Business Sociology
Code: 100482 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500258 Labour Relations | OB | 2 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Juan Miguel Garcia Nogueroles
- Email:
- juanmiguel.garcia@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Teachers
- Julian Arturo Porras Bulla
Prerequisites
It is recommended to have successfully completed the subject Sociology of Work and Industrial Relations (first year, second semester of the Industrial Relations Degree).
Objectives and Contextualisation
It is a compulsory subject of the second year, first semester. It is, therefore, a basic subject that aims to introduce students to the analysis of the structure and organization of the company, through the main theoretical approaches, from a sociological perspective.
This conceptual work has to allow to know and interpret the current transformations in companies and their effects on the organization of work, industrial relations and labor management policies.
These objectives are complemented by the acquisition of basic skills in terms of the search, preparation and analysis of official statistical sources linked to the company's problems, as well as those that promote teamwork and self-organization and accountability of work
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Know the different sociological approaches to the analysis of companies
- Distinguish the different dimensions, dynamics and protagonists existing in companies
- Contextualize business activity
- Apply this knowledge to the critical and rigorous analysis of companies
- Have the basic tools to intervene in the business field (especially, management of human resources and industrial relations)
- Use the main databases and / or statistical sources of this field
- Have the basic skills that allow an autonomous and cooperative work
Competences
- Advising union and business organizations and their members.
- Applying quantitative and qualitative social investigation techniques to the labour field.
- Clearly expressing ideas or facts in a compelling way.
- Contrasting the equality between men and women in the workplace and solving the issues arisen with the Act on Equality.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Drawing up and formalising reports and documents.
- Identify the foundations of the main legal and organisational areas in the field of human work.
- Identifying, analysing and solving complex problems and situations from an (economic, historical, legal, psychological, and sociological) interdisciplinary perspective.
- Planning, designing, consulting and managing occupational risk prevention systems.
- Working effectively in teams.
Learning Outcomes
- Clearly expressing ideas or facts in a compelling way.
- Defining and identifying qualifications, competences and occupational segregation.
- Defining the basic concepts of the relations between society and a company.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Drawing up and formalising reports and documents.
- Knowing the equality, conciliation and sustainability plans of a company.
- Knowing the qualitative and quantitative social investigation techniques applied to the labour field.
- Reaching a consensus in the industrial relations.
- Recognising the pressure groups and collective action.
- Students must know the basic concepts of the social organization of labour in a company.
- Students must know the basic concepts related to the social agents of industrial relations.
- Understanding and relating the working conditions of a company to security and health at work in that company.
- Understanding the basic concepts of illnesses and labour and occupational accidents.
- Understanding the problems derived from conflict in the industrial relations.
- Working effectively in teams.
Content
The program is divided in 4 main thematic sections and 10 units:
Section 1. Introduction
Unit 1. Origin and purpose of the business sociology
The company as an organization and bureaucracy. The company as an institution. The company as a system. The company and its relations with the environment.
Section 2. Main theoretical approaches on the organization and the business
Unit 2. The classic business model.
The Classical School: Taylorysm and Scientific Management. The administrative management of Fayol. Fordism and the organization of mass production. The bureaucratic perspective and authority.
Unit 3. The theoretical reactions to the classical model
The reaction to the Taylorism: the School of Human Relations and its complementary role to Taylorism. Theories of activation and motivation. The School of Human Resources. The socio-technical approach. The models of "industrial democracy": participation in the company.
Unit 4. Current debates
Company and society: the corporate social responsibility. Organization, culture and diversity management. Equality policies between men and women.
Section 3. The transformations of the company: reorganization of production, flexibility, qualification
Unit 5. Taylorism crisis
The crisis of Taylorism and its implications on the organization of work and the company. The business strategies of flexibility and the role of technological innovation as a factor of change. The debate on technological innovation and qualification.
Unit 6. Changes in the organization of taylorism’s work
New forms of work organization: teamwork. The internal flexibility. Polyvalence, autonomy and participation.
Unit 7. Changes in the organization of theproductive process and business models
Productive decentralization and network models. Flexible specialization: industrial districts. Micro regulation and local development. The division of labour between companies. The "Toyotism": a new model of the organization of the company.
Section 4. Transformations in industrial relations and in the management of human resources
Unit 8. Human resources and new productive experiences
The discourse of professional "requalification". The role of training in the company.
Unit 9. The management of human resources and the new forms of authority in companies
New concepts and new forms of management: involvement and participation vs. integration and subordination?
Unit 10. Industrial relations in the company: changes and continuities
New contents of collective bargaining. Towards the individualization of industrialrelations?
Methodology
The teaching of the subject will be face-to-face. The classroom practices will also be face-to-face and will be used to work on the contents of the master classes, for the realization of some seminar sessions relating to group work and for the oral presentation of group work.
The objectives of the course will be achieved based on the combination of theoretical and practical sessions that involve the active participation of the students. The aim is to stimulate self-learning, teamwork, critical reasoning, as well as the ability to narrow down and solve problems that have to do with work dynamics in companies.
At the beginning of the course, the precise content and methodology for the development of the practical work will be indicated.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Debate | 3.5 | 0.14 | 3, 1 |
| Final written test preparation | 15 | 0.6 | 10, 11, 3, 4 |
| Masterclasses | 39 | 1.56 | 10, 11, 3, 14 |
| Seminars students | 4.5 | 0.18 | 10, 11, 3 |
| Working in group | 3 | 0.12 | |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Documentation and bibliography | 3.5 | 0.14 | 10, 11, 3, 14 |
| Individual and collective tutorials | 3 | 0.12 | 10 |
| Oriented readings | 8 | 0.32 | 10, 11, 3, 14, 9, 8 |
| Working in group | 8 | 0.32 | |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Organization and elaboration of materials | 15 | 0.6 | 3, 4, 1, 5 |
| Personal study | 25 | 1 | 10, 11, 3, 14, 9, 8 |
| Search Information | 15 | 0.6 | 10, 11, 3 |
Assessment
The evaluation responds to the modality of continuous, individual and group evaluation.
I) Group evaluation
The group evaluation aims to capture the ability to work as a team, as well as the ability to synthesize and oral and written expression. This evaluation will consist in the realization of a practical work that will involve the realization of two seminar sessions and the oral presentation of the work. It represents 50% of the final qualification (40% written and follow-up text, 10% oral presentation, including written support for the presentation).
The attendance to the seminars and the oral presentation of the works is obligatory. The deliveries foreseen for each of the two seminar sessions, as well as the final work, will have to be delivered within the established deadlines and with the format that will be specified through the virtual campus. The final works not presented and the absence in any of the seminars will suppose the rest proportional of the note in the final evaluation. Seminars and exercises that have not been delivered or submitted within the deadline, or that have not been exceeded, can not be recovered.
II) Individual Evaluation
The individual assessment aims to capture the degree of achievement of the students' analytical and conceptual knowledge, as well as their critical and reasoning capacity. The assessment will consist of a final written individual test, lasting a maximum of 2 hours.
This final individual test will mean 50% of the final grade of the subject and you must get at least a 4 for it to average with the grade of the work.
III) Suspended, "not presented" and reassessment test.
Thefinal paper and the individual test are scored from 0 to 10.
Regarding group work, no compensation activity is planned.
Students who have taken the final individual written test and not passed it, will be able to take a make-up test (re-evaluation) at the end of the first semester.
In order to make an average with the grading of the assignments, the student will have to achieve (in the final test or in the reassessment) a 4. Any grade lower than 4 will not make an average and the subject will be suspended.
IV) Copy, plagiarism or other irregularities in the evaluation
As stated in the multimedia resource Argumenta, in Unit 20, dedicated to knowing what plagiarism is: "The fact of plagiarizing implies a lack of originality and creativity." Academic plagiarism in particular implies not developing critical thinking, a trait that it should be inseparable from any learning process, you have to bet on yourself and bring out your own creativity "[available at http://wuster.uab.es/web_argumenta_obert/unit_20/tot_t20.html.]
With this positive spirit, students are recommended to make use of the tools available at the UAB, to face the study and presentation of papers or other written tests, to avoid situations of copying, plagiarism or other irregularities in the evaluation. The website of the Social Sciences Library is a mandatory source of information and recommendations: http://www.uab.cat/web/recursos-d-informacio/citacions-i-bibliografia-1326267851837.html
In case of any irregularity of this type, the evaluated activity will be scored with a 0 (see Article 116. Item 10. Of the Academic Regulations of the UAB "In case the student makes any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation of the grade of an evaluation act, will be rated with 0 this evaluation act, regardless of the disciplinary process that can be instructed, in case there are several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.", available at http://www.uab.cat/doc/TR_Normativa_Academica_Plans_Nous).
V) Single assessment.
From the 2023-2024 academic year, it is possible to request a single assessment in certain subjects of each university degree and master's degree. You can consult the list of subjects that allow this on the faculty's website. The student can request the single assessment in those subjects that allow it, given their contents and teaching methodologies, and this is established in the teaching guide, which must explain the assessment system to be followed.
In the case of our subject, single assessment will consist of a three-part test:
- An exam about the contents of the subject. 50% of the grade. A rating of less than 4 out of 10 on this part invalidates the other parts of the test.
- The presentation of a written work, on the same day of the exam, which will refer to the contents of the seminars. 40% of the grade.
- The presentation of an oral presentation, in video format, which will refer to a discussion raised by the teacher regarding the contents of the seminars. 10% of the grade.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group evaluation, oral presentation and final debate | 10% final qualification | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 15 |
| Group evaluation, written | 40% final qualification | 4.5 | 0.18 | 10, 11, 6, 7, 3, 2, 4, 14, 9, 5, 15, 8 |
| Individual evaluation | 50% final qualification | 2 | 0.08 | 12, 10, 11, 6, 3, 2, 4, 13, 14, 1, 9, 8 |
Bibliography
References (*)
General references and handbooks
BONAZZI, G. (1994). Història del pensament organitzatiu. Vic: Eumo Editorial.
CARNOY, M. (2001). El trabajo flexible en la era de la información. Madrid: Alianza.
FERNÁNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ, C. (2007). Vigilar y organizar. Una introducción a los Critical Management Studies. Madrid: Siglo XXI.
FINKEL, L. (1994). La organización social del trabajo. Madrid: Piràmide.
HARRISON, B. (1997). La empresa que viene. Barcelona: Paidós.
INFESTAS GIL, A. (2001). Sociología de la Empresa. Salamanca: Amaru.
INFESTAS GIL, A. y SANAGUSTIN, Mª V. (Coords.) (2004). Hacia una nueva empresa.Salamanca: Amaru.
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales. Madrid: Delta Publicaciones (3rd Edition).
MIGUÉLEZ, F. & PRIETO, C. (Eds.) (1999). Las relaciones de empleo en España. Madrid: Siglo XXI.
RITZER, G. (1996). La McDonalización de la sociedad. Un análisis de la racionalización de la vida cotidiana. Barcelona: Ariel.
WATSON, T. (1994). Trabajo y Sociedad. Barcelona: Hacer Editorial.
Specific references by units
Unit 1
BRUNET, I. & BELZUNEGUI, A. (2005). Teorías sobre la empresa. Madrid: Pirámide. (pp. 83-91, 113-128)
INFESTAS GIL, A. (2001). Sociología de la Empresa. Salamanca: Amaru. (Ch. 2. pp. 45-70)
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales op. cit. (Ch. 2, pp. 33-54)
Unit 2
CORIAT, B. (1982). El taller y el cronómetro. Ensayo sobre el taylorismo, fordismo y la producción en masa, Madrid: Siglo XXI. (Ch. 1:pp. 8-22, Ch. 2:pp. 23-37) and Ch. 3: pp. 38-51)
FINKEL, L. (1994). La organización social del trabajo, op. cit. (Ch. 3: pp. 113-137) and Reading nº 5: Management científico -fragment- (F.W. Taylor) (pp. 161-170)
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales op. cit. (Ch. 12 pp. 405-453). – Also useful for Unit 3.
MARGLIN, S. (1977). Orígenes y funciones de la parcelación del trabajo. ¿Para qué sirven los patronos?. In A. Gorz, Crítica de la división del trabajo (pp. 45 a 96). Barcelona: Laia.
Unit 3
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales. Op. cit. (Ch. 12: pp. 405-453).
PRIDA, B. (1988). Viejas y nuevas formas de organización del trabajo. In J.A. Garmendia et al. Sociología industrial y de la empresa (pp. 63 a 83). Madrid: Aguilar.
Unit 4
ARAGÓN, J. & ROCHA, F. (2009). Los actores de la responsabilidad social empresarial: el caso español. Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales, 27 (1),147-167.
CARRASQUER, P. MASSÓ, M. & MARTÍN, A. (2007). Discursos y estrategias en torno a la conciliación de la vida laboral y familiar en la negociación colectiva. Papers: Revista de sociologia, 83, 13-36.
Unit 5
FINKEL L. (1994). La organización social del trabajo. op. cit. (Ch. 4: pp. 249-281, Reading nº 9: Trabajo y capital monopolista -fragment- H. Braverman: pp. 285-294 and Reading nº 10: El debate sobre la descualificación -fragment- S. Wood: pp. 295-307).
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales. op. cit. (Ch. 11: “Formación y empleo: cualificación y competencia professional” pp. 375-401). –Also useful for Unit 8.
MARTIN, A. & LOPE, A. (1999). ¿Sirve la formación para tener empleo? Papers: Revista de sociologia, 58, 39-73.
VERD, J.M. & MASSÓ, M. (2007). Las competencias y el trabajo invisible en el trabajo administrativo de consultas externas hospitalarias. Papers: Revista de Sociologia, 83, 169-189.
Unit 6
FERNÁNDEZ STEINKO, A. (2001). El sabor agridulce de los grupos de trabajo. Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales, 18, 257-283. – Also useful for Units 8 and 9.
GHARRON, E. & FREYSSENET, M. (1996). La “producción reflexiva” en la fábrica Volvo de Uddevalla. Sociología del Trabajo, 27,103-129.
- See also references of Unit 3.
Unit 7
ALÓS, R. (1999). Las políticas de desarrollo local en Cataluña. Papers: Revista de sociologia, 58, 75-93).
BECATTINI, G. (1989). Los distritos industriales y el reciente desarrollo italiano. Sociología del Trabajo, 5, 3-17.
BONAZZI, G. (1993). Modelo japonés, toyotismo, producción ligera: algunas cuestiones abiertas. Sociología del Trabajo, 18, 3-21.
CAPECCHI, V. (2003). La crisi del modelo emiliano: el aumento de los trabajos atípicos y de riesgo. Sociologia del Trabajo, 48, 17-43.
CASTILLO, J.J. (1991). Reestructuración productiva y organización del trabajo. In F. MIGUELEZ y C. PRIETO (Eds.), Las relaciones laborales en España(pp. 23-41). Madrid: Siglo XXI.
HARRISON, B. (1997). La empresa que viene. Barcelona: Paidós. (pp. 101-114 y 218-222).
LOPE, A., GIBERT, F. & ORTIZ, D. (2002). Atajar la precariedad laboral. Barcelona: Icaria. (pp. 127-142)
PRIETO, C. (1999). Globalización económica, relación de empleo y cohesión social. Papers: Revista de sociologia, 58, 13-37.
Unit 8
KÖHLER, H-D. & MARTÍN, A. (2011). Manual de la Sociología del trabajo y de las Relaciones laborales. op. cit. (Ch. 11: “Formación y empleo: cualificación y competencia profesional”: pp. 375-401). – Also useful for Unit 8.
MARTÍN, A. & LOPE, A. (1993). Dinámica de las cualificaciones ypolíticas de recursos humanos. Economía y Sociología de la Empresa, 21-22, 115-127.
Unit 9
BOLTANSKI, L. & CHIAPELLO, È.(2002). El nuevo espíritu del capitalismo. Madrid: Akal.
PRIETO, C. (1992). Cambios en la gestión de la mano de obra: interpretaciones y crítica. Sociología del Trabajo, 16, 77-101.
Unit 10
GARCÍA CALAVIA, M. A. (2009). ¿Hacia dónde van las relaciones laborales en los centros de trabajo? Sociología del Trabajo, 67, 39-70.
ESCUDERO RODRIGUEZ, R. (Coord.) (2008). La negociación colectiva en España: Un enfoque interdisciplinar. Madrid: CONC-Ediciones Cinca. (Ch. 2,3 and 4).
(*) The mandatory bibliography is highlighted in bold.
Software
No required.