Management Theory
Good morning everybody,
Today the topic for our debate is “work can be dehumanizing rather than fulfilling.”To which I am in favour of as I believe that work is depriving employees of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, civility and is making it mere mechanical and routine and not enough creative, satisfying or making employees happy to be at work.
I would like to start off by quoting the founding father of sociology, Karl Marx, who, in his Economic and Political Manuscript reflects from a worker’s point of view.
“[Work] is not part of his nature, … consequently he does not fulfil himself in his work but denies himself, has a feeling of misery, not of well being, does not develop freely a physical and mental energy, but is physically exhausted and mentally debased. A worker therefore only feels at home in his leisure, whereas at work he feels homeless. His work is not voluntary but imposed, forced labour.”
According to Marx, when people feel alienated, work is external to the worker. Max Weber, another ‘founding father’ and a German sociologist agrees with Marx and goes on to say that it results mainly from lack of autonomy at work. For example, there has been a long standing culture where employees are conditioned not to ask questions, answer back, or question management authority; this results in increased organizational rigidity and inefficiency as employees are dissatisfied with their jobs and show low levels of commitment towards their organization.
This type of centralization approach to work with a chain of command affects the morale of the employees.
Hence work due to alienation and centralization is dehumanizing rather than fulfilling.
As I understand the main point of your argument was that workers feel alienated due to centralization in organisations. I disagree with that statement as I believe that work being centralized wouldn’t hold true at present times.
The concept of work is changing rapidly with the advent of
Today the topic for our debate is “work can be dehumanizing rather than fulfilling.”To which I am in favour of as I believe that work is depriving employees of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, civility and is making it mere mechanical and routine and not enough creative, satisfying or making employees happy to be at work.
I would like to start off by quoting the founding father of sociology, Karl Marx, who, in his Economic and Political Manuscript reflects from a worker’s point of view.
“[Work] is not part of his nature, … consequently he does not fulfil himself in his work but denies himself, has a feeling of misery, not of well being, does not develop freely a physical and mental energy, but is physically exhausted and mentally debased. A worker therefore only feels at home in his leisure, whereas at work he feels homeless. His work is not voluntary but imposed, forced labour.”
According to Marx, when people feel alienated, work is external to the worker. Max Weber, another ‘founding father’ and a German sociologist agrees with Marx and goes on to say that it results mainly from lack of autonomy at work. For example, there has been a long standing culture where employees are conditioned not to ask questions, answer back, or question management authority; this results in increased organizational rigidity and inefficiency as employees are dissatisfied with their jobs and show low levels of commitment towards their organization.
This type of centralization approach to work with a chain of command affects the morale of the employees.
Hence work due to alienation and centralization is dehumanizing rather than fulfilling.
As I understand the main point of your argument was that workers feel alienated due to centralization in organisations. I disagree with that statement as I believe that work being centralized wouldn’t hold true at present times.
The concept of work is changing rapidly with the advent of