COMPREHENSIVE EXAM IN ORGANIZATIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND WORK
SPRING 2012
DAY 1: ORGANIZATIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND WORK
Instructions: Answer any two of the following four questions.
1.
Discuss how organizations, occupations or other work-related institutions relate to inequality.
2.
Discuss the historical role of unions in both mitigating and reinforcing economic inequality in US society. In your answer, be sure to identify the industries with high union density, and industries that have successfully resisted unionization. What are the future prospects of unions, in your opinion?
3.
Consider the changing relation of education to occupation and occupational mobility with the growth of the service economy and technology. Is this relation different in the developed as compared to the developing world?
4.
The labor market is divided by race and gender, with the best jobs in the economy going to white men. How do “human capital” theorists explain this stratification? Discuss the strengths and limitations of the human capital approach. Next, discuss two alternative theories that explain labor market stratification by race and gender.