Why Do We Work?

Why Do We Work?

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Why Do We Work?

Work and employment have always been an important part of human life. Most of the people think that it would have been better if they did not have to work and enjoy their lives in adventures and leisure. However, all of this is not possible without some money on the hands of the individual. A general conception in the society is that human beings work to earn money, which is not completely wrong, however, the major motive of working and engaging in employment is to satisfy the needs. So, according to the sociologists, satisfying the needs is the most important motivation for the human beings to not sit idle but engage in some mode of work and employment and receive the benefits of their service. The benefits of the service are majorly in the form of money, however, it can range to other benefits as well, like free insurance policies, transport compensations, etc. in modern times. The satisfaction of needs is greatly dependent on the social organization and modes of production. The world has faced different types of social organization and mode of productions in the pre-modern times, which include the agrarian, industrial and postindustrial social organizations, as well as profit based and use based modes of production. The workers also invest their emotional labor into the work, in order to maximize their benefits, as well as the quality of their service. The satisfaction of needs may have been the most important motivation of human beings to work, which is supported by the social organization, as well as the means of production of any society.

One of the earliest sociologists was Ibn Khaldun, who put forward the theory that human beings do work to satisfy their needs, however, they have to dwell in common and develop the organization and cooperation, in order to settle and work together, for the sake of increasing their benefits. One of the key questions is to shed light on human needs, the satisfaction of which makes them work hard by finding and indulging in employment. Karl Marx, one of the greatest economist and sociologist of the nineteenth century, has explained the nature of the human needs and their importance in his works. He is of the view that having food to eat, and water to drink, having clothes to wear and a place to live are the most basic needs of human beings, apart from the many other needs of getting education, treatment of their medical problems, etc. every human being is not self-sufficient in satisfying his needs, for example all the people cannot grow or produce their own food, or construct their own home or produce their own clothes, so they have to depend on each other, in order to satisfy their needs. According to Marx, the satisfaction of human needs led them to the means of production, which was the very first historical act in the history of human beings. Since that time, the means of production have become the basic necessity of human beings and all of the young human population is engaged in one or the other mean of production, in order to carry on the cycle of the human life, while satisfying their basic, as well as secondary needs (Jones, 2019).

Another key point in the debate of why we work is the role of the social organization and means of production, which facilitate the satisfaction of the needs of human beings. Modes of production in the pre-modern societies consisted of slavery and feudalism, while that in modern society is based on capitalism. Slavery was one of the earliest modes of production, in which human beings were bought by another individual, who had greater wealth and social status then them. The slaves were then utilized to work on the agricultural land, and other kinds of production methods, in order to serve the person who had bought them, who was also called their master. The master had complete authority over the lives of the slaves and they were expected to obey him in any kind of situation. The slaves usually managed the agricultural production and the livestock, in addition to adding to the profits of their masters. They were the mobile workforce, which could be sold at the time of need (Neff, 2017).

The second mode of production in the pre-modern time was feudalism. Feudalism was different from slavery in the way that the individuals were not bought by the wealthy people of the society and they would not sell them. Other than that, the system was almost the same in the way that the land was owned by the feudal lords and the peasants were responsible to manage and look after that. The common thing among slavery and feudalism was that the lower section of the society could not own the means of production and progress to the upper ladder of the society. The modern mean of production is capitalism in which all the individuals have the right of buying, and selling the property, as well as reach the upper ladders of the society which denote the wealthy status of the individual (Edgell, Gottfried, and Granter, 2015).

The social organization is another key point in the readings of this week, which shed light on the agricultural, industrial and postindustrial society. In the agricultural society, the profit was low and the land was owned by the few sections of the society, while the other people worked under them. In the case of industrial society, the profits increased a little bit, however, the industries were still owned by the wealthy groups of the society and the rest of population had to work for them, in order to earn money and satisfy their needs. The system changed in the postindustrial society in the way that the labor force emerged as the greater power as they had the skills and competence of making use of the technology and the industries. On the other hand, the industry owners did not have those skills. So, the labor force now sells its services and competence to the industry owners who need them to earn their profits and both of the segments of the society increase their benefits by cooperating with each other (Schwartz, 2015).

The means of production have changed over the courses of years, due to the change in the social organization and the working class now invests more emotional labor in their service, in order to maximize their benefits. One of the most important industry is service, which includes the telephonic customer care or the restaurants business etc. In such industries, the labor force has to include the emotional labor, in order to not let their internal conflicts affect the service provided to their client, as they have to keep a smile on their faces in addition to politeness in their tones. This is necessary to improve the experience of the client, who would then reuse the service, as well a recommend to others and ensure the progress of the business (Blyton, and Jenkins, 2007).

The most important motivation of the human beings behind working is satisfying their needs. The means of production and social organization of the society has changed over the course of years, which has not only increased the profits of the general workforce but also have allowed them to make progress and own the resources of production. On the other hand, it has also given rise to emotional labor, which has become an important part of the work setting.

Bibliography

Blyton, P. and Jenkins, J., 2007. Key concepts in work, Emotional Labour, pp. 64-68. Sage: London.

Edgell, S., Gottfried, H. and Granter, E. eds., 2015. The Sage Handbook of the sociology of work and employment. Sage.

Jones, R.F., 2019. We Work: The Employment Journey.

Neff, W., 2017. Work and human behavior. Routledge.

Schwartz, B., 2015. Why we work. Simon and Schuster.