Unit name | People, Work and Organisations |
---|---|
Unit code | EFIM20022 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Harry Pitts |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Management - Business School |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Unit Directors: Dr Harry Pitts and Dr Vanessa Beck
This unit aims to provide students with a grounding in classical and cutting-edge interdisciplinary social scientific theories of work and empirical developments in the study of how people and organisations relate. It will help students develop a strong set of critical analytical and conceptual frameworks and apply them to a series of contemporary issues in the organisation of work, labour markets and economic life. Critical social theories will be used as a means by which commonplace understandings of work can be unpicked and unpacked to better capture and represent the experience of changing workplaces and careers.
Applying different theoretical and conceptual frameworks in different empirical contexts, the unit focuses specifically on the varied range of forms and locations in which work takes place, including work inside and outside the home, the gig economy, health and social care, the digital economy, migrant labour, and unemployment as they are experienced in social-psychological terms across lines of class, ethnicity, age and gender.
By looking in-depth at what it is like to work and manage in a range of different professions, the unit will also provide students with more general intellectual, personal and technical skills that can be drawn upon in the development of their own future careers, including a glimpse into emergent sectors of business and employment, theoretically informed assessments of their own careers, and understanding of the practical implications of contemporary trends in employment for people, work and organisations that they will experience themselves in their post-university careers.
By the end of the unit, students will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions, discussion boards and other online learning opportunities.
Summative: 3000-word individual assignment - 100% Formative: Short individual writing assignments with feed forward
Indicative Reading and References
Watson, T., 2017. Sociology, Work and Organisation. 7th edn. Routledge.
Strangleman, T., and Warren, T., 2008. Work and Society: Sociological Approaches, Themes and Methods. Routledge
Pettinger, L., Parry, J., Taylor, R., and Glucksmann, M. (eds.), 2006. A New Sociology of Work? Wiley-Blackwell
Work, Employment & Society ‘On the Front Line’ series: http://journals.sagepub.com/topic/collections/wes-2_on_the_front_line/wes
Leading journals in the field, including Work, Employment & Society, Organization Studies, Human Relations, Organization, Human Resource Management Journal, British Journal of Industrial Relations, and Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.