ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the structural aspects of work organizations that have significance for careers. It examines some general features of the occupational requirements of farms, family retail businesses, corporations, agencies of the federal government, educational organizations, and the armed forces. The chapter indicates that there are many similarities in the general occupational requirements of different types of modern work organizations. As a work organization, a family farm can be described as a system of multiple occupational roles performed chiefly by members of the family. Every business firm, government agency, school system, and other work organization also has its own distinctive historical experiences. In time, these experiences are codified into rules and value positions that may be called the organizational subculture. The social structure of the work organization is much like that of a family farm and characterized by multiple occupational roles performed at different times by the same person.
