please use Human Resources as the occupation

please use Human Resources as the occupation


SOC 215: Sociology of Work and Organizations Midterm Essay (18 points) 5-pages – double spaced typed DUE: Week 7 Since March 2020, we experienced transformations in the world of work we could have never seen coming. The pandemic forced many of us to flee our workplaces and to retool to work from home, while for others, staying on at our jobs and in our workplaces raised concerns about life and death quite literally. Still others simply lost their jobs as businesses folded. So much changed. And the was so much uncertainty. And, for many, there still is. Your job in this essay is to write about the impact of COVID on work, the way that work is and was organized, and the impact on organizations themselves. As you think about how you will approach writing this essay, I encourage you to review what we have covered so far in our course regarding the broad range of historical, social, economic, and political transformations and trends over time in what we do at work and how we are organized to do it. Before zeroing in on what’s happened during the pandemic, in other words, think about the kinds of radical shifts in the world of work that have already taken place in history. Things happened that account for those big changes. Will the pandemic related jolts to work persist once it is ‘safe’ to return to ‘normal?’ We just don’t know. Not yet, anyway. In this 5-page, double-spaced paper, discuss the changes in both what we do at work and how we’ve re-oriented ourselves to do it since the onset of the pandemic. Discuss the changes both to society as a whole and if possible, to the kind of work you do, to your specific job and to the organization you work for. Think about (and write about) the impact of these changes and what we have learned about how we did things at work prior to the pandemic that are missed, or things that are not missed. Make reference to at least 5 of the following concepts, principles, theorists, or trends as you write about these pandemic-related changes and their impact on work and organizations: Time and work Clock-driven work schedules Traditional versus ‘rational’ approaches to organizing work Ascribed status Achieved status Pre-industrial society Division of labor Hierarchical decision- making Trust and motivation Industrial revolution Work organization Labor processes Mechanized production Capitalism Service sector of the economy Factory work Luddite attacks Scientific management Assembly line Post-industrial revolution Bureaucracy Bureaucratic organization Rationality Formal roles and rules Coordination of work Deskilling Karl Marx Max Weber Frederick Taylor McDonaldization Routinization Technological determinism Hierarchical authority Managerial control Commuting to work