1. 1 Welcome To Rural Sociology 1000 Introduction to Rural Sociology Mary Grigsby Associate Professor of Rural Sociology Division of Applied Social Sciences

2. 2 Topics  Modern Social Organizations  Rationalization  Bureaucracy  Rural Food Processing Case of Iowa Beef Processing in Finney County, Kansas

3. Bureaucracy Uses most efficient means to achieve a valued goal. 1. A clear-cut division of labor with specific tasks assigned 2. Authority is hierarchical 3. Written rules specify relationships and tasks 4. Positions are filled on objective criteria 5. Administrative decisions, rules procedures and activities are recorded and preserved in standardized format 6. Authority belongs to the position 7. Utilitarian approach to activity not emotional but calculated 3

4. 4 Review Questions 1. What are the strategies Iowa Beef Processing (Tyson) used to stay competitive in the world market and generate profit, particularly in their labor force? 2. How have these “rational” organizational strategies impacted the community?

5. Review Questions 3. Describe two community and/or human costs that were not factored into the “rational” decision making of the meat packing companies and the price of the product? Who picked up these costs? What does the textbook call these types of consequences? 5

6. 6 Answers to Question 1 Reduce transportation costs including a reduction in shrinkage, (the decline in body weight experienced by the steer or heifer in the shipping process) Bring processing facilities closer to the raw materials source Eliminate middle men Importation of Latino and Asian workers to satisfy the needs of the plants located in non-metro areas of the U.S. picked up in the 1980s.

7. 7 Question 1 Proximity to the production source enables meat to be processed more cheaply and efficiently for the companies. Contributes to keeping U.S. produced beef competitive with domestic pork and poultry and with beef from other countries in the world market.

8. 8 Answers to Question 2 Employment Opportunities Difficult Dangerous Does not require technical skills or educational credentials Pays relatively well compared to third world wages but poorly for the U.S. One need not speak English to work on the “dissassembly” line

9. 9 Question 2 Immigrant populations Housing Education Health Care Social Services Religious and Civic Life Law Enforcement Environment

10. 10 Answers to Question 3 Tax Payers (Government), Church members, Non- Government Organizations pick up many of the costs to the community that are not included in the price of the production of the product directly. Externality Costs

11. 11 Understanding Modern Social Organizations Positive Capable of efficiently managing people, information, goods, and services on a worldwide scale Positive Capable of efficiently managing people, information, goods, and services on a worldwide scale Negative Capable of promoting inefficient, irresponsible, and destructive actions that can affect the well- being of communities and even the entire planet Negative Capable of promoting inefficient, irresponsible, and destructive actions that can affect the well- being of communities and even the entire planet Two Faces of Organizations Modern Organizations Possess the Potential for Either Good or Harm Two Faces of Organizations Modern Organizations Possess the Potential for Either Good or Harm

12. 12 Rationalization Weber defines rationalization as the collective development Of science, technology, and bureaucracy

13. 13 The Rationalization Thesis Scientific and technical knowledge is used to organize social and economic life according to principles of bureaucratic efficiency, calculability, predictability and control Key Ideas of Rationalization Thesis Key Ideas of Rationalization Thesis Rational bureaucracy is the dominant organizational form (specialization, hierarchy, rule governed and impersonal) Rational bureaucracy is the dominant organizational form (specialization, hierarchy, rule governed and impersonal) Means-ends “formal rationality” characterizes decision making

14. 14 Traditional vs. Modern Societies Traditional World Emphasis Modern World Emphasis Community & KinshipIndividual & Immediate Family Rural and Village LifeUrban Life Work on Land or in Small Manufacture Factory and Large Scale Bureaucratic Organization Landed Interests Business and Industrial Interests MonarchyDemocracy ReligionReason Church-mediated social thought Science-based social thought

15. 15 Rationalized Bureaucracies: Efficient running of large-scale organizations New freedom from religious dogma and other traditional constraints Involves the rule of experts “Iron Cage of rationality”

16. 16 Food processing workers held 760,000 jobs in 2000.* About 33 percent of all food processing workers were employed in meatpacking or poultry and fish processing plants.* * U.S. Dept. of Labor Statistics Food Processing

17. 17 The Case of Finney County, KS and IBP Today’s video describes Finney County, Kansas and features IBP (Iowa Beef Processing) as an example of the meat packing growth sector in the non-metro U.S. IBP is owned by Tyson Foods, Inc.

18. 18 Teacher Notes Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., formerly IBP, inc., is the world’s largest supplier of premium beef and pork, as well as allied products, such as tanned hides used to make leather. Marketed globally, Tyson beef and pork products find their way into consumers’ hands through the world’s most recognized retailers and restaurants. Tyson Fresh Meats, is a subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN), an Arkansas based company that is the world’s largest processor and marketer of chicken and red meat products, and produces a wide variety of brand name, processed food products. The company, with revenues of more than $23 billion, has approximately 110,000 team members and 300 facilities and offices in 27 states and 22 countries. Headquartered in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, Tyson Fresh Meats has 21 production sites in North America and employs almost 41,000 people.