Work and the Economy Sociology Essay

Work and the Economy Sociology Essay

Instructions/Descriptions

Work and the Economy Sociology Essay

Work and the Economy

This week we have learned about why organizations are important for economic and social life. In particular, work can have many social benefits. Write a 1-2 page paper on the following prompt. Please make sure to properly cite sources using the APA style guide.

Prompt: Discuss the characteristics that you think are most important for creating worker satisfaction in the workplace. If you are employed, analyze your current workplace thinking about what you like and what you wish it had. If you are not employed, talk to someone about what they like and dislike. How might what workers think leads to worker satisfaction change over the course of one’s life?

[Order Now]

THIS NOTES SHOIULD HELP

The Economy and Work

As we learned in the section on social class, economic patterns play a significant role in people lives. Almost every area of social life has a market attached to it. Even things such as love, morality, and family have places in economic markets such as film, charitable giving which every major companies engages in, and online dating. Markets are the foundation for economic patterns.

Markets: places where people engage in the exchange of good (commodities) and services.

A common perspective of markets are that they involve rational-choice. That is, individuals exchanging goods understand what they are selling and what they are buying. And that the exchange of good is based on rational choices laid out among a set of options. The premise of this exchange is that each party will be better off. The seller gives up a resource in exchange for a profit and the buying obtains a resource for use.

Rational-choice theory: choosing the most preferred option from a selection offered in a marketplace.

But sociologists studying work and economy argue that markets are more complex, happen repeatedly over time, and are subject to influences by social forces that influence the outcome of exchanges. Things such as one’s position in the marketplace, government intervention in shaping the market, and norms pertaining to culture, race, gender, etc., and knowledge of how markets work all impact the choices people make.

There are three social factors commonly studied: social networks, power, and culture.

Power

From an economic standpoint, markets should be the great equalizer. But sociologists find that power operates on different levels in how people make decisions in the market. On a micro level, discrimination still occurs throughout market structures. For example, researchers at Harvard find that blacks still receive fewer call-backs than whites. Researchers at Pew Research found that 42% of women in 2017 reported gender discrimination in the workplace.

Culture

Cultural perspectives point out the invisibility of informal rules in markets and how these can shape people’s outcomes. That is knowing what cues to look for in market trends can lead people to buy or sell. Take for example Wall Street in 2007. Many traders were able to understand the meanings of certain cues such how rising interest rates, the over-purchasing of bonds, and the high prices of housing signaled an upcoming recession. By understanding these signs, they were able to take money out of the market before the large crash, leaving everyday people still in the market to take the brunt of the fall.

Other examples of culture in the market include negotiation skills, timing of market interest in buying and selling, and enthusiasm. A recent study by a Harvard PhD student found that culture was an important component in the hiring decisions of top tier investment firms and banks. Hiring managers would often select candidates from top Universities, such as Harvard and Yale, and then from there would ask questions that would reveal the candidates cultural experiences, such as traveling through Europe or participation in upper income leisure activities such as crew or sailing. Employers, who came from upper income categories themselves, would hire those who had similar cultural, and thereby economic, experiences.

In addition, corporations themselves are in various positions of buying and selling. Large corporations can purchase more items at a lower cost, which prices out smaller competitors. They also can afford to take on more risk, since they have more capital to begin with. Thus, large corporations are better positioned to take more of the marketplace, not because they are using creative strategies or new products, but because they have more capital to begin with.

[Order Now]

Social networks: the ties between individuals that are made through family, friendship, the workplace, social groups, or common experiences (e.g. alumni).

The connections people make with one another are important resources for time and money. These relationships are often based on trust, that individuals who are known will be willing to provide fair exchanges. For example, Uzzi (1999) finds that prior business experience is a motivating factor when a company is seeking a large loan from a bank. Many real estate agents and brokers receive their business through referrals from previous clients.

How individuals get connected to employment positions is also a reflection of social networks. Granovetter found that employees were more likely to receive positions if someone they new referred them. Interestingly, Granovetter often found the connection was stronger if it was a second-degree connection rather than a first-degree. That is, you are more likely to be hired if a friend is passing along your name to another known individual, rather than you passing along your name to some you know. Today, this social network pattern happens among friends in offices but also via corporate intermediaries such as head hunters or web-based sites such as Linked-In.

Work and the Economy Sociology Essay

PLACE THE ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!