ABSTRACT

We saw in the previous chapter that sociology originally developed to provide a critical understanding of industrial capitalist societies. Work and how it is organised and experienced has always been central to this project. In spite of this, a single and fully integrated industrial sociology or

sociology of work and organisation did not emerge. Sociologists of work and organisation have varied in their methodological and theoretical orientations. They have also differed in their primary interests. Some researchers have focused on large societal patterns of work organisation, whilst others have looked at more ‘micro’ aspects of work behaviour and experience. Some sociologists have prioritised issues of conflict, exploitation and inequality, whilst others have given greater emphasis to issues of workplace and team co-operation. Some have concentrated on structural factors influencing work activities, and others have concentrated on the role of human agency and ‘subjectivity’. It is nevertheless possible to see some pattern in all of this. To avoid the artificiality of allocating different researchers and writers to ‘schools’, whilst still recognising the need somehow to bring together contributions which appear to have something in common, we can use the notion of strands of thought. This metaphor is not ideal but it recognises that some sociologists might work with just one of these strands in doing their research whilst others may pull together two or perhaps more strands to create a conceptual rope to take the weight of their analytical endeavour.