Instructor: Harvey Krahn   Office: Tory 4-23   Phone: 492-3315  E-Mail: hkrahn@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca

This course focuses on work and work organizations in the past, present, and future. Most of the emphasis is on paid work in the formal economy, although some readings and classroom discussions will also address unpaid domestic work and work in the informal economy. The course has both a macro- and a micro-focus. The former includes national economies, national, regional, and local labour markets, work organization structures, public policies, labour legislation, and unions and professional associations. The latter includes work values, job satisfaction, union militancy, reactions to unemployment, and other subjective states, as well as management approaches. Thus, students will be introduced to central debates and recent research in the sociology of work, social theory, organizational analysis, labour relations, industrial psychology, labour market economics, public policy studies, and related areas.

Among the interesting and important questions addressed in this course are the following:

• How are employment patterns different today than they were in the past? How do they differ across contemporary societies?
• How are some jobs better than others? Are all jobs becoming much the same or are we seeing a polarization of the labour market?
• Why do some kinds of people tend to get better jobs? Is inequality in access to good jobs increasing or decreasing?
• Are the educational requirements for jobs increasing? What kinds of employment skills should we be teaching in high school? in university?
• Is conflict inevitable in workplaces? What could be done to reduce conflict in the workplace?
• What is the future of work in Canada? Will unemployment rise or decline?
• What does the employment future look like for young Canadians? for Aboriginal Canadians? for older workers? for less educated workers?
• Are new technologies improving the quality of work? Are they creating unemployment?
• What's wrong with part-time work? Is self-employment better?
• Should the government be involved in setting rules for the workplace?
• Should unions be involved in employment issues? What about professional associations?
• Do workers have the right to refuse unsafe work? Should sexual harassment be treated more seriously in the workplace?
• What makes people satisfied with a job? What makes a job stressful? Is under-employment really a problem?
• As a society, do we need to change our work values? Or should we change how we organize work?

Enrollment is restricted to students in the Faculty of Engineering. While no prior knowledge of sociology is assumed, it is assumed that students will be willing to explore the value of studying work, work organizations, and labour markets from a sociological perspective. The course objectives include:

1. learning about employment patterns, the structure of work organizations, the manner in which labour markets operate, and how education and work are linked, with particular emphasis on Canadian society

 2. learning about management approaches, union-management relations, and the impacts of public policies and labour legislation on the way work is organized

 3. learning about how individuals experience work, or the lack thereof

4. learning about cross-national differences in work patterns, labour market operations, labour legislation, management approaches, and work values

5. further developing critical thinking skills, and employing them to examine social theories, management approaches, public policies, and social science research

 6. further developing writing skills

7. gaining an appreciation for social science research, its value and its limitations

 8. gaining insights about employment patterns and work relationships that will be useful for engineers in their careers and in their lives as citizens

Reading Requirements:

H. Krahn and G.S. Lowe. 1993. Work, Industry and Canadian Society. 2nd ed. Scarborough: Nelson Canada. [there are a few copies of an earlier edition around; they will be helpful, but not sufficient]

Lowe, G.S. and H. Krahn (eds.). 1993. Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry. Scarborough: Nelson Canada.

 

NOTE: The instructor will not be lecturing directly from the textbook (Krahn and Lowe), although he will organize his lectures around the chapters (see assigned reading schedule below). The instructor will make reference in his lectures to some of the specific articles in the Reader (Lowe and Krahn) but certainly not to all of them. The editorial comments in the Reader will help students see the connection between the articles and the material covered in the textbook and in lectures.

 

NOTE: The textbook and the reader have a total of about 800 pages. Spread over the term, that works out to about 8 pages a day. Spread over the last 24 hours before the final exam, it works out to about two minutes per page.

Optional Study Guide: The Sociology 366 home page includes an Optional Study Guide. This study guide was prepared by Dr. Graham S. Lowe of the Department of Sociology and is copyrighted. While this study guide is not set up to directly match the schedule of this course, it is built around the same textbook and reader. Consequently, students may find it very useful as they do their assigned readings and prepare for exams.
 

All three exams will contain multiple-choice and short essay questions. The multiple-choice questions will cover material from lectures, other classroom presentations, and assigned readings from the previous third of the course. Essay topics on the mid-term exams will cover material from the previous third of the course, while the final exam essay topics may cover material from earlier in the course. The three exams will be graded and weighted (as noted above) to obtain a total term percentage before a final grade is assigned.  Approximate cutting points for final grades will be:

Course Schedule: