Deck 12: Work and the Economy

Question 1

According to Chapter 12, how is a sociological approach to work and the economy different from the economic approach to work and the economy?

A) Economists tend to study how people and social groups use scarce resources to produce and sell commodities. Sociologists study the way work and the economy are organized as well as the values, norms and attitudes of work and economic organization.
B) Economics gives most of its attention to market processes. Sociology is interested not only in exchange theory, but also how economic institutions relate to other institutions of social life.
C) Economics takes a narrower focus than sociology.
D) Economics privileges the market sphere over other spheres of social activity. Sociology focuses its attention on the interrelationship between many social spheres.
E) All of the above

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a capitalist economic system?

A) Individuals invest their capital in production of goods and services to make a profit.
B) Workers receive most of their remuneration in wages.
C) The owners of enterprises make a profit by keeping their costs down below what they sell their goods and services for in the market.
D) Producers compete with one another in a free market.
E) None of the above

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a socialist economic system?

A) Capital is invested.
B) The gains from production and supply of goods and services are invested in the state.
C) Producers do not compete with one another in a free market.
D) Individuals live in segregated communes and resources are evenly distributed among each family in the commune.
E) None of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The key characteristic of bureaucracy according to Max Weber is:

A) Employees are personally free, subject only to authority relating to their official obligations.
B) There is a clear hierarchy of offices.
C) Work tasks are clearly defined.
D) Workers are awarded fixed salaries for their performance and candidates for office are evaluated on the basis of their technical qualifications.
E) All of the above

Question 5

What is 'red tape?'

A) A term used to describe the inefficiency of bureaucracy when rules limit the freedom of individual workers to accomplish the task at hand.
B) A symbol of solidarity that protestors wore in the labor strikes during the Industrial Revolution.
C) A term used to describe the threshold for minimum skills required to enter into the bureaucratic labor force.
D) A way of denoting files that need additional attention in large organizations.
E) None of the above

Question 6

The 2008 "Great Recession" resulted in unemployment for young college graduates:

A) At rates about equal to those of middle-aged and older college graduates.
B) At rates slightly lower than those of middle-aged and older college graduates.
C) At rates significantly higher than those of middle-aged and older college graduates.

Question 7

Producers of the popular television show "the Office" attribute its success mostly to:

A) Its similarity to dramatic, reality-TV shows.
B) Its emphasis on poking fun at the mundane details of everyday life
C) Its focus on family relationships.

Question 8

Which of the following is not a defining characteristic of 'professionals' described in Chapter 12?

A) Control of a large body of abstract, formal knowledge
B) Substantial autonomy from supervision
C) Authority over clients and subordinate occupation groups
D) A claim that they will use their knowledge to benefit clients
E) None of the above

Question 9

Workers who combine their pride and passion in their work with a broad knowledge of tools, and manual skills are called:

A) Manual workers
B) Skilled workers
C) Craft workers
D) Creative professionals
E) None of the above

Question 10

"Taylorism" is:

A) A term referring to Charles Taylor's theory of the division of labor.
B) A term referring to Frederick Taylor's belief that there is one best way to perform every task that could be discovered by observing workers and developing a more efficient means to accomplish their work.
C) A system of 'scientific management' that was the predecessor to modern quality control, as well as the modern industrial ethic behind Fordism.
D) Both b and c, but not a
E) None of the above

Question 11

Braverman's argument that capitalists organize the labor process in whatever way will minimize labor costs and maximize productivity and profits is a:

A) Cultural explanation
B) Functionalist explanation
C) Structural explanation
D) Neo-Kantian explanation
E) All of the above

Question 12

De-Skilling refers to:

A) The process by which workers' skills decrease as they get older and lose physical and mental dexterity.
B) The process by which workers' skills are built into machines, thereby eliminating the need for the exercise of workers' individual skills and judgments.
C) The process by which professionals are disbarred from professional organizations when they violate the ethics of the profession.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 13

What is Michael Burawoy explaining with his concept "making out"?

A) The workers' willingness to consent to labor conditions because they felt they had the freedom to resist management pressures and still come out ahead.
B) The increase in sexual harassment claims in the modern workplace.
C) The tendency of unskilled workers to steal time or goods from their workplace.
D) The way that workers in a capitalist economy earn just barely enough in wages to afford the cost of living.
E) None of the above

Question 14

Which of the following is an example of a cultural approach to work and the economy?

A) A sociologist studies the way that professional or craft organizations maintain ideas of skill and creativity, ideals of service and standards for a particular craft or professional occupation.
B) A sociologist studies women workers on an assembly line and finds that work-related identities are gendered.
C) A sociologist studies the way an unskilled labor force has led to a casualized work force.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 15

What is the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of work?

A) Intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of work refer to the amount of time the worker spends working outside the home versus the amount of time the worker works from home.
B) Intrinsic aspects of work include having a job that gives the worker a sense of accomplishment. Extrinsic aspects of work include having a job with several rewards, such as promotions and income.
C) Intrinsic aspects of work are the qualities and skills a particular worker brings to the job. Extrinsic aspects of work are the skills the worker is taught upon hiring.
D) Both a and b, but not c.
E) None of the above

Question 16

Deindustrialization refers to:

A) The emergence of postindustrialism
B) The systematic decrease in the nation's manufacturing infrastructure.
C) The decline of technology in modern economic life, in spite of media and popular belief to the contrary.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 17

The difference between men's and women's social position in the workforce, sometimes measured by the difference in the number of women and men in the workforce or difference in men's and women's salaries is called:

A) Gender Differentiation
B) Gender Gap
C) Gender Subordination
D) Sexual Harassment
E) None of the above

Question 18

In the so-called new work economy, outsourcing is:

A) A typical condition of increased bureaucracy where high level officials delegate their work to lower level workers, yet receive all the credit for the task accomplished.
B) The tendency of companies to hire consultants in order to evade paying corporate taxes.
C) When corporations and businesses send work to contractors (often times in other countries) in order to avoid paying higher wages for labor or providing benefits.
D) A policy where individuals are not allowed to cite colleagues within their own firm on official documents and reports.
E) None of the above

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of dedifferentiation in post-Fordist production?

A) Managers try to promote the kinds of 'human bonds' and personal relations that had previously been excluded from the work place.
B) Workers frequently move from firm to firm, rather than staying at one workplace for their entire lives.
C) Direct-selling organizations rely on personal interactions between consumer and producer, and stress networks of cooperation rather than hierarchical control.
D) Many workers work from home, or 'telecommute' rather than limiting their working time from 9 to 5 at the office.
E) All of the above

Question 20

Ethnographic studies of the workplace have observed workers "strategies of resistance and cooperation." Playing dumb, withholding enthusiasm and avoiding work are:

A) Passive strategies of resistance
B) Active strategies of resistance
C) Passive strategies of cooperation
D) Active strategies of cooperation
E) None of the above

Question 21

Pride in work, extra effort, peer training, and loyalty to a particular manager, on the other hand, are:

A) Passive strategies of resistance
B) Active strategies of resistance
C) Passive strategies of cooperation
D) Active strategies of cooperation
E) None of the above

Question 22

The availability of technology that makes it possible to produce a wide variety of consumer goods and to produce goods more cheaply has inspired what phrase to describe postmodern society?

A) Materialist society
B) Consumer society
C) Neo-capitalist society
D) Silicon society
E) None of the above

Question 23

The American economy has transitioned from an economy based on agriculture and primary sector industries to an economy based on manufacturing and the production of goods to an economy dominated by tertiary or service sector labor.

Question 24

According to Chapter 12, all of the most advanced economies, not including the United States, can be described as mixed economies.

Question 25

Teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers and social workers are all examples of professional occupations.

Question 26

One of the negative aspects of 'Taylorism' is that it took little account for workers needs, desires, and attitudes.

Question 27

The example of outsourcing indicates a distinctly Fordist mode of production.

Question 28

An individual who seeks jobs, rather than looking out for new projects, knowledge, and information, is called a free agent.

Question 29

The media image of Silicon Valley as a representation of the booming American economy where individuals are the masters of their own occupational fate was never entirely accurate.

Question 30

The most dramatic and far-reaching change in the increasingly diverse American labor force in the 20^th century was that Hispanic labor force participation increased from about 1 in 5 to about 3 in 5 between 1890 and the mid 1990s.

Question 31

Post-Industrial, Post-Fordism, Flexible Specialization, and Information Society are all different terms to describe the same work changes that characterize the emerging postmodern society.

Question 32

The transition from a modern society and economy to a postmodern society and economy occur separate from wider processes such as globalization.