...Marx’s Alienation Theory Introduction To discuss the question whether Marx’s Alienation Theory is still relevant in the modern workplace, it is necessary to identify what Marx’s Alienation Theory is and how the theory changed in the past decades. Then I will discuss about the characteristics of modern workplace and try to analysis the situation from the alienation theory perspective. As conclusion, I will try to evaluate the relevance between the theory and the workplace. Definition of Alienation Alienation is the process whereby people become foreign to the world they are living in. more The concept of alienation is deeply embedded in all the great religions and social and political theories of the civilised epoch, namely, the idea that some time in the past people lived in harmony, and then there was some kind of rupture which left people feeling like foreigners in the world, but some time in the future this alienation would be overcome and humanity would again live in harmony with itself and Nature. Marx had a specific understanding of the very sharp experience of alienation which is found in modern bourgeois society. Marx developed this understanding through his critique of Hegel. According to Hegel, through their activity, people created a culture which then confronted them as an alien force. But for Hegel human activity was itself but the expression of the Spirit (or Zeitgeist) which acted through people. In the first place, Marx insisted that it was...
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...A couple of good examples are as follows: conflict theory, which can be defined as concept of conflict over resources, role theory, this is any type of expectation that people have during the change, social constructionism, how reality is really seen by the business and employees, integration theory, social behavior that is looked at through micro/macro analysis, and finally, structural functionalism, this is meeting the individuals biological needs. Impact On Culture There is never a merger that begins and ends without a hitch. Conflicts will always be there. When there are two organizational cultures at work, the more dominant of the two will begin to take over. This can bring out resentment behaviors and alienations. By this happening, a power struggle begins. A good example of this is when General Motors merged with Daimler Benz. As the merger carried on it cause problems for both the American and German employees. The analysis in this case can be looked at what the mission are, the goals as well as the objectives for each business. As the completed analysis was done, the companies were...
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...A Study of Alienation among Knowledge Workers Submission of Thesis Proposal Nisha Nair Doctoral candidate Organizational Behavior Area Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) India Email: nishan@iimahd.ernet.in Telephone +91-79-6632-6216 Mobile: +91-9327309000 Advisor Information Dr. Neharika Vohra Organizational Behavior Area Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) ‘The hidden conflict between the knowledge workers view of himself as a professional and the social reality in which he is the upgraded well paid successor to the skilled worker of yesterday, underlies the disenchantment of so many highly educated young people with the jobs available to them’ - (Drucker, 1969, p 259) Knowledge workers (KWs) are thought to be the engines of growth of the new economy (Yigitcanlar, Baum & Horton, 2007) and the key strategic and competitive resources of today’s organizations (O’Neill & Adya, 2007). Considerable attention has been directed to the analysis of knowledge work and knowledge intensive firms in recent years (Alvesson, 1995, 2001; Burton-Jones, 1999; Donnelly, 2006; Swan & Scarborough, 2001). Because of the emphasis on human capital in knowledge-intensive firms (Edvinsson & Malone, 1997), where tacit knowledge residing within workers is the chief asset of the organization, it has become imperative to retain KWs and ensure their continued commitment to the organization. Davenport et al. (2002) observe that companies cannot...
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...KAFKA MARX COMBO _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Kafka wrote about the contradictions and anxieties of his time but the central theme of his works, indisputably, is the theme of alienation. Alienation is a complex subject which is linked with its vast historicity from the Judeo-Christian beginnings. To understand alienation in Kafka’s works, it is essential to understand its foundation within a socio-economic context of the modern society. In this regard, Karl Marx and his theory of alienation can help steering our way. The human society, as Marx had stressed in the Grundrisse, “does not consist of individuals; it expresses the sum of connections and relationships in which individuals find themselves”. Human beings therefore cannot exist independently of the society but are shaped by the society they live in. Human lives are dominated by natural and impersonal forces that control society to a great extent. While studying the nature and functioning of the capitalistic form of production Marx had discovered the uniqueness of human labor: “At the end of every labor-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the laborer”. This physical and intellectual labor of man has resulted in the collective development of the productive forces and subsequently became capable of producing a surplus. By taking over control of the means of production, a particular minority class of people adroitly...
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...Psychological Bulletin 1980, Vol. 88, No. I. 60-77 Work and Nonwork: A Review of Models, Methods, and Findings Boris Kabanoff School of Social Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia This article examines theory and research in the field of work/nonwork relations. Three different theories of work/leisure relations are examined—compensation, generalization, and segmentation. All three theories have received some support; however, the review indicates that much of the available research evidence is constrained by conceptual and methodological problems. A number of paradigms for describing work/leisure patterns are reviewed, and it is concluded that most of these paradigms are more suitable for classifying leisure definitions than for guiding empirical research. Research in this field requires objective definitions of attributes common across life spheres. A task-based description of work and nonwork is discussed, and its research utility is illustrated. It is recommended that future research be concerned with describing different work/leisure patterns, the processes underlying these patterns, and the life consequences associated with different patterns. The meaning and the relationships between labor and leisure, work and contemplation, or in the most general sense, work and nonwork have been a source of intellectual, political, and religious debate for a considerable period in Western history. However, the view that the interplay...
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...Pinto's due to a design defect led to a main debate regarding the use of a cost-benefit analysis and the ethics revolving around the company’s decision to go further with the initial, defective prototype. Ethical Dilemma Ford was completely aware of the safety issues the prototype was facing, but solving the issue would cause great disadvantage for the company: production schedule had to be modified, resulting in delays to bring the new car on the market, and also production costs would increase. In this context an ethical dilemma raised, so two crucial issues were addressed: either go further with the production of Pinto regardless the defects and the danger to future customers, or delay the production and modify the original model to assure safety and reliability, regardless the higher costs? Ford’s decision was to continue the production of the defective design while basing it on a cost-benefit analysis. In this context another dilemma was created: should such an analysis be used in situations where defects could lead to death or cause tremendous harm, such as in the Ford Pinto situation? Utilitarianism Based on the information provided by Ford, the company assumed and decided that the most benefit would come from going ahead with the production of the initial design. Utilitarianism is defined as a normative, empirical philosophy that is based on the principle that “the right thing to do, in any situation, is whatever would produce the best overall consequences for...
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...Commodity Fetishism vs. Capital Fetishism Marxist Interpretations vis-à-vis Marx’s analyses in Capital Dimitri Dimoulis and John Milios Abstract In Marx’s analysis of the Capitalist Mode of Production and more precisely in his theory of value, the key to decipher the capitalist political and ideological practices and structures is to be found. In this context, many Marxists believed that the analysis of “commodity fetishism” in Section 1 of Volume 1 of Capital renders the basis for understanding ideological domination and political coercion under the capitalist rule. The authors argue, that “commodity fetishism” is only a preliminary notion, which allows Marx to arrive, in subsequent Sections of Capital, at the concept of the “fetishism of capital”. 1. Introduction From the days of his youth Marx was familiar with the statements of ethnographers on the subject of fetishism and used the term in his own writings.1 Equally important was in this context the influence of Hegel.2 In this paper we are not going to deal with the different meanings that the notion of fetishism acquires at different points of Marx’s work, an issue which is related to the various concepts of fetishism in political economy, political philosophy and the social sciences.3 We will focus on the analysis of commodity fetishism, in an effort to contribute to the comprehension of the different dimensions of this concept, especially in Marx’s Capital. For this purpose, we will pursue the following course:...
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...speaks through the hunger artist of the alienation and isolation he feels in his own body, as well as the emptiness he feels as a result of the disconnected relationship he and his father share. Ironically this emptiness manifests itself quite literally at the end of Kafka’s life, when he dies as a result of tuberculosis of the larynx, which causes him to literally starve to death, just as the hunger artist in the story. It was said about his writing “the early manifestations of authentic originality were nurtured in solitary confinement, with his readiness to see the world through his own eyes.” (Pawel 160) This comes across clearly in A Hunger Artist as someone who is in a self-imposed solitary confinement seeking meaning to his life, much like the hunger artist being locked in his cage. Thus, Kafka uses A Hunger Artist to speak of himself and his experiences. A Hunger Artist is a short story about a once popular spectacle staged for the entertainment of a pleasure-seeking public: the exhibition of a professional “hunger-artist” performing in a cage of straw, his stunt of fasting. The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before a crowd of people. His spectators see him as a trickster and common circus-freak and therefore they expect him to cheat, to break his fast in secret. But fasting is his sole reason for existing, his life purpose. For him, fasting is the easiest thing he can do, but no one believes in him...
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...Sociological Theories A sociological theory is a set of ideas that provides an explanation for human society. Theories are selective in terms of their priorities and perspectives and the data they define as significant. As a result they provide a particular and partial view of reality. Sociological theories can be grouped together according to a variety of criteria. The most important of these is the distinction between Structural and Social action theories. Structural or macro perspectives analyses the way society as a whole fits together. Structural theory sees society as a system of relationships that creates the structure of the society in which we live. It is this structure that determines our lives and characters. Structured sets of social relationships are the 'reality' that lie below the appearance of 'the free individual' of western individualism. Structuralism focuses on the particular set of 'structural laws' that apply in any one society. Despite their differences, both functionalism and Marxism use a model of how society as a whole works. Many functionalists base their model of society around the assumption of basic needs and go to explain how different parts of society help to meet those needs. Marxists, on the other hand, see society as resting upon an economic base or infrastructure, with a superstructure above it. They see society as divided into social classes which have the potential to be in conflict with each other. However, the main differences...
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...MARXISM Over 150 years ago Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. In The Communist Manifesto they were the first to give a thorough and scientific analysis of the laws and workings of capitalist society: why it results in the polarization of wealth and how it can be overthrown. In the last few years their ideas have been regaining popularity. At the end of 1999 Marx was voted the greatest thinker of the millennium in a BBC online poll. It is the economic crisis of capitalism internationally that has forced many to reassess their view of Marx. Capitalism is a cyclical system: crises can be caused by a number of factors, such as financial crashes or political unrest. Marx recognized that capitalism, despite all its abuses, played an important role in developing the productive forces and the world market. It was an advance from the feudal societies that preceded it. Today, capitalism has developed the world market and the wealth, science and technology have laid the foundations for a socialist society. Under capitalism, wealth and power have always been concentrated in the hands of the capitalists. And the development of technology is driven by the need for profit. The anarchy of the capitalist market always results in increasing wealth and power for a few but poverty for the many. Today the capitalists are a far wealthier and a far smaller class than they were in Marx's time. In the last 50 years the wealth gap between the richest 20% of humanity and...
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...2014 BEAURACRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES M2014HRM062 BUREAUCRACY, A CONTENTIOUS NECESSITY VINOD NANNAWARE, M2014HRM062 Charges of corruption, Policy paralysis like situations and leadership conflicts resulted in historic downfall of grand old party of the country and new era of governance started in India. ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’, one of the massively used and successfully scripted election propaganda did wonders for ‘party with difference’. No one ever imagined it would become an election campaign agenda, but astute Narendra Modi who played all of his cards very smartly in the LS poll 2014, knows the importance of using right words at right time. Many eminent scholars and economist all across globe blamed bureaucratic functioning and policy paralysis of UPA-2 as one of the main reasons of this defeat. Hence this historic victory of Modi led NDA puts number of questions in front of modern day sociologist, especially those who follows and believes in Marx Weber Ideas of Bureaucracy. Looking this phenomenon as only one of its kind or merely just an accident will lead to falsified inference about changing economical and social realities in modern India. After assuming the power the way in which team Modi has been tackling most of the pending issues surprised many of us. In fact governments last 2 months report card shows that our beliefs such as set of rules and regulations are inevitable part of government...
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...Adoption, International | Summary: Should couples be banned from adopting children overseas? | | With the ongoing media coverage of ill-treated of children in Chinese and Romanian orphanages and the increasing numbers of infertile couples in the developed world international adoption appears to solve two problems at once. However recently Romania has stopped all international adoptions amid claims of corruption and human trafficking. Similar stories have clouded adoptions from Guatemala. Despite these difficulties international adoptions by US citizens have tripled in the past 5 years and legislation has been passed to make it easier for these adopted children to obtain citizenship. While some children complain of a feeling of cultural dislocation, others are sent to Chinese-American summer camps and seem delighted with their new homes and dual identity. The long-term effects of such migrations are hard to predict but many opponents call for more efforts to be made to house children in their country of birth, with proper support for domestic orphanages and adoption schemes. | | Arguments | Pros | Cons | | | | International adoption removes children from the culture into which they were born. Often this causes a sense of dislocation as the child grows older because the do not feel fully a part of their adopted culture nor the culture of the country into which they were born. These feelings can be exacerbated by racial or ethnic distinctions. | | Whatever maybe...
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...ASSESSMENT 2: CASE STUDY ON INDUSTRIALISATION AND CONSUMPTION Introduction Modernity is a transition between how society lived years ago opposed to how society lives now. This case study will focus on the impact of industrialisation and consumption and how it has shaped the modern world of a close friend along with society today. The academic sources that were used contained useful information along with an interview I conducted, to help prove and analyse how the impact has changed and shaped the modern world. This case study will cover the way industrialisation has changed society. It will discuss the social, economical and technological changes along with the key changes and how society perceives what work is. In addition it will discuss how society has gone from producing to consuming, how we shopped years ago opposed to now and how this has changed our lives. Literature Review Industrialisation: Industrialisation has transformed the way societies have produced products required to meet societies needs. It has transformed many social institutions such as work, family, social bonds and education. In addition the biggest impact of industrialisation was the change from gathering and cultivating to manufacturing which has drastically improved productivity and wealth. The major social, economic and technological change was the Industrial Revolution between the 1760’s and 1850’s in Great Britain, spreading through Europe, United States, Japan and Australia...
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...European University 2013-2014 Human Resources Management Class Summary Gauthier Steiner European University 2013-2014 Human Resources Management Class Summary Gauthier Steiner Contents What is Human Resource Management? 3 Who Performs the Human Resource Functions? 4 Key Challenges for HR Managers 5 HRM and Strategy 6 Organizational Performance and the Human Resource Manager 7 Communicating Human Resource Programs 8 Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity 9 Equal Employment Opportunity Laws 9 Landmark Court Cases 11 Compliance Agencies 12 EEO Implementation 12 Key terms of the chapter 13 Job Analysis and Job Design 15 Basic Terminology 15 Job Analysis 17 Job analysis method 19 Disadvantages of job analysis 21 Job Design 21 Advantages of job specialization 21 Job design consideration 22 Human Resources Management: Chapter 1: Strategy What is Human Resource Management? Human resource management (HRM, or simply HR) is the management process of an organization's workforce, or human resources. It is responsible for the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also overseeing organizational leadership and culture and ensuring compliance with employment and labor laws. Nearing the 21st century, advances in transportation and communications greatly facilitated workforce mobility and collaboration. Corporations began viewing employees as assets rather than as cogs in a machine...
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...Despite the curative legislations and processes applied by the Colonial Government to control the debt crisis, the ingenious moneylender found legitimate means to legally circumvent the law; for example when The Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900 was enacted to prohibit the transfer of agricultural land to non – agriculturist – the moneylender simply evaded the legislative impost by mortgaging the land with another agricultural tenant and received the rent through him.These circumstances of hardship and sever poverty led to the earliest instance of civil unrest where in the Province of Bombay (1875) riots against the moneylenders class erupted. Debt bonds and ledgers of the moneylenders were forcibly seized and burnt in an attempt to destroy the vicious moneylending system; which despite the concerted efforts of the Central and State Governments of independent India continue to persist, function and hold sway over the rural credit system. 2. The expansion of the lower income groups – as a result of the high rentals, taxes and impost levied on agriculture; coupled with spiraling debts and adverse soil and climatic conditions of El Nino, drought and floods led to a spike in a poverty of entire groups of the peasant populous in rural India. 3. The alienation of agricultural land in favour of absentee – landlord class of rentiers dispossessed and disenfranchised the tillers or agriculturist. Who were now denigrated to the status of agricultural labour bonded to rentiersby debt or...
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