Dynamics of Workplace Management - Assignment Example

Question 1 Discuss which of the 5 stages does your country fit in? From the five stages, the most appropriate position in which Saudi Arabia can be linked with is the dynastic and rising middle class. It is dynastic because top leadership of the country is ‘inherited’ in that a group of ninety selected members of the society traced to specific lineage has the right to choose the next King. This means that the ninety people have a right to choose the leader for the entire population and hence the reason of been dynastic. Moreover, the name King is associated with dynasties and monarchies thus increasing the reason why Saudi Arabia can be termed as dynastic. The rising middle class is evident because most positions in the work place are shifting from the parents or original owners of businesses to their children. Even though it is a generational change, the evidence of the number of middle-aged people working in this positions is evidence enough of the rising class. Moreover, middle class people are found to be the ones purchasing modern materials e.g. cars, houses, and boats meaning that their financial positions may be improving. Generally, it may be assumed that the stages in which Saudi Arabia is in, is raising middle class and dynasty. Question 2 Implications of Neo-normative control for dynamics of workplace management Neo-normative control involves creation and sustenance of a corporate identity by drawing from externally derived values and identities to which employees are expected to subscribe. In this view, neo-normative control resembles normative control, which put emphasis on imparting strong, common, and organization focused rules and values amongst employees to create a distinct, shared sense of identity and belonging. The difference is that this corporate identity draws upon and harnesses employees’ values that are predominantly formed extra-organizationally. Neo-normative control thus sees the manager playing a mediating or channeling role in which already present values are liberated or unleashed. This is because of various reasons. First, it is because of the tenacity of prior socialized values. Even under the normative control, it was not easy to proscribe societal identities in any complete manner. Secondly, it is no longer legitimate to bar the expression of the whole person from the workplace given the importance of liberation and its emphasis of personal freedom and diversity. Finally, it is because of the corporate recognition that outside or non-work norms and their free and emotional expression can be a source of utility in relation to motivation, task execution and totalizing commitments to quality and doing a good job and thus so called flexibility. Neo-normative control entails an exhortation to be yourself or what you are outside of work. Neo normative control entails management practice, which encourages diversity, dissent, idiosyncrasy, and expression of authentic feeling in the work environment. The neo normative control enlists private dimensions of employee selves selectively often under the rubric of individualism and free self-expression as a way extracting behavior amendable to organizational objectives. Individuality is encouraged to express employees’ fun side of their personalities. Thus, neo normative control is associated with non-working life and is concerned with social identities. It enhances the enjoyment of the job through the freedom of identity and emotional expression surrounding the work performance rather through it. Thus, neo normative control is hybrid of controls. Question 3 Up-skilling and de-skilling The emergence of up-skilling thesis in 1990s was linked to information technology developments and promises of a new knowledge economy. According to this thesis, upcoming jobs will continue demanding high skills. It is believed that labor force is up-skilling in terms of educational level of employees and the type of work performed by these employees. The up-skilling is not only in terms of growth in knowledge sector but work is also becoming more skilled across industries and within individual occupations. The generalized upward shift in skills levels is evidenced by growth in the numbers of people working in professional and managerial occupations and the rising qualification levels of the labor force. Up-skilling has further been supported by increasing numbers of jobs, which require higher education qualifications, and robustness of wage returns. De-skilling thesis was published by Harry Braverman in 1974. He argued that de-skilling was an inevitable tendency within capitalism. This was a challenge to the political and academic view in 1960s and 1970s that work was becoming more skillful, more knowledgeable, and more creative. Braverman’s work has been extremely influential. It initially generated debate on how top develop a historical analysis of the interrelations between capitalist labor process, issues of control and skill development in production, and the requirements of capital accumulation. Although the wages paid for high skilled labor has been increasing critics argue that there is a growing dispersion in wages and rising levels of over qualification in UK and USA. In addition, skill polarization issue has returned and few jobs that are knowledge based are being developed in these countries. Furthermore, there still exists a substantial number of low skilled workers and inequality in pay and working conditions are on the rise. There is also a hollowing middle occupational hierarchy with increasing number of jobs at the bottom and the top of the hierarchy. This shows that there is still de-skilling. As opposed to UK and USA, Germany has considerable few upper level employees. Thus, governments need to analyze their labor force in relation to other nations to know whether their economies are having up-skilling or de-skilling. Question 4 Emotional labor with respect to labor process theory Emotional labor was theorized by Arlie Hochschild in 1983. In his work, he theorized that human feelings could be commercialized. He added emotional labor into Marxist framework in which some emotions could be commoditized to become labor power, which could be sold for a wage. Emotional labor is tangible in caring and servicing work. The value of emotional work lies in its contribution to social reproduction of labor power and social relations of production. The form in which emotional labor is carried out is influenced by the divide between home and work and the gender division of labor. Some authors argue that emotional labor is skilled work. The basis of this argument is that service workers are involved with the customer and thus they have to be extremely skilled in how to gauge the emotional context of their job in order to tailor their behavior accordingly. In addition, workers have discretion over the type of emotional labor they employ in particular situation and whether they will withhold or dilute it. Some authors argue that skills needed for emotional labor are often unrecognized because this work is undertaken mostly by women. Other authors argue that not all emotional labor are skilled and that a distinction has to be made between complex physical, mental and moral actions that make us human and those that have to be acquired as part of the labor process. Emotional labor with respect to feminine theory Feminine theory uses intersectionality to describe the relationship between different forms of social inequality. This theory argues that everything is reduced to economic and gender is seen as second order phenomenon in older forms of Marxism. Three forms of intersectionality have been theorized: structural, political, and representational intersectionality. Under intersectionality, race, gender, sexuality, class and nation, ought to be treated as a single system instead of being treated separately. Thus, all women are homogenized when multiple inequalities are being considered. Thus, feminine theorists argue that there are four forms of emotional management instead of emotional labor: pecuniary, prescriptive, presentational, and philanthropic. Of these forms, only pecuniary and prescriptive forms provide emotional labor that is appropriated by employers for profit while the other two are under the control and gift of employees. Question 5 Can the 3 traditional industrial relations actors (trade unions, state, and employers) regulate a globalised industry? The issue of labor regulation is of major debate in the context of globalization. Many people visualize convergence as the result of globalization. The capacity of a state to regulate the industry is weakened. In addition, collective bargaining at the industry level is also weakened. As the industry is weakened in terms of social institution, work is further commoditized. Globalized industry shed many of the responsibilities that it offered the world of work humanly tolerable in the past. The post war social settlements resulting from global market pressures has resulted in employers reassigning risk at work to employees and workers. Thus new employment relationship is based on shifted risk and flexibility. With industrial globalization, there is a decline in the importance of unions and there is a growth in non-union employment relations. There is also increased fragmentation of employment relations. Employers are increasingly influencing the shape and nature of employment relations. The employers are now faced with new issues such as flexibility, diversity, competitiveness in the context of globalization. Even though the state cannot wholesomely regulate the activities of a globalized industry, it is usually involved in formulating policies in conjunction with other states on how the industry ought to operate. Thus, the state still has some regulatory powers on globalized industry even though it has reduced drastically. In the case of trade unions, they have less regulatory role on unionized employees. However, through other institutions that are involved in formulating labor regulations, trade unions can still have an influence on decision made by globalized industry concerning employment relations. Employers also have reduced influence on regulation of globalized industry since they have to follow the rules of the states in which they operate which vary from one state to another. Globalized industries encourage competition and instill fear of closure if failure to compete. Thus, employees are forced to work hard to avoid being rendered jobless. Such firms use ease of relocation as a major bargaining power to discourage government regulations and trade union interference. Read More