Social aspects of work. What are the social aspects of labor? The essence and nature of labor; its social aspects
Introduction. Labor is the purposeful activity of people aimed at creating material and cultural values.
This section reveals the essence of labor as a broad social process. Social functions and forms of labor are identified, and its social quality is determined.
The sociological aspect of labor relations is compared with the functional approach. Types of social and labor relations are distinguished depending on the content, subjects of activity, method of communication, scope of power and other reasons.
The content and types of labor adaptation, its main stages, and the conditions for full adaptation of the subject in the work collective are determined.
A definition of social control in the sphere of labor is given, its main functions are highlighted. A classification of types and forms of social control in the workforce, types of social norms and sanctions is given.
Social and labor relations are explained using the concepts of job satisfaction, employment, unemployment, mobility, and migration.
This section also introduces the basic methods of resolving labor conflicts and the principles of analyzing the results of economic activity.
^ 3.1 Labor as a basic socio-economic process:
social essence of labor, classification
social and labor relations.
Labor is the basis and an indispensable condition for human life. By influencing the natural environment, changing and adapting it to their needs, people not only ensure their existence, but also create conditions for the development and progress of society. The labor process is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. The main forms of its manifestation are the expenditure of human energy, the interaction of a worker with the means of production and the production interaction of workers with each other. The role of labor in the development of man and society lies in the fact that in the process of labor not only material and spiritual values are created that are intended to meet people’s needs, but also the workers themselves develop, acquiring skills, revealing their abilities, replenishing and enriching knowledge. The creative nature of labor finds its expression in the emergence of new ideas, progressive technologies, more advanced and highly productive tools, new types of products, materials, energy, which, in turn, lead to the development of needs. In the process of labor, labor relations arise between carriers of living labor. They can be considered in two aspects: functional and sociological
Functional the aspect of labor relations involves identifying the required number of workers, the proportions of their professional and qualified composition based on the necessary time spent on the production of a certain product of labor, the labor intensity of manufacturing the product, etc.
Sociological aspect of labor relations means identifying equality and inequality between participants in the labor process, the social status of individual subjects and groups of workers, their interests, motives, labor behavior, etc.
Labor is not only an economic, but also a fundamental social factor that determines all life aspirations of modern society. Labor determines economic activity and social structure, the most important factors in the socialization of the individual, the culture of society, the way of life of people, the level of their material well-being, etc. By interacting with each other in the labor process, people enter into a wide network of social and labor relations. Thanks to them, the distribution of the results of economic activity is carried out (the economic function of labor relations) , employees are given the opportunity to participate in the affairs of the enterprise (democratic function), conditions are provided for subjects for their integration into social life ( social function) . Among the variety of social and labor relations, their characteristic types and types are distinguished.
The main types of social and labor relations include:
1. Paternalistic relations. They are characterized by strong regulation on the part of the state or enterprise administration.
2. Partnership relations are based on contractual regulation, taking into account the interests of all parties involved.
3. Competitive relations express the desire to obtain unilateral advantages without taking into account the interests of the other party.
4. Solidarity relations presuppose shared responsibility and mutual assistance based on the common interests of the parties.
5. Subsidiary relations mean the desire of subjects for personal responsibility for their actions and achieving their goals.
6. Discriminatory relations are based on arbitrariness, illegal restriction of the rights of subjects of social and labor relations.
7. Conflict relations express the aggravation of contradictions between the subjects of social and labor relations.
I also highlight types of social and labor relations (Table 3.1.1)
Table 3.1.1 Types of social and labor relations
| № | Basis of classification | Types of relationships |
| 1 | By content of activity | Production-functional Professional qualifications Social-organizational |
| 2 | By subjects of relations | Interorganizational (interproduction) Intra-organizational (intra-production) |
| 3 | By the nature of income distribution | According to labor contribution Not in accordance with labor contribution |
| 4 | By way of communication | Impersonal (mediated) Personal (direct) |
| 5 | By volume of power | Horizontal Vertical |
| 6 | According to the degree of regulation | Formal (official) Informal (unofficial) |
The social essence of labor is expressed, first of all, through social functions and forms of labor, as well as the social quality of labor. Basic social functions of labor.
1. Creation of social wealth (material and spiritual).
2. Realization of potential social wealth (natural minerals, intellectual potential of society).
3. Development, self-expression and self-affirmation of personality.
Labor is realized in such social forms as socialized labor, small-group labor, and individual labor.
The social quality of labor lies in the impact of the employee’s work activity on his social roles, social status, interests, educational and professional qualification level, other social characteristics. This impact is due to the influence of tools, technology, working conditions, forms of labor organization, etc.
Nature of work reflects the way the producer connects with the means of production, determined by the property relations prevailing in a given society. Thus, in a slave-owning society, the slave and the means of labor were united as the property of the slave owner. And this gave rise to the worker’s personal dependence on the one who appropriated the results of his work. In a capitalist society, a worker can connect with the means of labor by selling his labor power and remaining personally free. Thus, labor by its nature can be slave, corvee, hired (Sokolova G.N., 2002).
Attitude to work , according to G.N. Sokolova , – complex social and labor phenomenon. This is a characteristic of the type of spiritual connection of an individual with an object, means and product of labor, as well as with the production environment. Its main elements are:
Motives and orientations of labor behavior;
Real or actual work behavior;
Verbal work behavior (employees’ assessment of their work situation).
Among the indicators of attitude towards work, there are objective indicators (responsibility, conscientiousness, initiative, discipline, etc.) and subjective indicators (overall job satisfaction, partial satisfaction with individual elements of the labor process: wages, working conditions, relationships in the team, etc.).
Attitudes towards work are influenced by a number of factors: production and non-production. Production factors include: pay and working conditions; labor organization; production independence; relationships in the team, etc. Among the non-production factors of attitude towards work, the following are distinguished: the standard of living of workers; educational and professional level workers; work experience; development of social infrastructure; state of labor morale, etc.
The concept of labor content expresses the production and technical side of the connection of a worker with the means of labor, characterizes the labor process as the interaction of a person with nature (tools and objects of labor). Contents of work represents a set of actions performed by an employee and their relationship, the composition of specific labor functions. The following labor functions of an employee are distinguished: energy; technological; control and regulatory; managerial; informational. Using manual technology, man exchanged substances with nature through a mediating function; machine technology allowed man to exchange substances with nature through a regulatory function; the modern scientific and technological revolution gives him the opportunity to control the internal mechanism of natural phenomena and objects with the help of the controlling function (Sokolova G.N., 2002).
^ Content of work - this is the saturation of his mental activity, an expression of the complexity, diversity of work functions performed, and the intellectual and psychological characteristics of work.
The main factor influencing changes in the structure of labor functions is scientific and technological progress. Under its influence, the content and meaningfulness of work change.
^ Working conditions is a set of socio-economic, technical and organizational, socio-hygienic and socio-psychological conditions that affect a person’s health and performance, his attitude towards work, the degree of job satisfaction, production efficiency, standard of living and personal development.
^ Job satisfaction - this is the evaluative attitude of a person or group of people to their own work activity, its various aspects, the most important indicator of an employee’s adaptation at a given enterprise.
There are a number of fairly specific meanings of job satisfaction, reflecting its role, functions, consequences in socio-economic life, in organization and management.
1. As a result of studying people’s evaluative attitudes towards well-being in everyday life, the socio-economic system, and the social climate, it was established that work and career mean for them highest value along with such values as health, personal life, full-fledged leisure, often occupying the first position in this ranking. In a word, job satisfaction is, first of all, social satisfaction, the most important indicator of the quality of life of individuals and groups, the population, and the nation. The questions “how are we living?” and “how do we work?” largely coincide for some people in their youth, for others in adulthood.
2. Job satisfaction has functional and production significance. It affects the quantitative and qualitative results of work, the urgency and accuracy of completing tasks, and commitment to other people. Attitude towards work can be based on the employee’s self-assessment of his business qualities and performance. At the same time, self-satisfaction and self-dissatisfaction, depending on the specific case, can have a positive and negative impact on work.
3. The employer’s concern for people’s satisfaction with their work determines some essential types of managerial behavior and labor relations in general. The employer is often skeptical about the production and economic effect of any measures to humanize labor and considers their financing irrational. Funds for these purposes are usually spent under pressure from trade unions, the working masses or legal authorities.
4. Satisfactory, from the employee’s point of view, the nature and working conditions are the most important factor in the authority of the manager. For workers, the best administration is the one that can make their work better.
5. Job satisfaction is often an indicator of staff turnover and the need for appropriate action to prevent it.
6. Depending on job satisfaction, the demands and aspirations of employees increase or decrease, including in relation to remuneration for work (satisfaction can reduce criticality with respect to remuneration).
7. Job satisfaction is a universal criterion for explaining and interpreting a variety of actions of individual workers and work groups. It determines the style, method, manner of communication between the administration and the workforce. In other words, the behavior of satisfied and dissatisfied people differs, and the management of satisfied and dissatisfied people also differs.
^ Labor adaptation and social control
in the work team
Labor adaptation is a social process of a person’s mastering a new work situation, in which, unlike the biological one, both the person and the work environment actively influence each other and are adaptive systems. When entering a job, a person is actively involved in the system of professional and socio-psychological relations of the work collective, assimilates new social and labor roles, values, norms, coordinates his individual position with the goals and objectives of the work collective, thereby subordinating his behavior to the requirements of the enterprise. .
There are primary and secondary labor adaptation. Primary occurs when an employee initially enters the work environment, secondary occurs when changing a workplace, profession, position, etc.
Labor adaptation has a complex structure and represents the unity of professional, socio-psychological, social-organizational and cultural-everyday adaptation.
1. Professional adaptation is expressed in mastering professional skills, developing the necessary professional qualities, acquiring professional skills, etc.
2. Socio-psychological adaptation consists of a person mastering the socio-psychological characteristics of a work organization, entering into the system of relationships that has developed within it, and positively interacting with members of the organization.
3. Social-organizational adaptation means mastering by a new subject the organizational structure of the organization, work routine, work and rest schedule, and features of the management system.
4. Psychophysiological adaptation is the process of a person mastering the conditions and rhythm of work, sanitary and hygienic comfort, psychophysiological stress of work, etc.
5. Cultural and everyday adaptation is the participation of new members of the workforce in activities traditional for a given enterprise outside of working hours.
During the adaptation process, an employee goes through three main stages: 1) familiarization with the work situation; 2) adaptation to the work situation; 3) association with the work situation.
Indicators of the degree of adaptation of an employee to the work environment are: efficiency and quality of work; assimilation of social and labor information; labor activity; job satisfaction, etc.
The process of labor adaptation can be influenced by both objective and subjective factors.
Objective factors of labor adaptation include conditions beyond the control of the employee: level of labor organization; labor automation; working conditions; scale of the workforce; its location, etc.
Subjective (personal) factors include: socio-demographic characteristics of the employee (gender, age, education, qualifications, work experience, social status); socio-psychological characteristics (level of aspirations, hard work, self-control, sociability, etc.); sociological (the degree of professional interest, the degree of material and moral interest in the efficiency and quality of work, the presence of an attitude towards advanced training, etc.)
One of the conditions facilitating labor adaptation is professional selection of personnel. Its purpose is to determine a person's suitability to perform a specific job.
Professional selection involves a description of the profession, drawing up a job description of the workplace, as well as a personality map reflecting the individual’s natural data, his inclinations, social, psychological and physiological characteristics.
Another condition for full-fledged labor adaptation is the availability of opportunities for the employee’s professional growth and career. The presence of prospects for advancement up the professional and career ladder contributes to the speedy initial labor adaptation of young specialists.
In the process of industrial adaptation, the personal potential of the employee plays an important role (Fig. 3.1.2). This is a set of certain traits and qualities of an employee that form a certain type of behavior: self-confidence, sociability, the ability to assert oneself, poise, etc. that is, personal potential characterizes a person’s internal physical and spiritual energy, his activity position aimed at creative self-expression and self-realization.
Researchers note that frontline workers have the following traits: energy, the ability to manage their emotions, a willingness to openly express their opinions, and the ability to change their point of view under the influence of arguments, but not force.
Social control plays an important role in regulating the life of the work collective. Social control is called a special institution of society, designed to prevent and correct those social deviations that can disorganize public life.
Labor is the purposeful activity of people aimed at creating material and cultural values. Labor is the basis and indispensable condition of human life. Influencing environment By changing and adapting it to their needs, people not only ensure their existence, but also create conditions for the development and progress of society.
Labor and work are not equivalent, not identical concepts. Labor is a social phenomenon; it is inherent only to man. Just as human life is impossible outside of society, so there can be no labor without man and outside of society. Work is a physical concept; it can be performed by a person, an animal, or a machine. Labor is measured in working hours, work in kilograms.
According to A. Marshall’s definition, work is “any mental and physical effort undertaken in part or in whole with the aim of achieving any result, not counting the satisfaction received directly from the work itself” [Marshall. T. 1. P. 124].
Mandatory elements of labor are labor and means of production.
Labor force is the totality of a person’s physical and spiritual abilities that are used by him in the labor process. Labor is the main, main productive force of society. The means of production consist of objects of labor and means of labor. Objects of labor are products of nature that undergo various changes during the labor process and are transformed into consumer values. If objects of labor form the material basis of a product, then they are called basic materials, and if they contribute to the labor process itself or give new properties to the main material, then they are called auxiliary materials. Objects of labor in a broad sense include everything that is sought, mined, processed, formed, i.e. material resources, scientific knowledge, etc.
Means of labor are instruments of production through which a person influences the objects of labor and modifies them. To the means
Chapter 3 Labor as a sphere of life and the main factor of production 43
include tools and workplace. Labor efficiency is influenced by a set of properties and parameters of labor tools that are properly adapted to a person or a team as a subject of labor. In the event of a discrepancy between the psychophysiological characteristics of a person and the parameters of labor tools, safe work conditions are violated, worker fatigue increases, etc. The parameters of labor tools depend on the achievements of scientific and technological progress, the financial capabilities of the enterprise to purchase new products, as well as its investment activity.
The labor process is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. The main forms of its manifestation are the expenditure of human energy, the interaction of the worker with the means of production (objects and means of labor) and the production interaction of workers with each other both horizontally (the relationship of participation in a single labor process), and vertically (the relationship between a manager and a subordinate). The role of labor in the development of man and society is manifested in the fact that in the process of labor not only material and spiritual values are created that are intended to meet people’s needs, but also the workers themselves develop, acquire skills, reveal their abilities, replenish and enrich knowledge. The creative nature of labor finds its expression in the emergence of new ideas, progressive technologies, more advanced and highly productive tools, new types of products, materials, energy, which, in turn, lead to the development of needs.
Thus, in the process of labor activity, not only goods are produced, services are provided, cultural values are created, etc., but new needs appear with requirements for their subsequent satisfaction (Fig. 3.1). The sociological aspect of the study is to consider labor as a system of social relations, to determine its impact on society.
Labor plays an extremely important role in the implementation and development of human society and each of its members. Thanks to the work of many thousands of generations of people, a huge potential of productive forces, colossal social wealth has been accumulated, and modern civilization has been formed. Further progress of human society is impossible without the development of production and labor.
At all times, labor has been and remains the most important production factor, a type of human activity.
Activity is the internal (mental) and external (physical) activity of a person, regulated by a conscious goal.
Labor activity is the leading, main human activity. Since during life at every moment a person can be in one of two states - activity or inaction, then activity acts as an active process, and inaction as a passive one.
44
Section 1. Labor as the basis for the development of society and a factor of production
The overwhelming majority of human activity is carried out consciously, on the basis of internally reasoned motives. Hence, the conscious part of activity is divided into labor and non-labor parts. The main criteria that distinguish labor from non-labor activities are:
- Connection with the creation of benefits, i.e. the creation and increase of material,
spiritual, everyday benefits. Activities not related to creation
is not labor. For example, walks, travel, games like
Ma rest, eating, medical procedures. Such activities are
involved in the consumption of goods to restore working capacity, once
development, reproduction of life; - purposefulness of activity. Aimless activity in relation to
has no interest in work, since it is a waste of human resources
skoy energy, which does not have positive consequences; - legitimacy of activity. Labor only applies to non-prohibited
activity, and prohibited, criminal activity by labor
cannot be, since it is aimed at misappropriation of results
tatov of other people's labor and is prosecuted by law; - demand for activity. If a person has spent time and effort
influence on the production of a product that turned out to be of no use to anyone,
then such activity cannot be considered labor.
Chapter 3 - Labor as a sphere of life and the main factor of production 45 
The goals of work activity may be the production of consumer goods and services or the means necessary for their production. The goals may be the production of energy, media, ideological products, as well as the actions of management and organizational technologies. It does not matter whether the product being produced is needed by a person to satisfy his own needs. The goals of work activity are set for a person by society, therefore by its nature it is social: the needs of society form, determine, guide and regulate it.
During the work process, a person is affected by large number external production and non-production factors influencing his performance and health. The combination of these factors is called working conditions.
Working conditions are understood as a set of elements of the production environment that influence a person’s functional state, his performance, health, all aspects of his development, and, above all, his attitude towards work and its efficiency. Working conditions are formed in the production process and are determined by the type and level of equipment, technology and organization of production.
There are socio-economic and production working conditions.
Socio-economic working conditions include everything that affects the level of employee preparation for participation in work, the restoration of the workforce (level of education and the possibility of receiving it, the possibility of proper rest, living conditions, etc.). Production working conditions are all elements of the production environment that affect the employee during the labor process, his health and performance, and his attitude towards work.
The subject of labor can be individual employee or team. Since the means of labor and objects of labor are created by man, he is the main component of labor as a system.
In the process of work, people enter into certain social relationships, interacting with each other. Social interactions in the sphere of work are a form of social connections realized in the exchange of activities and mutual action. The objective basis for interaction between people is the commonality or divergence of their interests, close or distant goals, and views. Intermediaries of interaction between people in the sphere of labor and its intermediate links are tools and objects of labor, material and spiritual goods. The constant interaction of individuals or communities in the process of work in certain social conditions forms specific social relationships.
Social relations are relationships between members of social communities and these communities regarding their social status, image and way of life, and ultimately, regarding the conditions for the formation and development of personality and social communities. They manifest themselves in the position of individual groups of workers in the labor process, communication connections between them, i.e. in the mutual exchange of information to influence the behavior and performance of others, as well as to assess their own position, which influences the formation of interests and behavior of these groups.
These relations are inextricably linked with labor relations and are determined by them initially. For example, employees get accustomed to a labor organization, adapt due to objective needs, and thus enter into labor relations regardless of who will work next to them, who the manager is, or what style of activity they have. However, then each employee manifests himself in his own way in his relationships with each other, with the manager, in his attitude to work, to the order of distribution of work, etc. Consequently, on the basis of objective relationships, relationships of a socio-psychological nature begin to take shape, characterized by a certain emotional mood, the nature of people’s communication and relationships in a work organization, and the atmosphere in it.
Thus, social and labor relations make it possible to determine the social significance, role, place, and social position of the individual and group. They are the connecting link between the worker and the foreman, the leader and a group of subordinates, certain groups of workers and their individual members. Not a single group of workers, not a single member of a labor organization can exist outside of such relationships, outside of mutual responsibilities towards each other, outside of interactions.
As we see, in practice there is a variety of social and labor relations. Them, as well as various social phenomena and processes in the existing market conditions and is studied by the sociology of labor. Therefore, the sociology of labor is the study of the functioning and social aspects of the market in the world of work. If we try to narrow this concept, we can say that the sociology of labor is the behavior of employers and employees in response to economic and social incentives to work. It is this kind of incentives, on the one hand, that encourage individual choice, and on the other hand, they limit his. In sociological theory, the emphasis is on incentives that regulate labor behavior, which are not impersonal in nature and relate to workers and broad groups of people.
The subject of labor sociology is the structure and mechanism of social and labor relations, as well as social processes and phenomena in the world of work.
The goal of the sociology of labor is the study of social processes and the development of recommendations for their regulation and management, forecasting and planning, aimed at creating optimal conditions for the functioning of society, a team, a group, an individual in the world of work and achieving on this basis the most complete implementation and optimal combination their interests.
The tasks of labor sociology are:
studying and optimizing the social structure of society, labor organization (team);
analysis of the labor market as a regulator of optimal and rational mobility of labor resources;
searching for ways to optimally realize the labor potential of a modern worker;
optimal combination of moral and material incentives and improving attitudes towards work in market conditions;
strengthening social control and combating various kinds of deviations from generally accepted moral principles and norms in the world of work;
studying the causes and developing a system of measures to prevent and resolve labor conflicts;
creating a system of social guarantees that protect workers in society, labor organizations, etc.
In other words, the tasks of the sociology of labor come down to developing methods and techniques for using social factors in the interests of solving the most important socio-economic problems of society and the individual, which include the creation of a system of social guarantees, maintaining and consolidating the social security of citizens in order to accelerate the social reorientation of the economy.
To collect and analyze information in the sociology of labor, sociological methods are widely used, which are manifested in:
achieved knowledge about the subject of research (understanding the essence of labor and relations in the sphere of labor);
process of fact-gathering methods;
way to make a conclusion, i.e. formulate conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena.
It should be noted that research conducted within the framework of the sociology of labor provides the necessary and sufficiently reliable information for the formation of social policy, the development of scientifically based programs for socio-economic development labor organizations(teams) to solve social problems and contradictions that constantly accompany labor activity and workers. Thus, the sociology of labor is called upon, on the one hand, to expand knowledge about the actually existing reality, and on the other hand, to contribute to the establishment of new connections and processes occurring in the sphere of labor.
The sociological labor sciences exist within sociology as a whole, but are not necessarily integral parts of the sociology of labor. They are sociological not only in their methods, but also in their subject matter. Their common feature– study of the social aspects of social labor. The emergence of disciplines within the sociology of labor became possible due to the fact that this science analyzes social labor at the macro and micro levels. The first concerns the institutional aspect of work, and the second concerns the motivational and behavioral aspects.
Economic sociology is one of the young branches of knowledge. Its subject is value orientations, needs, interests and behavior of large social groups (demographic, professional, qualification, etc.) at the macro and micro levels in market conditions. How are the reductions and employment of management personnel, unskilled workers, engineers, doctors, etc. carried out? How does the assessment of remuneration (moral and material) of labor change in certain social groups, in the spheres of individual and collective labor, state, private and cooperative production? Economic sociology is called upon and answers these and other questions. The subject of research in the sociology of labor is precisely the range of its scientific problems in intersection with other sociological disciplines.
Labor economics studies the mechanism of action of economic laws in the sphere of labor, the forms of their manifestation in public organization labor. Economics is interested in the process of value creation itself. For it, labor costs are important at all stages of the production cycle, while the sociology of labor examines the labor interactions of workers and the labor relations that arise between them. For example, in stimulating labor, the economy is interested in wages. In this case, the tariff system, wages, and the relationship between them are studied. The sociology of labor, paying due attention to the problem of material incentives, considers, first of all, the totality of incentives to work, such incentives as the content of work, its organization and conditions, the degree of independence in work, the nature of relationships in a team, etc.
In the process of work, people enter into certain social relationships, interacting with each other. Social interactions in the world of work are a form of social connections realized in the exchange of activities and mutual action. The objective basis for interaction between people is the commonality or divergence of their interests, close or distant goals, and views. Intermediaries of interaction between people in the sphere of labor and its intermediate links are tools and objects of labor, material and spiritual goods. The constant interaction of individuals or communities in the process of work in certain social conditions forms specific social relationships.
Social relations are relationships between members of social communities and these communities regarding their social status, image and way of life, and ultimately, regarding the conditions for the formation and development of personality and social communities. They manifest themselves in the position of individual groups of workers in the labor process, communication connections between them, i.e. in the mutual exchange of information to influence the behavior and performance of others, as well as to assess their own position, which influences the formation of interests and behavior of these groups.
These relations are inextricably linked with labor relations and are determined by them initially. For example, employees get accustomed to a labor organization, adapt due to objective needs, and thus enter into labor relations regardless of who will work next to them, who the manager is, or what style of activity they have. However, then each employee manifests himself in his own way in relationships with each other, with the manager, in relation to work, to the order of distribution of work, etc. Consequently, on the basis of objective relations, relationships of a socio-psychological nature begin to take shape, characterized by a certain emotional mood, character communication between people and relationships in a work organization, the atmosphere in it.
Thus, social and labor relations make it possible to determine the social significance, role, place, and social position of the individual and group. They are the connecting link between the worker and the foreman, the leader and a group of subordinates, certain groups of workers and their individual members. Not a single group of workers, not a single member of a labor organization can exist outside of such relationships, outside of mutual responsibilities towards each other, outside of interactions.
As we see, in practice there is a variety of social and labor relations. These, as well as various social phenomena and processes in the existing market conditions, are studied by the sociology of labor. Therefore, the sociology of labor is the study of the functioning and social aspects of the market in the world of work. If we try to narrow this concept, we can say that the sociology of labor is the behavior of employers and employees in response to economic and social incentives to work. It is precisely this kind of incentives that, on the one hand, encourage individual choice, and on the other hand, limit it. In sociological theory, the emphasis is on incentives that regulate labor behavior, which are not impersonal in nature and relate to workers and broad groups of people.
The subject of the sociology of labor is the structure and mechanism of social and labor relations, as well as social processes and phenomena in the sphere of labor.
The goal of the sociology of labor is the study of social processes and the development of recommendations for their regulation and management, forecasting and planning, aimed at creating optimal conditions for the functioning of society, a team, a group, an individual in the world of work and achieving on this basis the most complete implementation and optimal combination their interests.
The tasks of labor sociology are:
- studying and optimizing the social structure of society, labor organization (team);
- analysis of the labor market as a regulator of optimal and rational mobility of labor resources;
- searching for ways to optimally realize the labor potential of a modern worker;
- optimal combination of moral and material incentives and improving attitudes towards work in market conditions;
- strengthening social control and combating various kinds of deviations from generally accepted moral principles and norms in the world of work;
- studying the causes and developing a system of measures to prevent and resolve labor conflicts;
- creating a system of social guarantees that protect workers in society, labor organizations, etc.
- In other words, the tasks of the sociology of labor come down to developing methods and techniques for using social factors in the interests of solving the most important socio-economic problems of society and the individual, which include the creation of a system of social guarantees, maintaining and consolidating the social security of citizens in order to accelerate the social reorientation of the economy.
- To collect and analyze information in the sociology of labor, sociological methods are widely used, which are manifested in:
- achieved knowledge about the subject of research (understanding the essence of labor and relations in the sphere of labor);
- process of fact-gathering methods;
- way to make a conclusion, i.e. formulate conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena.
The sociological labor sciences exist within sociology as a whole, but are not necessarily integral parts of the sociology of labor. They are sociological not only in their methods, but also in their subject matter. Their common feature is the study of the social aspects of social labor. The emergence of disciplines within the sociology of labor became possible due to the fact that this science analyzes social labor at the macro and micro levels. The first concerns the institutional aspect of work, and the second concerns the motivational and behavioral aspects.
Economic sociology is one of the new branches of knowledge. Her subject
- value orientations, needs, interests and behavior of large social groups (demographic, professional and qualification, etc.) at the macro and micro levels in market conditions. How are the reductions and employment of management personnel, unskilled workers, engineers, doctors, etc. carried out? How does the assessment of remuneration (moral and material) of labor change in certain social groups, in the spheres of individual and collective labor, state, private and cooperative production? Economic sociology is called upon and answers these and other questions. The subject of research in the sociology of labor is precisely the range of its scientific problems in
Labor economics studies the mechanism of action of economic laws in the sphere of labor, the forms of their manifestation in the social organization of labor. Economics is interested in the process of creating value itself. For it, labor costs are important at all stages of the production cycle, while the sociology of labor examines the labor interactions of workers and the labor relations that arise between them. For example, in stimulating labor, the economy is interested in wages. In this case, the tariff system, wages, and the relationship between them are studied. The sociology of labor, paying due attention to the problem of material incentives, considers, first of all, the totality of incentives to work, such incentives as the content of work, its organization and conditions, the degree of independence in work, the nature of relationships in a team, etc.