SUNY series in the Sociology of Work and Organizations – serie

This book connects the history and organization of the federal district courts to the emergence of a new technocratic form of justice. The centerpiece of this study is the clash between adjudication - the traditional model of dispute resolution - and the introduction of modern management techniques.From the perspective of the federal trial courts, the authors examine the tension between adjudication and administration. They show dramatic changes in the nature of judicial decision-making and the emergence of new forms of court organization. These changes signal a potential crisis of the judicial system, and Heydebrand and Seron provide insights into its nature and direction, and the immense structural forces underlying the administration of justice in America.

This book tells why people want to feel like members of work organizations, and why doing so is difficult. Using case examples, it presents a psychoanalytic perspective on organizational entry and the process of entry negotiations for workers which sometimes lasts years. Interview material shows how workers try to use organizations to develop and how entire careers reflect satisfaction or disappointment with initial organizational experiences.Baum presents a useful framework for interpreting organizational behavior in terms of workers' efforts to develop. He shows how developmental expectations must be met before workers can identify with organizational goals or feel close to colleagues, and how worker motivation is possible only in organizations that meet individuals' growth needs.

This book presents a systematic case study of the hi-tech communications industry that reveals many trends in managerial authority in the workpace. Vallas reveals the mechanisms that enable advanced capitalist firms to achieve and maintain control over the workers they employ. He demonstrates that the spread and integration of automated technologies place lower level human labor in positions of declining power. The new regime does not deskill workers and need not lead toward what some have called electronic sweatshops. Nevertheless, Vallas concludes that increasing managerial control over production poses a major challenge to those who advocate labor participation in the management of American industries.

This book presents a systematic case study of the hi-tech communications industry that reveals many trends in managerial authority in the workpace. Vallas reveals the mechanisms that enable advanced capitalist firms to achieve and maintain control over the workers they employ. He demonstrates that the spread and integration of automated technologies place lower level human labor in positions of declining power. The new regime does not deskill workers and need not lead toward what some have called electronic sweatshops. Nevertheless, Vallas concludes that increasing managerial control over production poses a major challenge to those who advocate labor participation in the management of American industries.

This book compares and analyzes different forms of reduced work: conventional part-time employment, temporary employment, job sharing, and work sharing. Through interviews, workers reveal their experiences with reduced work, particularly the extent to which they control their work schedules, how they use their time off, and whether they feel that reduced work improves or diminishes their quality of life.Negrey challenges the notions that reduced work is homogenous, and that it is uniformly positive (or negative) in its consequences for workers. She concludes that reduced work is sex-segregated in ways similar to full-time work, and, as it currently exists, reinforces unequal gender relations rather than contests them.

This book maps the development of a regional elite and its persistence as an economic upper class through the nineteenth century. Farrell's study traces the kinship networks and overlapping business ties of the most economically prominent Brahmin families from the beginning of industrialization in the 1820s to the early twentieth century. Archival sources such as genealogies, family papers, and business records are used to address two issues of concern to those who study social stratification and the structure of power in industrializing societies: in what ways have traditional forms of social organization, such as kinship, been responsive to the social and economic changes brought by industrialization; and how active a role did an early economic elite play in shaping the direction of social change and in preserving its own group power and privilege over time.

The New Modern Times assesses historical, contemporary, and projected trends in the American world of work. The contributors represent a range of disciplines - sociology, history, education, economics, women's studies, and planning- yet all share the perspective that an understanding of the workplace is basic to an understanding of where our society has been, where it is now, and where it is going. The book focuses on many of the broad causes and consequences of trends in the institutional, demographic, and technological spheres of American society that are continuing to transform both our working and non-working lives. The authors balance careful empirical accounts with a willingness to look ahead to future transformations of the workplace and to draw out the current policy implications of their analyses.A strong interdisciplinary approach addresses issues such as changing skill levels, the social consequences of new technologies, the emerging economic role of women, and fundamental changes in the terms of employment. In doing so, the book offers new directions for research and new ways to think about some of the most basic processes that continue to transform the American landscape.

Examines the struggle of the unions and communities to save jobs in plant-closing situations in the 1980s, and shows why some labor-community coalitions were more successful than others.This book examines the struggle of unions and communities to save jobs in plant-closing situations in the 1980s. The unusual depth of the research allows the reader to grasp the key factors affecting such battles in an era of industrial restructuring. It contains new insights into "early warning" signs, their recognition and importance; the role of labor-management relations in both shutdown decisions and efforts to save the plant; the importance of corporate structure and strategy; the part played by economic market factors; and the role of local government, both potential and actual. The book concludes with an analysis of the current trends affecting labor-community activism of this type.

Examines the struggle of the unions and communities to save jobs in plant-closing situations in the 1980s, and shows why some labor-community coalitions were more successful than others.This book examines the struggle of unions and communities to save jobs in plant-closing situations in the 1980s. The unusual depth of the research allows the reader to grasp the key factors affecting such battles in an era of industrial restructuring. It contains new insights into "early warning" signs, their recognition and importance; the role of labor-management relations in both shutdown decisions and efforts to save the plant; the importance of corporate structure and strategy; the part played by economic market factors; and the role of local government, both potential and actual. The book concludes with an analysis of the current trends affecting labor-community activism of this type.

Examines the origins, recent history, and future of state hospitals.State hospitals still account for the majority of the state dollars spent on mental health care across the nation. Why do state hospitals persist and expand despite public scandal and professional disapproval? What role does the state mental hospital play in the current system of care for the seriously mentally ill? What role should it play, and at what cost? Dowdall explores recent efforts, successful and unsuccessful, to meet the increasingly elaborate standards imposed from without on the contemporary state mental hospital, and the impact of these efforts on the quality of care provided to its patients.

Examines the origins, recent history, and future of state hospitals.State hospitals still account for the majority of the state dollars spent on mental health care across the nation. Why do state hospitals persist and expand despite public scandal and professional disapproval? What role does the state mental hospital play in the current system of care for the seriously mentally ill? What role should it play, and at what cost? Dowdall explores recent efforts, successful and unsuccessful, to meet the increasingly elaborate standards imposed from without on the contemporary state mental hospital, and the impact of these efforts on the quality of care provided to its patients.

Identifies the importance of New Deal conflicts, policy networks politics, and ruthless domination as critical events in the creation and early development of the Tennessee Valley Authority.CHOICE 1997 Outstanding Academic BooksPower Plays provides a conflict model of organizational behavior based on a historical reanalysis of the creation and early development of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from its origins as a World War I munitions plant to its consolidation as the largest electric utility in the United States. It also examines Philip Selznick's classic work, TVA and the Grass Roots. The book shows how the interactions among the Depression, New Deal politics, the promise of electricity, and diverse ideologies with the strategic and tactical maneuvers of a policy network explain the institutionalization of the TVA.

Argues that recent initiatives by industrial management were directed more toward short-term gains than improving efficiency.In this timely work, Dan Krier examines the relationship between two phenomena that dominated the economic scene in the late twentieth century: the rising power of financial markets and the restructuring of American industry. He argues that corporate governance was transformed during this period into speculative teams of stock-optioned executives and activist owners. These teams encouraged a vigorous restructuring of American industry through corporate buyouts, takeovers, reengineering, and downsizing. Often portrayed in business discourse as initiatives to enhance the efficiency and long-range profitability of industrial operations, these corporate changes were, instead, primarily what Krier describes as speculative management practices, used to manipulate the trading price of corporate securities, even at the expense of operational efficiency and long-term profitability.Krier also analyzes social intermediaries-institutions that connect industrial firms to security markets and allow them to interact. He focuses on corporate governance structures composed of stock-optioned top managers, big owners, and their representatives on corporate boards; financial accounting rules and practices; and the business media that analyze corporate actions and results.

Argues that recent initiatives by industrial management were directed more toward short-term gains than improving efficiency.In this timely work, Dan Krier examines the relationship between two phenomena that dominated the economic scene in the late twentieth century: the rising power of financial markets and the restructuring of American industry. He argues that corporate governance was transformed during this period into speculative teams of stock-optioned executives and activist owners. These teams encouraged a vigorous restructuring of American industry through corporate buyouts, takeovers, reengineering, and downsizing. Often portrayed in business discourse as initiatives to enhance the efficiency and long-range profitability of industrial operations, these corporate changes were, instead, primarily what Krier describes as speculative management practices, used to manipulate the trading price of corporate securities, even at the expense of operational efficiency and long-term profitability.Krier also analyzes social intermediaries-institutions that connect industrial firms to security markets and allow them to interact. He focuses on corporate governance structures composed of stock-optioned top managers, big owners, and their representatives on corporate boards; financial accounting rules and practices; and the business media that analyze corporate actions and results.

This study deals with the interfaces between bureaucratized social service agencies, social workers, and clients. Russell K. Schutt covers significant topics of the history and organization of labor unions. He illuminates important questions concerning the degree to which initially democratic organizations are overcome by economic forces and how organizational and environmental features play a role in allowing this to happen.The object of the study is large union of public welfare employees. Spawned in the turbulent 1960s, the young union-once pledged to reform the welfare system-had, by the 1980s, become a bureaucratic structure focused on traditional economic goals. Dr. Schutt has drawn on theory and research in the areas of organizations, social movements, and public welfare, and makes a unique contribution to each area. A combination of intensive interviews, questionnaire surveys, archival records, and observational notes provide the data for his analyses.

This book considers how women cope with the economic hardship which accompanies divorce, using national longitudinal data on a generation of women in the United States. These women came of age at a time when they were expected to give priority to family roles over work roles. Yet by the time many of them were divorced in the 1970s, with the climate of changing perceptions of gender roles, women were expected to work, and were unprepared for the economic disruption caused by divorce. Peterson analyzes the experiences of women drawing upon sociological and economic approaches to the study of labor market outcomes, and of life-cycle events. He shows how over the long term most divorced women can make at least a partial recovery, but divorced women with children have a more difficult time making work adjustments, and experience greater economic deprivation. Given the continuing high rates of divorce, Peterson's findings highlight the importance of work rather than marriage for women's economic security.

In this book the author examines the question of the compatibility of politics, policy-making, and professional work. Based on nineteen case studies of organizations, Hoffman looks at "what happened" as doctors and planners set out to redistribute services to minorities and the poor between 1960 and 1980.