RACE, GENDER AND LABOR MARKET STRUCTURE: ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS AND OCCUPATIONAL STRATIFICATION IN AN URBAN POLITICAL ECONOMY (CINCINNATI, OHIO)

This exploratory study examines selected elements of the political economy of organizations that influence and are influenced by racial and sexual stratification. In doing so, it addresses the larger question of the relationship between the changing nature of work under capitalist development and the seeming stability of racial and sexual inequality in such systems.;The study concretizes some of the ways that organizations change yet reproduce existing racial and sexual stratification. As dynamic, flexible structures, the eleven organizations routinely accommodated workplace changes that directly affected the social composition of their workforces. For example, the organizations surveyed varied widely in how they initiated and dealt with job reduction. Several cases suggest that Blacks continue to be adversely affected by this and other types of organizational change. Other factors discussed affecting organizational decision making included government intervention, production technology, nature of product markets, degree of formalization, profitability, and employee activism.;The study also concretizes a political economy approach to the sociology of organizations. Each organization is portrayed as one suggestive link between the larger macrosociological issues of economic development and the microsociological issue of group status. Thus, the study uses a methodological approach linking these two levels of analysis and spells out the research implications of this approach.;Using employing organizations as the fundamental units of analysis, the study surveys the occupational patterns of eleven diverse employers in the Cincinnati, Ohio SMSA. Dual economy theory is used to select the four monopoly, two government, and five competitive sector employers surveyed. The final sample also reflects different segments of Cincinnati's industrial base, e.g., defense, communications, health services, chemicals, retailing, and banking, as well as the varying labor force profiles of White males, Black males, White females and Black females. An organizational profile is presented for each employer that contains (1) a discussion of occupational trends for the organization itself and for the industry housing the employer; (2) a description of the race and gender patterns of the organization's internal labor market; and (3) an analysis of specific factors affecting both the internal labor market structure and the social composition of the workforce.