The Long Arm of Work (4/7)

1
The Long Arm of Work (4/7)

• The Kohn analysis of Values
• The influence of occupational autonomy on
  education and family
• Alienation of work

2
Dates to Remember

• 4/9 finish Contract Draft 3
• 4/14 ch. 12, Draft 3 and Discussion 7
• Hand in Drafts 1 and 2 with Draft 3
• 4/23 complete One World
• Final due date 4/30
• Final exam date 5/5

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Suggested Format

1. Abstract 1p.
2. Introduction 1-2 pp.
3. Review of Literature 3-4 pp.
4. Method 2-3 pp.
5. Core analysis 3-5 pp.
6. Discussion 1-4 pp.
7. Conclusions and Implications 1-4 pp.
8. Bibliography 1-2 pp.

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How Optional is the Suggested Format?

• There is no one-size-fits-all way to construct a
  sustained, focused theoretical analysis.
• Often the suggested format is not comfortable
  but comfort may not be a sufficient reason for
  changing it.
• There is a reason for each piece it is usually
  harder to do that in a different way.
• The pieces may be in different form or order.
• A separate Discussion helps to focus the Main
  analysis and the Conclusions.
• If the Core, the Discussion and the Conclusion is
  minimal, the paper is probably problematical.

5
What goes in a Discussion?

• The Discussion (1-4 pp.) can be of several
  different kinds.
• A theory paper cannot allow the facts to speak
  for themselves
• Empirical analysis and the confrontation of
  theory with data almost always raises many
  different kinds of questions.
• Often, segregating some of the discussions from
  the rest of the main analysis and conclusion
  allows those to be more focused and the
  discussion of the issues better developed

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What goes in a Conclusion?

• The Conclusion (1-4pp.) should return to the main
  issues of the Introduction and the literature.
• It often generalizes beyond the specific data,
  looking at
• Theoretical implications of the analysis
• Practical implications of the analysis.
• Either the Conclusion or the Discussion can be
  short they should not both be short.

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Melvin Kohn

• President of ASA in 1992
• Values and work
• Combines Functional and Conflict theory.
• Most jobs lack autonomy, responsibility, and
  judgment they involve close supervision in an
  antagonistic relation.
• This situation is debilitating and undermines the
  values of autonomy and responsibility.
• Master of the analysis of reciprocal causation
  and systemic effects.

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Value system

• Measurement instrument There are many qualities
  all of which are important for a child. Tell me
  which one is the most important for your child
  (if you had a child)
• Parents were usually asked to pick the most
  important quality from the list, then next most
  important and to discard the least important.
• Gives a measure of the (parental) priorities with
  respect to different values.

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Values and

• His analysis is usually taken to b e a
  development of the notion of alienation.
• There is widespread recognition of the need for
  people to be treated with human dignity and to be
  granted as much autonomy and responsibility as is
  practicable.
• The notion that the value of autonomy is central
  to modern society is central to both Marx and to
  Durkheim.

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Functional and conflict accounts of values

• Like functionalists, he assumes that values play
  a big role in the rest of a persons life.
• Like conflict theorists, he assumes that jobs
  and play a big role.
• The work situation of most workers is closely
  supervised and without autonomy, self-direction
  or responsibility.
• Why?
• Kohn suggests that someone is making a buck from
  the limitation and unfreedom of others.

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The question of Exploitation

• Wright (American Sociological Review 67 832-853
  (2002) argues that the central blind spot of
  Weber and of Functionalist analysis of the labor
  process as technically efficient is
• Exploitation
• When those with power make the rules,
• they make rules to benefit themselves,
• which is usually disadvantageous to their
  subordinates.

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The qualities from which the parents had to choose

1. That s/ he is honest
2. That s/ he has self control
3. That s/ he has good sense and sound judgment
4. That s/ he is responsible
5. That s/ he is interested in how things work
6. That s/ he is considerate of others

1. That s/he has good manners
2. That s/ he gets along well with other children
3. That s/ he is neat and clean
4. That s/ he acts like a boy (she acts like a girl)
5. That s/ he obeys his/her parents well
6. That s/ he is good student

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Class and Conformity (1969)

• Kohn found that the main dimension of
  value-difference was autonomy-conformity I.e.
  internal control-external control.
• And the main source of valuing autonomy was that
  one had autonomy and self-direction at work.

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Work and Personality (1983) and Social Structure
and Self-direction (1990)

• In general parents who chose any one value of
  conformity (obeys, good manners, neat clean,
  acts like a boy) chose other values of
  conformity.
• Parents who chose any one value of autonomy
  (interested, responsible, judgment, self control)
  chose others.
• The main dimension is internal locus of control
  vs. external locus of control.

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Correlates of external vs internal

• Occupational self-direction is associated with
• Internal locus of control
• Ideational flexibility
• Autonomy
• Close supervision is associated with
• External locus of control
• Authoritarianism
• Anxiety and distress.

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Causes of valuing autonomy

• The value of autonomy and freedom is arguably
  central to the United States and to the modern
  world.
• In general, only parents whose work gave them
  autonomy and responsibility, valued autonomy and
  responsibility
• Parents whose work was closely supervised, valued
  external conformity.
• Kohns subsequent work verified this effect in
  many different societies and many different
  situations, especially education and the family.

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Norms and Behavior

• This is the Marxian analysis of alienation.
• It is also similar to Parsons analysis of the
  relation between norms and interactions.
• It can be pictured

Behavior
Norms

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The Marxian form

1. Work is one of the most important influences on
   ones character.
2. Some kinds of work make one more others make one
   less.
3. Those at the top have work that tends to make
   them and their families more autonomous and free.
4. Those at the bottom have work that makes them
   authoritarian, anxious, and distressed.
5. Chains in peoples minds compound the cumulation
   of resources.

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The Parsonian form

• Values are one of the most important components
  of society and individual careers.
• The values of autonomy are the basis of modern
  values.
• But one has to demonstrate worthiness for
  autonomy by ones achievement.
• Education allows people to achieve the position
  to which they are entitled.

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Comparison of the U.S. Italy, Poland and Japan

• Kohns later work shows that the same class
  effects show up in all advanced industrial
  societies.
• There were interesting and minor differences in
  the different countries, but the main effect of
  occupational autonomy showed up strongly in all
  four countries.
• He classed Eastern European countries as
  socialist.
• The distress/authoritarianism of manual workers
  and the advantages of managers were smaller in
  those countries.

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Is it the behavior that creates the values or
vice versa?

• Longitudinal panel analysis over two decades
  shows that the main effect is from occupation to
  values to education and family relations,
• But the effect of values and of parental values
  on education and occupational choice is also
  significant.
• P. 338 In general the effects of class situation
  on values is greater than vv.
• Even a 50-60 yr. old wo/man given a job with
  occupational self direction, develops
  significantly increased ideational flexibility
  and value of autonomy, rapidly

22
Effects of autonomy/close supervision in the
family

• The same measures that are used to measure
  autonomy and accountability at work, can be
  applied to division of labor in the family.
• Both husband/wife and parent child division of
  labor, autonomy and control appear to be an
  offshoot of occupational roles.
• The degree of autonomy in family roles seem to be
  a reflection of that in occupational roles.

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Autonomy and self-direction in education.

• The fundamental question raised by much of Kohns
  work is
• Why, if self-direction produces greater
  flexibility and motivation and less distress and
  anxiety, is education, especially at lower
  levels, so characterized by close supervision?
• The long arm of work intrudes into education in
  several different ways.

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Macro-theory and ecological analysis.

• Durkheims analysis was not developed from
  surveys but from existing data.
• Different political bodies have different rates
  of any behavior you might be interested in.
• Comparing rates of different behaviors to
  indicators of causes allows a kind of
  macro-analysis.
• Often a Discussion can usefully compare what is
  found in survey data to what is visib le in
  ecological data or vice versa.

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The States data set

• Data exists for many different kinds of rates
  (income, immigration, educational failure or
  success, suicide, crime, cultural and social
  structural indices.)
• Since many other kinds of data are available for
  states, it is relatively easy to add data to the
  data set.

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Scatter-plots

• The equivalent presentation of data to a
  crosstabulation in survey data is a scatterplot
  in which each state is measures with respect to
  two different variables.
• The association ranges from 1 to -1
• The regression line is the line that best fits
  the points.

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A Correlation Matrix

• It is possible to inspect the relations between a
  large number of variables to see which ones
  cluster in what ways by looking at a correlation
  matrix.
• The correlation coefficient is the equivalent of
  gamma.
• Each variable has a perfect positive relation
  (1) with itself

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A Multiple Regression

• The main advantage of regression lines is that
  they may be calculated between several variables
  simultaneously.
• A multiple regression coefficient is the
  equivalent of a partial gamma.
• And it gives the effect of one independent
  variable, controlling the effects of all others
  that are included in the equation.

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By Wednesday

• Look at one regression
• concerning education
• that might be relevant to the discussions we have
  had of the effects of poverty and the of the
  culture of poverty.
• What are the advantages and the limitations of
  ecological data?