WORK, HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF

history of the methods by which society structures the activities and labour necessary to its survival. The story of work is a story of humanity's trials and triumphsfrom the ordeal of hard work, sometimes under conditions of slavery with obedience mandated by the whip, to the development of tools and machines, which take the burdens off human backs and even human minds. These advances in technology, which are still taking place, extend the reach of the hand, expand muscle power, enlarge the senses, and multiply the capacities of the mind. This story of work is still unfolding, with great changes taking place throughout the world and in a more accelerated fashion than ever before. But work involves more than the use of tools and techniques. The form and nature of the work process help determine the character of a civilization, but, in turn, a society's economic, political, and cultural characteristics shape the form and nature of the work process as well as the role and status of the worker within the society. Work is essential in providing the basic physical needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and different explanations have been given at different times for its existence and purpose in human survival. Thus, in Chinese civilization, work became part of the Taoist flow of nature to which a person must adapt as part of the natural world. However, in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition (and in pagan religions as well), it was regarded as a punishment sent by God (or by the gods or spirits) to punish human beings for some deviation from the wishes or rules of the divine. The human spirit, however, is too resilient and optimistic to face an eternal and damning process of hard physical labour, as most work was during most of human history for most people, so more benign explanations of the meaning and purpose of work came into use. For example, in western Christendom the Benedictine monks enunciated the rule that to work is to pray, to fulfill one's duty to God and thus achieve salvation. This notion of work bringing spiritual rewards, in addition to physical survival, was carried further during the 17th century by the Puritans, whose work ethic led them to regard the accumulation of material wealth through labour as a sign of God's favour as well as of the individual's religious fervour. This attitude still appears in the American expression, You are what you do, implying that people define themselves by the nature of their work. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the development of powered machinery during the 18th and 19th centuries, much onerous physical effort was gradually removed from work in factories and fields. Work was still regarded, however, as something separate from pleasure, and the dichotomy between work and play persists even in today's highly industrialized society. Most recently, the development of automated work devices and processes and the introduction of the computer into the service trades, especially in offices, has led futurists to speak of a postindustrial society. This vision has not prevailed, however, with the spread of industrial production to developing nations. This globalization of production has meant that economic and political questions of working-class and managerial relationships have altered on an international front, affecting political relationships on a global scale. Furthermore, new demands have been placed on educational systems in the developing nations as they attempt to train their workers for industrial production. Similarly, new demands have been placed on the educational systems of the developed nations, as the old assembly-line routine of specialized work has been taken over by smart machines. In brief, the world of work and of the varying workermanager relationship is in a state of flux as a result of changes in the technological, cultural, political, and economic environments. The study of changes in the organization of work resulting from such alterations in the past can perhaps lead to a better understanding of the present problemsnow on a worldwide scaleresulting from ongoing technical, political, and economic changes. Hence, this article employs both historical and current perspectives in order to provide a basis for understanding work in today's world and possible changes in the future. Additional reading mile Durkheim, mile Durkheim on the Division of Labor in Society, trans. by W.D. Halls (1984, which was originally published in French, 1893), started serious consideration of the organization of work in society. Melvin Kranzberg and Joseph Gies, By the Sweat of Thy Brow: Work in the Western World (1975, reprinted 1986), is a later popular survey.For the organization of work from prehistoric to classical times, see Robert J. Braidwood, Prehistoric Men, 8th ed. (1975); Ahmed Fakhry, The Pyramids, 2nd ed. (1969, reprinted 1974); Carl Roebuck (ed.), The Muses at Work: Arts, Crafts, and Professions in Ancient Greece and Rome (1969); and J.G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World (1978, reprinted 1981).Medieval and early modern developments in the Western world are treated in Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (1988; originally published in French, 1975); and, most fully, in Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th18th Century, 3 vol. (198184; originally published in French, 1979). Changes in the organization of work with the development of the factory system in the early Industrial Revolution are covered in Paul Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern Factory System in England, rev. ed. (1961, reissued with a new foreword, 1983; originally published in French, 1905). The Industrial Revolution itself is the subject of many studies, the most notable in relation to the organization of work being E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, new ed. (1968, reprinted 1980); William H. Sewell, Jr., Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848 (1980); David A. Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production, 18001932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (1984); and Georges Friedmann, The Anatomy of Work: Labor, Leisure, and the Implications of Automation (1962, reprinted 1978; originally published in French, 1956).For scientific management see Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911, reprinted 1985); and Daniel Nelson, Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management (1980). Elton Mayo, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, 2nd ed. (1946), and The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization (1945, reprinted 1977), are two major summations by a pioneer industrial sociologist. Other major accounts of the modern factory system before the advent of automation are W. Lloyd Warner and J.O. Low, The Social System of the Modern Factory: The Strike: A Social Analysis (1947, reprinted 1976); and Charles R. Walker and Robert H. Guest, The Man on the Assembly Line (1952, reprinted 1979).The development of automation and its effect on the organization of work are treated in David F. Noble, Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation (1984); Marvin Minsky (ed.), Robotics (1985); Harley Shaiken, Work Transformed: Automation and Labor in the Computer Age (1985); Daniel B. Cornfield (ed.), Workers, Managers, and Technological Change: Emerging Patterns of Labor Relations (1987); Eli Ginzberg, Thierry J. Noyelle, and Thomas M. Stanback, Jr., Technology and Employment: Concepts and Clarifications (1986); Tom Forester (ed.), The Microelectronics Revolution: The Complete Guide to the New Technology and Its Impact on Society (1980); E. Fossum (ed.), Computerization of Working Life, trans. from Norwegian (1983); and Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (1988).Most notable among the growing number of studies of the working role of women are Barbara A. Hanawalt (ed.), Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe (1986); Lindsey Charles and Lorna Duffin, Women and Work in Pre-industrial England (1985); Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (1982); and Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave (1983).Migrant workers are treated in Jan Lucassen, Migrant Labour in Europe, 16001900: The Drift to the North Sea (1987; originally published in Dutch, 1984); Robin Cohen, The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour (1987); and Philip L. Martin, Harvest of Confusion: Migrant Workers in U.S. Agriculture (1988). Melvin Kranzberg Organization of work in the industrial age The coming of mass production Mass production is the name given to the method of producing goods in large quantities at low cost per unit. But mass production, although allowing lower prices, does not have to mean low-quality production. Instead, mass-produced goods are standardized by means of precision-manufactured, interchangeable parts. The mass production process itself is characterized by mechanization to achieve high volume, elaborate organization of materials flow through various stages of manufacturing, careful supervision of quality standards, and minute division of labour. To make it worthwhile, mass production requires mass consumption. Until relatively recent times the only large-scale demand for standardized, uniform products came from military organizations. The major experiments that eventually led to mass production were first performed under the aegis of the military. Machine tools and interchangeable parts The material basis for mass production was laid by the development of the machine-tool industrythat is, the making of machines to make machines. Though some basic devices such as the woodworking lathe had existed for centuries, their translation into industrial machine tools capable of cutting and shaping hard metals to precise tolerances was brought about by a series of 19th-century innovators, first in Britain and later in the United States. With precision equipment, large numbers of identical parts could be produced at low cost and with a small work force. The system of manufacture involving production of many identical parts and their assembly into finished products came to be called the American System, because it achieved its fullest maturity in the United States. Although Eli Whitney has been given credit for this development, his ideas had appeared earlier in Sweden, France, and Britain and were being practiced in arms factories in the United States. During the years 180208, for example, the French migr engineer Marc Brunel, while working for the British Admiralty in the Portsmouth Dockyard, devised a process for producing wooden pulley blocks by sequential machine operations. Ten men, in place of 110 needed previously, were able to make 160,000 pulley blocks per year. British manufacturers, however, ignored Brunel's ideas, and it was not until London's Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851 that British engineers, viewing exhibits of machines used in the United States to produce interchangeable parts, began to apply the system. By the third quarter of the 19th century, the American System was employed in making small arms, clocks, textile machinery, sewing machines, and a host of other industrial products.