world of the large corporation Chapter 15 , Mander

B. Managers Chapter 12 Jackell

C. Clerical and sales Chapter 13,

IV Work in a Changed Economy

The New Economy Wallulis
Managerial and Professional Work
Semi and Unskilled Work Ehrenreich

D. New Corporate strategies Levine

Take-home final due at Evaluation Week period: Thursday, December 16, 2:00

1. I plan on making sets of question sheets for each chapter and topic that will be available on e-Scholar (at the Links site under "Questions"). The use of these questions is not mandatory but you can earn five extra credit points for each set completed, up to four sets for 20 extra credit points. They will be helpful in studying for the quizzes and discussion assignments because its likely that I'll select multiple choice, short answer and discussion questions from these sets of questions.

2. The articles assigned on this course outline are identified by the author's last name and are available at the Resources site of the e-scholar portal. Go to the Resources site and click on the authors name to bring the article up. If you have a Stout-issued labtop, or are using a Stout computer or have access to a DSL or cable connection, these articles can be easily opened. If not, see me.