Introduction to industrial sociology

This Introduction to Industrial Sociology has been designed to meet the needs of undergraduate students who have no preparation beyond that generally supplied by the lower-division requirements of colleges and universities and at least one introductory course in sociology. Its primary function is to serve stu dents who will become specialists in other branches of sociology and the social sciences, business and professional persons of many kinds, social workers, and housewives. With good luck, it may stimulate some of its readers to pursue further the thriving and challenging field which it represents, to become re search workers or practitioners in industrial sociology. But the basic emphasis is not upon industrial sociology as an immediately marketable occupational specialty. It is upon contributing to the undergraduate major in sociology, creat ing citizens informed in a vital field, and laying a basis for possible future specialization.

In conformity with objective, an attempt has been made to set the findings of the main streams of research in industrial sociology within their larger contexts. To those who do not know these contents, the studies of the structure of work groups and of organizational efficiency, which have constituted the heart of early industrial sociology, are likely to be misleading or, at least, free-floating and somewhat meaningless ideas. To see them in context requires some knowledge of the relationships among the different segments of the labor force outside the work place, some understanding of the history and traditions of American management, and a comprehension of the essential industrial roles of unions and of government.

This broad approach has been made easier by the fact that industrial sociologists themselves have recently been expanding their areas of interest and pushing into the margins of the field established by their earliest efforts. Much has been said about the management-oriented perspective of early in dustrial sociology, but time and effort seem to be rapidly encompassing the early specialty within a larger matrix. For this reason the materials necessary for the relatively broad approach contemplated in this text have been appearing in considerable quantities. Industrial sociologists are now studying, among other things, the organization and development of unions, processes of collective bargaining, the behavior of larger organizational structures, and the impact of government regulations. Wherever suitable materials produced by sociologists. have been found, they have been utilized; but, having conceived the outlines of the field of study, the author has searched everywhere for information and has accepted gladly the contributions of practitioners in many fields.