Organisation of Work (AQA A-Level Sociology): Revision Notes
Organisation of Work
What is work?
Work extends far beyond traditional paid employment and represents a complex social concept. The division of labour refers to how various work tasks within society are allocated and distributed among different people and groups.
While many people intuitively understand work as paid employment, the reality is more nuanced. Caring for children, elderly relatives, or disabled family members is not typically considered "work" when done by family members. However, when someone is employed as a childminder or carer to perform identical tasks, it becomes recognised as paid employment and taxable work.
Gendered dimensions of work
Feminist scholars have spent decades highlighting the unequal division of labour within households, particularly regarding women's contributions. David Morley (1986) captured this imbalance by describing the home as "a place of leisure for men but a place of work for women."
Work therefore encompasses:
- Paid employment
- Household work and domestic tasks
- Care work and emotional labour
- Voluntary work
- Activities within the informal economy
The informal economy represents a grey area between formal and informal economic activities. This includes cash-in-hand transactions that are untaxed, often illegal, and exist outside formal economic regulations. Examples include untaxed household repairs, car boot sales, and illegal drug sales.
Marxist and feminist perspectives
Marxist theorists argue that unpaid domestic work serves capitalism by maintaining and refreshing the workforce. This social reproduction of labour involves daily tasks like cleaning, cooking, and childcare that prepare workers for productive labour.
Research Example: Ann Oakley's Housework Study (1974)
Ann Oakley's research found that housewives experienced similar alienation to assembly-line workers and developed comparable coping mechanisms. This groundbreaking study demonstrated that domestic work shared many characteristics with industrial labour, challenging traditional distinctions between "real work" and housework.
Feminist sociologists question why housework, despite its importance, is treated differently from paid employment.
Historical development of division of labour
Classical economic origins
The concept originated in classical political economy through the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Smith demonstrated that dividing pin-making into 18 separate tasks among ten workers increased production from barely one pin per day to 4,800 pins per worker daily. Ricardo focused on comparative advantage as the foundation for specialisation and wealth creation through trade.
Worked Example: Adam Smith's Pin Factory
Smith's famous pin-making example showed the power of division of labour:
- Before specialisation: 10 workers could barely produce 1 pin per person per day (10 pins total)
- After specialisation: The same 10 workers divided the 18 pin-making tasks among them
- Result: Production increased to 4,800 pins per worker daily (48,000 pins total)
This demonstrated how dividing complex tasks into simpler, specialised operations could dramatically increase productivity.
Sociological development
Karl Marx incorporated division of labour into his two-class analysis, viewing the proletariat as performing all necessary work. Émile Durkheim later expanded this concept, arguing that division of labour increased both productive capacity and workforce skills while serving a crucial moral function by generating feelings of solidarity throughout society.
For Durkheim, division of labour served dual purposes:
- A necessary condition for intellectual and material societal development
- A mechanism creating social connections and social solidarity among individuals
Mechanical and organic solidarity
Durkheim identified two distinct types of social solidarity that correspond to different stages of societal development.
Mechanical solidarity
Mechanical solidarity characterises pre-industrial societies where people maintain strong connections through shared status, values, and beliefs. Durkheim termed the bond uniting individuals in such societies the collective conscience. In these communities, similarity rather than difference creates social cohesion.
In societies with mechanical solidarity, people are connected because they are alike - they share similar occupations, beliefs, and ways of life. Think of small agricultural communities where everyone participates in similar farming activities and shares common religious and cultural practices.
Organic solidarity
Organic solidarity emerges in industrial societies where individuals occupy distinct roles but remain interdependent. As societies develop complex divisions of labour, individuality grows while solidarity becomes more organic. This solidarity reflects society's moral density and increases through:
- Greater spatial concentration of people
- Growth of towns and urban centres
- Improved communication methods and efficiency
When these developments occur, labour becomes increasingly divided as society grows more complex and individualistic. This represents a fundamental shift from societies based on similarity to those based on interdependence and specialisation.
Evolution of work organisation
The progression from mechanical to organic solidarity represents a broader transformation in how work is organised across different historical periods:
Mechanical solidarity → Organic solidarity → Industrial society → Post-industrial society (globalisation)
Characteristics of Modern Post-Industrial Society:
This evolution shows how division of labour has developed from simple agricultural societies through industrialisation to contemporary globalised work arrangements. Modern post-industrial society features:
- Flexible employment patterns
- Part-time work arrangements
- Zero-hours contracts
- Migrant worker populations
- New international division of labour
Contemporary applications
Women's triple shift
Jean Duncombe and Dennis Marsden (1993) extended division of labour analysis by identifying women's "triple shift" compared to men's traditional breadwinner role. Women now typically perform:
- Employment/paid work
- Domestic tasks and household management
- Emotional labour and family care responsibilities
Current research findings
Despite women's increased labour market participation, research reveals limited change in male domestic participation. Key findings include:
- Growth in stay-at-home fathers, but domestic work remains largely gendered
- Women continue performing majority of repetitive indoor housework tasks
- Men typically handle occasional outdoor tasks
- Women spend more time feeding, supervising, and caring for children
- Men have increased involvement in physical play activities
The Invisible Work Challenge
Feminists emphasise the substantial "invisible work" women perform, including:
- Remembering children's PE kit requirements
- Purchasing presents and cards for social occasions
- Providing emotional encouragement and support
- Meeting family emotional needs
- Anticipating and preventing household problems
This mental and emotional labour often goes unrecognised despite being essential for family functioning.
Research demonstrates that couples sharing housework equally before having children often shift to more conventional gender-based task allocation after becoming parents.
Key Points to Remember:
- Division of labour involves allocating different work tasks across society and extends beyond paid employment to include domestic, care, and informal economy work
- Durkheim's mechanical solidarity characterises pre-industrial societies united by shared beliefs, while organic solidarity describes industrial societies where specialised but interdependent roles create social bonds
- Work organisation has evolved from simple agricultural arrangements through industrialisation to contemporary flexible, globalised employment patterns
- Women face a "triple shift" of paid employment, domestic work, and emotional labour, with research showing persistent gender inequalities in household task distribution
- The concept helps explain how societies maintain cohesion through work arrangements while highlighting ongoing inequalities in work distribution