NOVEMBER 4, 2014

PAID WORK A SOCIOLOGICAL

PERSPECTIVE
ESSAY FOR SOCIOLOGY, DIPLOMA OF SOCIAL SERVICES (LEVEL 5)
AORAKI POLYTECH
JOE CLARK
TUTOR; KATIE WISEMAN

INTRODUCTION
The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life. A critical analysis
from a sociological perspective.
Work in this discussion is the assertion of effort for a reward, money. In this case, not
the undertaking of a vocation or performance of an art with intrinsic reward,
irrespective of any financial transaction within that action. Historically, before the
money system was in place in hunter gatherer and early agrarian societies, the work
related directly to the reward, reaping what you sow, the effort put into hunting and
gathering yielding the return, and then in times of abundance there was the ability to
trade those returns of work with others in a bartering system.
Then money was introduced as a medium of trade, in relation to our modern system
initially in ancient Greece first as precious metal coins and following that, bonds
relating to the value of those precious metals, with traders affixing a monetary value
to produce and the time required to produce items. So the concept of selling time, or
working for a wage arose, and with this transferable unit of value many possibilities
opened up in the selling of labour, produce and even money itself. Many laws
protect the integrity of money as a unit of value, without attachment to and
enforcement of the concept, it would not exist. This role is administered domestically
by the government of each country in modern times. (Maloney, n.d.)
However now it is the most stratifying thing in our global society, from the street
beggars asking for your loose change to the multinational companies exchanging
billions in commerce deals, our time, food, water and many other aspects of our
wellbeing associated with money, its influence reaching across cultures.

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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.

DISSCUSION
Money has evolved to be more than a medium for trade, but now seen as a reward,
and in the scope of this essay, a reward for effort in the concept of paid work. In the
context of financial gain for effort four basic categories have evolved that a person
can function in. A wage or salary earner, self-employed, a businessperson, and an
investor. The main differences being that a wage/salary earner sells their time to an
employer, the self-employed sell their services or products directly to their clients,
the businessperson as a business owner buys the time of their employees and sells
their services or products to their clients, and an investor uses foresight to make
strategic financial decisions to increase capital gains. Within business and society
there are roles in which people function that use skillsets from more than one
category, and taxation policies that define the various economic interactions
differently under specific conditions. (Kiyosaki, Lechter, 1998)
So first I will examine the concept of reward and how it works within the individual.
At a personal level, at the wage and salary earner level of function the stimulus of
reward creates a type of conditioning that is called instrumental conditioning, this is
the development of voluntary responses, or responses that require cognitive input
from the person, and over time when these are reinforced enough by repetition and
success they become unconscious, and anxiety is experienced when the
methodology by which this reward is obtained is deviated from. Instrumental
conditioning arises from a relationship with the reward itself after the performance
of a task, rather than classical conditioning which pairs two forms of stimuli so the
person learns a relationship between them as a simultaneous occurrence, like Pavlov
ringing the bell and his dogs beginning to salivate. (Gleitman, Gross, Reisberg, 2011)
In this case instrumental conditioning to perform work is achieved from and
reinforced by monetary reward.
From a behavioural perspective this is essentially the founding concept in the
modern capitalist paradigm, the worker, subject to the authority of the employer. A
concept that has evolved from slavery where the slave was conditioned to work
using dehumanizing punitive measures to gain obedience, (Gleitman, Gross,
Reisberg, 2011), to now where the worker is conditioned for reward which we are
also dependant on. Even though the concept of instrumental conditioning is present
in the other three given economic identities, it is to a lesser extent. Karl Marx, often
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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.

seen as a one of the founding voices in the formation of sociology as a science,

focused his perspective on the modes of production and sale of labour in the
development of society, one of his assertions being that technological and social
contradictions arising in the feudal system birthed capitalism and took us into the
industrial revolution. Marx saw capitalism as being composed of the need of
continually growing larger conglomerate firms, capital dependency on labour
shedding technology, the working class being relegated to simplistic tasks in
employment and an accompanying social unrest with that. (McLennan, McManus,
Spoonley, 2010). It may be argued that as a distraction from that social unrest
attributed to not attaining fulfilment in the workplace, modernity and subsequently
postmodern culture arose, with an increasing definition of, and increase in repressive
policy in workplace affairs, producing a disparity between a workplace identity, or
persona, in comparison with their authentic self, this being congruent with the
instrumental conditioning already mentioned. And inspiring pseudo cultural pursuits
outside working roles which draw heavily on intellectualism and ideology but lack
authentic connection to a defining history. (Butler, 2002) Whereas in comparison
during feudal times a persons occupation was more a part of their intrinsic identity.
In modern times it appears as if those assertions of Marx have held true in our
culture.
Also in line with another of Marxs concepts of class consciousness, occupation and
income are related to perception of class in New Zealand, and socioeconomic status
stratifies our class and class reinforcing behaviours. Capitalism itself been seen by
sociologists as criminogenic, predominantly due to the concept of relative
deprivation, and the rise of self-seeking narcissistic behaviours. (Giddens, 2006). It
may be argued that if self-seeking and narcissistic attitudes and behaviours are acted
on in ways unseen by or within the confines of the legal system, they can produce
lucrative financial yield, and higher perceived class status. While if those same
attitudes and consequent behavioural expressions are acted on in ways outside the
confines of the legal system, the trend is towards a lower socioeconomic standing
and class status. Criminal behaviour in relation to gain of finance outside of legal
practices is understood as not working or having a job, and heavily stigmatized.
In modern society, taking a global perspective, of growing concern is the widening
gap between the rich and the poor. As of March 2014 the amount of billionaires in
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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.

the world has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, with the richest 85
individuals in the world owning equal to the amount of wealth of the poorest half of
the global population. Collectively their wealth increasing by $668 million dollars per
day in the year previous March 2014, and Oxfam is beginning to undertake a
program to address the increasing problems of poverty, especially child poverty in
the modern world. (Guardian, 2014). While this perspective is out of the immediate
understanding of most individual workers, we are all a part of the dysfunctional
system that is creating it, and subject to its fluctuations. As a worker in modern
society we are presented with few options for action in the face of this economic
situation, except protest. The occupy movement was in opposition to this disparity,
commencing on the 17 September, 2011, it was a worldwide protest at the economic
disparity and ecological destruction caused by the modern economy. At the time it
was predominantly organised by social media, not covered by mainstream media,
and now the institutions opposing and suppressing it at the time are actively starting
to address the concerns in alliance with Oxfam, those administrations being the IMF
and the Obama Administration. (Occupy Wall Street, n.d.).

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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.

CONCLUSION
Paid work has a major influence on a persons life in ways not immediately obvious
to the ordinary citizen, the norms associated with employment have a far reaching
effect throughout our now global economy. In the microcosm of employment, for
instance, a person can work with their hands or tools to make a product, which then
can be traded, packaged and transported across the Earth and delivered to an end
user under the management and supervision of various people who are employed by
various businesses and corporations funded by investors who make money from the
end receiver of that product. And that end receiver often goes out to work in their
own work environment to make a product of some kind, which is then traded,
packaged and transported, and so on. This takes up many hours of a persons time
and is part of most cultures on the planet in some way at present. Employment also
affects a person mentally, emotionally and intellectually as well as socially.
The resources needed to keep the whole system functioning are harvested and
processed in systems of their own, including food and other fundamental needs of
the employees, these systems also needing serviced by employees. In this way we
have come a long way from our work harvesting a direct yield to us from our
environment, and may environmentalists argue that this has a detrimental effect on
the environment. This being caused by our convenience throw away culture we
live in, with people not seeing or appreciating the effect our consumer orientated
patterns have on the environment, also combining with and compounding the
pseudo cultural practices of postmodernism.

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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.

References
Butler, C. (2002). Postmodernism a very short history. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press Inc.

Guardian, (2014). Explosion in wealth inequity needs urgent plan of action, says
Oxfam. http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/oct/29/oxfamreport-220-years-richest-man-spend-wealth
Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology, 6E. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press

Gleitman, H., Gross, J., Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology, 8E. New York, NY: W.W.
Norton & Company, Inc.

Kiyosaki, R., Lechter, S. (1998). Cashflow quadrant rich dads guide to financial
freedom. New York, NY: Warner books.

Maloney, M. (n.d). Hidden secrets of money. Retrieved on 27, September, 2014,

from http://hiddensecretsofmoney.com/

McLennan, G., Mcmannus, R., Spoonley, P. (2010). Behave, 2E. Auckland: Pearson.

Occupy Wall Street. (n.d.) Retrieved 27, September, 2014, from

http://occupywallst.org/

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Sociology essay. The concept of paid work has a major impact on a persons life.
Joe Clark. 4/11/2014
Aoraki Polytech.