work
the activity by which people produce from the natural world & so ensure their survival. it shouldn't be though of exclusively as paid employment. in traditional cultures, there was only a rudimentary monetary system, & few people worked for money. in mode
occupation
any form of paid employment in which an individual regularly works.
economy
the system of production & exchange that provides for the material needs of individuals living in a given society. economic institutions are of key importance in all social orders. what goes on in the economy usually influences other areas in social life.
technology
the application of knowledge of the material world to production; the creation of material instruments (such as machines) used in human interaction with nature.
informal economy
economic transactions carried on outside the sphere of orthodox paid employment.
division of labor
the specialization of work tasks, by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. all societies have at least some rudimentary form of this, especially between the tasks allocated to men & those performed by women. with th
economic interdependence
the fact that in the division of labor, individuals depend on others to produce many or most of the goods they need to sustain their lives.
Taylorism
a set of ideas, also referred to as "scientific management," developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, involving simple, coordinated operations in industry.
Fordism
the system of production pioneered by Henry Ford, in which the assembly line was introduced.
alienation
the sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities. the term was originally used by Marx to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods. subsequently he used the term to refer to the loss of workers' control over the n
low-trust system
organizational or work setting in which people are allowed little responsibility for, or control over, the work task.
high-trust system
organizational or work setting in which individuals are permitted a great deal of autonomy & control over the work task.
strike
a temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand.
union density
a statistic that represents the number of union members as a percentage of the number of people who could potentially be union members.
capitalism
a economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested & reinvested in order to produce profit.
corporations
business firms or companies.
entrepreneur
the owner/founder of a business firm.
monopoly
a situation in which a single firm dominates in a given industry.
oligopoly
the domination of a small number of firms in a given industry.
family capitalism
capitalistic enterprise owned & administered by entrepreneurial families.
managerial capitalism
capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners.
welfare capitalism
practice in which large corporations protect their employees from the vicissitudes of the market.
institutional capitalism
capitalistic enterprise organized on the basis of institutional shareholding.
transnational or multinational corporations
business corporations located in 2 or more countries.
international division of labor
the specialization in producing goods for the world market that divides regions into zones of industrial or agricultural production or high- or low-skilled labor.
automation
production processes monitored & controlled by machines with only minimal supervision from people.
post-Fordism
a general term used to describe the transition from mass industrial production, characterized by Fordist methods, to more flexible forms of production favoring innovation & aimed at meeting market demands for customized products.
global outsourcing
a business practice that sends production of materials to factories around the world. the components of 1 final product often originate from many different countries than the 1 in which the product is ultimately put together & scold. factories from differ
flexible production
process in which computers design customized products for a mass market.
knowledge economy
a society no longer based primarily on the production of material goods but instead on the production of knowledge. its emerge has been linked to the development of a broad base of consumers who are technologically literate & have made new advances in the
portfolio workers
a worker who possesses a diversity of skills or qualifications & is therefore able to move easily from job to job.