ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses several important issues in the sociology of work and occupations/professions. It examines those issues in terms somewhat different from those found in their respective standard literatures because of implications resident in analysis of medical work. The chapter considers negotiation takes place around all the topics and around all types of work involved in a major line of activity. It witnesses consequences of one peculiarity of medical work, namely, that the work is done on the bodies of people who when sentient are responding both to the work itself and often to the worker's workmanship. The chapter explores implications of their approach for future research on relationships among organizations and for the industries with which they are associated. It discusses the ecological and the resource dependence perspectives in order to contrast our own perspective on organizations and industries, as implied by the kinds of materials on medical work.
