Exercise 2 solution

(a) "Who benefits from the way this workplace is organised?" Conflict theory. It asks about power and about who gains, which the Conflict theories page puts at the centre (power differentials and power structures).

(b) "What does the word 'professional' mean to the people who work here?" Symbolic interactionism. It is a question about meaning, and Blumer's first premise, as quoted on the Symbolic interactionism page, is that humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to them.

(c) "What job does the lunch break do for the whole company?" Functionalism. It asks what a part contributes to the whole, and a Merton-style answer would separate the manifest function (rest and food) from latent ones (colleagues talk and relationships form; that latent example is my own, check).

(d) "How did this team come to see one member as the troublemaker?" Symbolic interactionism, because it is about how a meaning is built up through repeated interaction. A conflict theorist might also ask who has the power to attach the label, so a good answer may mention both.

Note: the matching is a judgement. The chapter says the three lenses are different questions, not exclusive boxes, so (d) in particular has more than one defensible answer.