Main Classes of Elites in Saudi Arabia - Assignment Example

Question 1 My country, Saudi Arabia, has two main classes of elites: dynastic and middle class. The Saudi society is led as a dynasty referred to as Al Saud. Historically, there has been a religious-political alliance that has endured through many generations and this has served as the basis for the creation of historical kingdoms in Saudi Arabia. Religious education has been dominant in the development of values in learning institutions such as schools and universities. Scholarly men of religion, known as ulama, have been critical in providing legitimacy to the ruling elite. In return, kings have expanded the supremacy of the conservative religious values in law, and maintained a dynastic kind of society with defined customs, gender roles, culture and the media. The Saudi dynasty has been strengthened by the new wealth arising from oil. Thus, the dynasty and the ulama have created a mutually interdependent relationship while significantly increasing their influence on the society. The rising oil wealth of Saudi Arabia has significantly improved people’s well being due to urbanization, educational achievement and so forth. This in turn has led to a rising level of middle-class people, who increasingly display a high level of sophistication. The ever-looming fear of regional political upheaval coupled with a possible sudden decline in oil prices, a shift in economic and social priorities, such as class consciousness and privilege of social class relations, and familiarity with international standards have strengthened the middles class competitive spirit as well as entrepreneurship. In the political realm, the middle classes are aware that their freedom is limited but they have managed to create a fine balance between their business demands and the political reality of the absolute monarchy - the dynasty. There is a clear gap between the ruling family and the people, and between the wealthy oil dealers and the averagely middle class population. Question 2 According to the author, normative control is understood to help exploit workers by strengthening their shared corporate beliefs, norms and values, rather than through coercion. This allows the workers to be ‘themselves’ and take more charge of their duties, become more attached to the firm and exercise good self control. Neo-normative control strengthens and improves the situation. For instance, it reinforces broader constructions of identity, and this enables workers to enjoy variety in the workplace, talk about their tastes, lifestyles, and the value of being oneself. This is likely to increase productivity as workers express themselves freely. As neo-normative control prescribes fun activities in the workplace, this is likely to enhance worker self-esteem, but as well the contrary may occur if the fun is misplaced. Neo-normative control relates to Edward’s direct, technical and bureaucratic control as the latter emphasises that change is related to flexibility – which is the essence or normative control. Neo-normative control also encourages the expression of authentic selves, but focuses on social identities surrounding work more the self-actualization that is achieved through task-autonomy. This means that workers are allowed to express themselves freely as long as the expression augments their productivity in shared tasks. The aim of neo-normative control is to promote normative diversity rather than to seek its uniformity. This means that workers can be more productive as they are allowed to bring their other skills to work rather than rely on routine practices. This is good for management as it benefits from the diverse skills of workers. The target of neo-normative control is to tap worker traits that are not associated with the working life. Its aim it to make the job more enjoyable through the freedom of identity and emotional expression of workers. But this does not mean that the real lives of employees have to be externalized or engineered out in order to achieve a collective normative alignment. Further, neo-normative control aims at achieving a control regime of market rationalism, which is the objective of any competitive organisation. Question 3 Up-skilling is a term used refer to the improving of skills of workers through training as a way of enhancing their productivity. Up-skilling can be seen in the developed world as there is a high demand for an increase in people’s average level of education and skills that they require for the jobs they are performing. This is necessitated by the need for more skilled labour across industries and within individual occupations. On the other hand, de-skilling involves eliminating labour within the industry by introducing technologies that are operated by semi-skilled or unskilled workers. De-skilling can also be said to lead to loss of the traditional skills of artisans, cooks, clerks, potters and so forth. The relationship between up-skilling and de-skilling creates rhetorical question as to whether new work technologies necessitate an upgrading of the workforce (up-skilling) or whether, quite the contrary, they contribute to de-skilling the work and the worker. It is not easy to predict the effects of up-skilling and de-skilling as the two terms mean different things in different countries. In Europe for example, the United Kingdom has 15 percent of its workforce as managers; Germany is able to do with 5 percent of the workforce being managers, and France with 8 percent. It means therefore that in countries that need fewer managers like Germany and France, up-skilling only serves to increase over qualification, but the United Kingdom needs more up-skilling to have more staff for the more skill-demanding jobs. But an increase in up-skilling can be viewed to lead to de-skilling in some professions. For instance, there is need to increase the requirements for teaching in Britain to master’s level, but this has led to teaching jobs being more tightly prescribed with significantly lower levels of autonomy. As a result, the increase in skill requirement can be perceived to be leading to a de-skilling of teachers in Britain. Question 4 Emotional labour refers to an employee’s expression of organisationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. Over the years, there has been a debate over whether emotional labour is skilled labour or it is a form of skilled labour. Many theories are used to argue this out. For instance, the labour process theory sees the manufacturing sector to be developing through technical change and the introduction of women, towards a goal of largely unskilled, unorganised, undifferentiated and cheap labour force. The feminist theory on the other hand examines women’s social roles in various perspectives such as the labour market. Emotional labour, especially when employees deal with customers, can be perceived to require unskilled labour, and hence, jobs that require emotional labour are usually delegated to women. Another argument is that dealing with customers needs extremely skilled people who can gauge the emotional context of the customers and tailor their behaviour accordingly. But since it is women who usually undertake such jobs, the skills involved in emotional labour are not recognised as required. Emotional labour is therefore undervalued because of gendered reasoning that it merely utilises dispositional attributes rather than acquired skills. In order to understand whether emotional labour is skilled or not, the four forms of emotional management must be addressed; these are pecuniary, prescriptive, presentational and philanthropic. Only the first two forms provide emotional labour which is harnessed by employers for profit. The other two lie within the control and talent of workers. This means that for employers to gain from their employees in terms of emotional labour, they must look for ways to inculcate pecuniary and prescriptive skills in them. It does not matter whether the employees will be men or women. This is one way of removing the inequalities between men and women and viewing emotional labour as requiring cross-gender skills rather than a women’s only affair. Question 5 Trade unions, states and employers can regulate the globalised industry in different ways. Trade unions help to promote effective rules governing the behaviour of private business. They aim to achieve international frameworks of collective bargaining and social dialogue, and systems of corporate governance that oblige management to be accountable for the social impact of business activities. One role of the state in the global industry is to negotiate the intersection of national law and foreign actors. States also shape the dynamics of interaction of various players in the global industry. Under conditions of globalisation, the state acts in its capacity as an administrative and technical apparatus that can be used to govern the operations of national and non-national economic actors and institutions. Employers act in the globalised industry by increasingly expecting their organisations to participate and provide services that would enhance the performance of enterprises. The three actors can regulate the global commodity or global value chain in different ways. Trade unions can act by finding ways to manage and regulate the operations within the global value chain so that they support the fundamental rights of employees while bringing prosperity to as many people as possible. Trade unions can convince state governments and employers to assume the responsibilities of globalisation. States on the other hand need to facilitate the success of the global value chain by ensuring effective governance and inter and intra-firm coordination. The state in particular needs to set up new legal frameworks and play a role in legitimating new norms. On their part, employers can enhance the global chain value by enhancing relationships at different levels. For instance, outsourcing of jobs has become a common way through which employers ensure their global presence while adhering to the administrative structures put in place by states in collaboration with trade unions. Read More