The sociology of work emerged as a specialty area in the 1980s, when the American Sociological Association prepared a compendium of course syllabi for the area and a number of textbooks appeared. The name of this sociological subfield is new, but the general area is not. The sociology of work represents an integration of two long-standing specialties: industrial sociology and occupations/professions. It also draws from industrial and organizational psychologists and sociologists' attempts to integrate stratification and organization literatures to better understand the employment relationship.

The study of the employment relationship encompasses a multitude of topics ranging from how the individual is initially matched to a job to all that happens on the job (being paid, becoming satisfied or dissatisfied, forming cliques, etc.) and to turnover (quitting or being dismissed). Considered important to these topics are the orientations employees have toward their work, the topic of...