Industrial sociology is a specialised area concerned with:
• how work is organised
• workplace conflicts
• management–employee relations and especially the role of trade unions
• divisions between work and leisure time
• links between work and the importance of social class
• different labour markets.
Studies in the 1950s and 1960s were mainly conducted within the factory
setting; hence the name industrial sociology. An example is a study which
will be mentioned in Chapter 3, ‘The Affluent Worker: Industrial attitudes
and behaviours’, carried out by Goldthorpe et al. (1968). Goldthorpe
investigated the ‘embourgeoisement’ thesis. This suggests that a rise in the
An application of sociology – gender relations at work
A specific area to which this sociological approach has made a great
contribution is our understanding of gender relations within the
workplace.
Activity 2.4
Reading
• Mullins (2010) Chapter 4 ‘Individual differences’, pp.161–62. Read from
‘Diversity, gender and organisations’ to the end of the chapter.
As you read this, think about the organisations that you know and remember this when
you reach Chapter 3 where we introduce the issue of women and management.
1. Do you think that there are differences in the type of work that male and female
employees do?
2. Thinking about an organisation you know, are there differences between the sexes
with regard to the numbers working at each level of the business?
3. How can the approach of sociology help us to explain any differences? Think about
the wider differences and changes in social relations.