Business and Society
Sumran
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]
Business and Society
The following paper aims to answer the differences in the social division and detailed division of labor based on the studies by Braverman. Moreover, this paper examines the management of work by the capitalists considering the Babbage principle and Taylorism which differed from the pre-capitalist forms. In this paper, the author also aims to analyze the social consequences caused by the capitalist organization with including a discussion about Federici. Lastly, this paper will include a short discussion about Rice’s Play to reflect the effects that are described by Braverman
Braverman and Working Class
Humans are considered to be the only sources who decide the value of material goods and services in the society, whereas following the concept, capitalism can be understood as the system which aims to increase these values to earn maximum profit. They employed this by utilizing the labor force available in the market, and they also invested in the labor force to make them work in the manufacturing and production industries. For economic development, human workers have been subjected to heinous working environments whether they are women, children, or men. The working class and divisions can be marked with the historical events of the United States and Wars, which have been fought ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8GGC5USu","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":713,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"itemData":{"id":713,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"The fortieth anniversary of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital is the occasion here for a reassessment of his work as a whole. Braverman’s analysis of the degradation of work is shown to have been only a part of a much larger argument he was developing on the structure of the U.S. working class. Building on his pioneering empirical research into occupational composition, a new empirical assessment of the structural evolution of the U.S. working class over the last four decades is provided, throwing light on current problems of unemployment, underemployment, and socially wasted labor—and the rights of labor.","container-title":"Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal","DOI":"10.1007/s10672-014-9243-4","ISSN":"1573-3378","issue":"3","journalAbbreviation":"Employ Respons Rights J","language":"en","page":"219-236","source":"Springer Link","title":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class: Beyond the Degradation of Labor","title-short":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class","volume":"26","author":[{"family":"Jonna","given":"R. Jamil"},{"family":"Foster","given":"John Bellamy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014",9,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jonna & Foster, 2014). These made a huge impact on the perspectives of the development and transformed the society. Each generation of workers is subjected to new forms of work and these have to be socialized to enlarge the divisions of the labor. The expansions in the divisions of work, according to Braverman consider the never-ending practices of the capitalist society. Working people are perceived as machines that have to work continuously. The orientations towards the working class by the capitalists portray the segregation in society. Braverman was the one who reflected on the perceptions about the class structures and the elites who were the capitalists in American society ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"mIuNIYcp","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":713,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"itemData":{"id":713,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"The fortieth anniversary of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital is the occasion here for a reassessment of his work as a whole. Braverman’s analysis of the degradation of work is shown to have been only a part of a much larger argument he was developing on the structure of the U.S. working class. Building on his pioneering empirical research into occupational composition, a new empirical assessment of the structural evolution of the U.S. working class over the last four decades is provided, throwing light on current problems of unemployment, underemployment, and socially wasted labor—and the rights of labor.","container-title":"Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal","DOI":"10.1007/s10672-014-9243-4","ISSN":"1573-3378","issue":"3","journalAbbreviation":"Employ Respons Rights J","language":"en","page":"219-236","source":"Springer Link","title":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class: Beyond the Degradation of Labor","title-short":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class","volume":"26","author":[{"family":"Jonna","given":"R. Jamil"},{"family":"Foster","given":"John Bellamy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014",9,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jonna & Foster, 2014).
Social Division of Labor
Social division of labor is referred to as an economic commodity. These commodities vary from each sector of the manufacturing and production industries. Homogeneous economic components form the economic societies, and these elements include feudal manors, communities belonging to villages, and peasants from patriarchal families. Each element in affianced in the completion of the economic activities. Developments in the commodities of the economy are the result of the social division of labor, and this promotes capitalism. The concepts regarding the division of labor according to Marx were used by Braverman and he contributed to the degradation of the working environments in American society.
Braverman was not in the favor of the economy by the capitalists and encouragements in the expansions in the labor forces, moreover, he was against the profit maximizations by the capitalists controlling the working labor. Profit maximizations by the capitalists usually resulted in the exploitation of the workforce, for example, they were exposed to unhealthy working life and they were only provided with limited wages. He suggested that the main contribution in the profit maximization in the capitalist society is because of the labor forces. The social division of labor is further sub-divided based on the craft specializations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"TpLiXwfw","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","plainCitation":"(Jonna & Foster, 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":713,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/WEZ8LIGJ"],"itemData":{"id":713,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"The fortieth anniversary of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital is the occasion here for a reassessment of his work as a whole. Braverman’s analysis of the degradation of work is shown to have been only a part of a much larger argument he was developing on the structure of the U.S. working class. Building on his pioneering empirical research into occupational composition, a new empirical assessment of the structural evolution of the U.S. working class over the last four decades is provided, throwing light on current problems of unemployment, underemployment, and socially wasted labor—and the rights of labor.","container-title":"Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal","DOI":"10.1007/s10672-014-9243-4","ISSN":"1573-3378","issue":"3","journalAbbreviation":"Employ Respons Rights J","language":"en","page":"219-236","source":"Springer Link","title":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class: Beyond the Degradation of Labor","title-short":"Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class","volume":"26","author":[{"family":"Jonna","given":"R. Jamil"},{"family":"Foster","given":"John Bellamy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014",9,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jonna & Foster, 2014). While the labor divisions in labor forces are the sources in determining the placement of technological uses and effects of technology and segregations of the labor force in the socio-cultural contexts along with their cohesions. Capitalists were more oriented towards the division of the labor force, so that they may gain more profit with the help of efficient means of production.
Detail Division of Labor
Detail division of labor is an economic concept that emphasizes the division of labor for means of production, and this will result in the efficiency of working labor. Furthermore, the process of making divisions of the working class allows managers to control the methods of work. The division of labor allows a worker to learn skills from others in the labor market, at the same time, this becomes a problem to unskilled laborers in the market. Due to skillful workers in the labor market results in higher expectations regarding working patterns. Skilled workers during capitalism were expected to be efficient and that resulted in the lower wages of the workers based on their regional rates not more than this ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"e7lxKm4p","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Spencer, 2000)","plainCitation":"(Spencer, 2000)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":718,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/Q6ZU8U7Y"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/Q6ZU8U7Y"],"itemData":{"id":718,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Work, Employment and Society","issue":"2","page":"223-243","title":"Braverman and the contribution of labour process analysis to the critique of capitalist production–twenty-five years on","volume":"14","author":[{"family":"Spencer","given":"David A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2000"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Spencer, 2000). Such situations led the society towards polarization of the capitalist society, which was controlled by a small and powerful group of elites as a result laborers remained at the bottom.
Braverman further studied the impacts of the higher productivity rates and the wage rates in the capitalist society, whereas these are the two main factors responsible to control the processes and power executed by the capitalists. Detail division of the labor in the capitalist society resulted in the efficiency of the means of the productions and hindrances for the unskilled workers in the labor market. As a result of polarization, the expectations regarding the efficiency of workers increased, while the wages also decreased. Capitalism, according to Braverman was the only source to promote the labor divisions and work in American society. The aim of capitalists is the maximization of the means of productivity by minimization of the overall costs of the working class in the labor market. Increase in the demand for the labor force in the market resulted in the lower wages for the workers, moreover high skilled labor s were considered to be a hindrance in the way of unskilled workers as they could not make their way to the labor market. Capitalists only purchased and preferred those labors who were efficient and skillful for the industrial market productivity, which indirectly resulted in profit earning.
Capitalist Management of Work
Capitalism
Capitalism is mostly linked with the economic terminologies where there are private actors owning and having control over properties. The main objective of capitalists is to earn a profit, and profits can be earned by owning lands, factories, industries, railroads, and mines. For the capital gains by the capitalists, laborers are purchased by giving them wages. Moreover, the wages that are fixed determine between the capitalists and working-class determines the competitive uses of the resources. The main pillars of capitalism are said to be self-interests, competition, private properties, market mechanisms, freedom over choices, and the limited role of the government of the state.
Babbage Principle and differences with Pre-Capitalist forms
Argument by Harry Braverman regarding the degradation of labor in the market-place during the 20th century. Control over the labor force was the result of scientific management and advanced form of mechanization. This resulted in the alienating practices over the labor forces in the industries by the management. Meanwhile, this was beneficial for the capitalists who could exercise control in the changing circumstances. By degrading the labor forces in the market, capitalist market was trying to progress and this was better explained by Braverman. In the Babbage principle, division of labor is considered to be one of the factors to determine it. Babbage principle is one of the perspectives to explain the attempts by capitalists to purchase the available labor with lower prices. This principle also helps to understand the division of the labor force in simpler units to make them work repeatedly. With the better understanding provided by the division of the labor force and the Babbage principle, it has become easier to develop a perspective about the transformations in the working classes and the decrease in the number of skilled craftsmen and upsurge in the number of workers.
The arguments by Braverman helps to identify the rigidities and demand in physical strengths by the labor organizations on the labor force. Moreover, his main argument is considered to be the result of scientific management and the idea of how management knowledge has resulted in divested knowledge from the labor force. However, it was a time when the labor force misunderstood their working and production procedures by comparing their work with the craftsmen who were supposed to possess knowledge about the different production procedures. Misunderstandings in the knowledge by the workers resulted in the subordination system, where the management team was involved in the planning and implementation of power. Such conditions resulted in the detestation and disempowerment of the workers in the labor market, moreover, they became animated paraphernalia for the management.
Taylorism and differences with Pre-Capitalist forms
Taylorism is the concept that mainly focuses on the scientific approaches in managing the labor forces. The decisions by the capitalists regarding maximum profit earning and production was carried out with the help of scientific management. Whereas, the labor force in the pre-capitalist society allowed capitalists to manage them and implement power due to lack of understanding about the craftsman. The pre-capitalist form in the labor workforce mostly degraded the workforce by increasing the standardizations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"dPmlLCEN","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Spencer, 2000)","plainCitation":"(Spencer, 2000)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":718,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/Q6ZU8U7Y"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/Q6ZU8U7Y"],"itemData":{"id":718,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Work, Employment and Society","issue":"2","page":"223-243","title":"Braverman and the contribution of labour process analysis to the critique of capitalist production–twenty-five years on","volume":"14","author":[{"family":"Spencer","given":"David A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2000"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Spencer, 2000). It is also believed the higher standardization and scientific knowledge may be a source for the degradation of the workforce in the labor market. Taylorism approach suggested that workers in the labor force should be compensated based on their skill and productivity within a time period. Furthermore, in pre-capitalist society, the labor force was only provided with limited access to facilities and wages. The capitalists also expected them to be efficient in the production, meanwhile, they also provided the minimum wages and purchased other labor force with lower prices.
Social Consequences of the Capitalist Organization of Production (Federici)
Whatever action is carried, this will result in an outcome which may impact the members and the overall society. Due to the capitalist organization of production, some of the social implications resulted. Such implication included the struggles by the lower classes in the capitalist society, higher rates of inequality, and other societal issues. Class struggle during capitalism became an integral part and this continues. Two patterns determined the struggle and that included the labor force and the capital, moreover, this struggle has become an uneven pattern. Federici who is a feminist activist suggests that the means of production and inclusion of individuals in the labor forces results in labor exploitation. As a result of the personal gains by the capitalists, it has resulted in the disruptions in society. This has caused harm to individuals by exposing them to unhealthy working environments in the capitalist society and by their organizations. Federici suggested social reproduction as the daily life and working environments that result in the transformations. These are not only centered on the capitalist accretions but also any kind of organizational systems. The class struggle may be perceived as one of the direct form of violence more specifically, a fight by the social classes over the resources and cheap labor. The class struggle may be one of the sources to destroy the union labor s and unfair practices in the labor forces.
One of the consequences of the capitalist organization in terms of society is inequality. The layer of capitalists’ organizations has resulted in the unequal distribution of the economic resources among different class systems more importantly among the labor force. Unequal distributions of these resources have resulted in the lower wages to the working class in the labor market. This inequality can be estranged with the help of diverse opportunities of earning and by promoting the practices of equal distributions of resources available in the economies. However, there may be some of the positive outcomes that are resulted by the capitalist organizations and their means of production. One of the examples can be industrialization in the history of the United States, which was the result of the capitalism that increased the overall means of production. Moreover, these productions have made lives easier by providing access and facilities to fulfil the daily based needs of the individuals.
Rice’s Play and Braverman
Rice’s play is based on the notion that helps in the exploration of individualistic impacts that can be associated with the substitutes of the labor force by the technology and machines. This also emphasizes on the rationalization by capitalists. Rice’s is an imperative play that provides information, and an idea about how robotics and machines have replaced humans to complete the work. This can be considered as the displacement of labor force by the technology. This play also reflected the role of capitalists in the brutalizing of labor in the workforce. He also argued that living a life under the rule of capitalists means that individuals are the clear reflection of their command. Whereas, Braverman also analyzed the dehumanization and degradation of the working class in American societies under the rule of capitalism.
Conclusion
Capitalism is considered to be one of the sources which have resulted in the exploitation of the working class in American society by exposing them to heinous working environments and lower wages. At the same time, it can be concluded that capitalists required skilled workers in their organizations and their industries to gain maximum profit. Moreover, expectations regarding higher skillful labor hindered the working efforts of the unskilled labor in the market who were only paid according to their regions. Capitalism has also resulted in advanced technology which has replaced humans with robots.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Federici, S. (2009). The reproduction of labor -power in the global economy, Marxist theory and the unfinished feminist revolution. Center for Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. Seminar Reading for Jan, 27, 2009.
Jonna, R. J., & Foster, J. B. (2014). Braverman and the Structure of the U.S. Working Class: Beyond the Degradation of Labor. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 26(3), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-014-9243-4
Spencer, D. A. (2000). Braverman and the contribution of labor process analysis to the critique of capitalist production–twenty-five years on. Work, Employment and Society, 14(2), 223–243.
