“The increasing importance of the tertiary sector has weakened the formal organization of work in recent times. Examine the statement.” (2015)
Formal organisation of work is a deliberately designed structure of rules, hierarchy, defined roles, contracts and career ladders, Max Weber‘s bureaucracy applied to production, with the factory as its model. Daniel Bell (The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, 1973) expected the rise of services to spread professional, rule-governed work. The statement claims the opposite. It is partly true, but services have transformed formal organisation more than simply weakened it.
Evidence supporting the statement
- Services grow, small units dominate: services made up 55.3 per cent of India’s GVA in 2024-25 (Economic Survey 2024-25), but most service jobs lie in trade, hotels, transport and personal services run by small unregistered units. ASUSE 2023-24 found “other services” the fastest-growing part of the unincorporated sector.
- Personalised workplaces: shops, eateries and home services rarely have written rules, hierarchy or unions.
- Non-standard contracts: shift, part-time, agency and project work replace careers. Richard Sennett (The Corrosion of Character, 1998) shows “no long term” eroding loyalty.
- Network organisation: Manuel Castells (The Rise of the Network Society, 1996) describes flat, project-based teams and individualised contracts replacing the bureaucratic pyramid.
- Weak collective voice: Carol Upadhya and A. R. Vasavi (In an Outpost of the Global Economy, 2008) found Indian IT firms relying on individual appraisal and normative control instead of collective bargaining.
- Platforms: delivery and home-service apps turn employees into “partners”. NITI Aayog (2022) counted 77 lakh gig workers in 2020-21.
Evidence complicating the statement
- Control has intensified: Phil Taylor and Peter Bain (1999) called call-centre work “an assembly line in the head”, with scripts and electronic monitoring. George Ritzer (The McDonaldization of Society, 1993) shows efficiency, calculability, predictability and control moving from factory to fast food.
- Emotional labour: Arlie Russell Hochschild (The Managed Heart, 1983) shows even feelings prescribed by company rules.
- Algorithmic management: platforms drop the employment contract but control allocation, pay and deactivation through code, which amounts to formal control without formal obligation.
- Formal services persist: railways, public health and large IT firms remain bureaucratic, and public-sector bank employees still bargain collectively through industry-wide settlements.
- Law is re-formalising: the four Labour Codes, in force since 21 November 2025, make appointment letters mandatory for all workers, pulling service employers back towards written terms.
- Not only services: contract workers in organised manufacturing reached 42 per cent in 2023-24 (Annual Survey of Industries), so flexible accumulation cuts across sectors.
Conclusion
The tertiary sector’s rise has weakened the protective side of formal organisation (contracts, careers and collective voice) while keeping, even sharpening, its control side through scripts, metrics and algorithms. Services have decoupled control from security, and India’s recognition of gig workers in the Code on Social Security, 2020, is an attempt to join them again.