Rural Sociology 1000

1
Rural Sociology 1000

• Class Business

• Topics
• Modern Social Organizations
• Rationalization
• Rural Food Processing
• Case of Iowa Beef Processing in Finney County,
  Kansas

2
Review Questions

• What are the strategies Iowa Beef Processing
  (Tyson) used to stay competitive in the world
  market and generate profit, particularly in their
  labor force?
• 2. How have these rational organizational
  strategies impacted the community?
• 3. Describe two community and/or human costs that
  were not factored into the rational decision
  making of the meat packing companies and the
  price of the product? Who picked up these costs?
  What does the textbook call these types of
  consequences?

3
The Rationalization Thesis
Scientific and technical knowledge is used to
organize social and economic life according to
principles of bureaucratic efficiency,
calculability, predictability and control
Key Ideas of Rationalization Thesis
Means-ends formal rationality characterizes
decision making
Rational bureaucracy is the dominant
organizational form (specialization, hierarchy,
rule governed and impersonal)
4
Food Processing

• Food processing workers held 760,000 jobs in
  2000.
• About 33 percent of all food processing workers
  were employed in meatpacking or poultry and fish
  processing plants.
• U.S. Dept. of Labor Statistics

5
The Case of Finney County, KS and IBP

• Todays video describes Finney County, Kansas and
  features IBP (Iowa Beef Processing) as an example
  of the meat packing growth sector in the
  non-metro U.S.
• IBP is owned by Tyson Foods, Inc.