ALIENATION AND CONFLICT

Many people find work unrewarding, which is called alienation and is explianed from different perspectives.

MARXIST

Alienation is the difference between the happy work-life we should have and the life we actually have. It separates a person from their true self. Workers only receive a small percentage of what they actually produce.

Two aspects:


 Exploitation, just described.
 The nature of the work itself (tasks are designed to produce a profit rather than be useful or satisfying).

BLAUNER: THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY

Blauner (1964) blamed lack of job satisfaction on technology, which causes alienation in four ways:

 1 -- Meaningless. Tasks are broken down into meaningless things, and the worker is *deskilled *.
 2 -- Powerlessness. There's no control over what's produced, how or the pace of work.
 3 -- Isolation. On a noisy assembly line, people feel cut off.
 4 -- Self-estrangement. People must deny who they really are, eg. retailers have to pretend they like the customers.

GOLDTHORPE AND LOCKWOOD: AN INSTRUMENTAL ATTITUDE TO WORK

 An interactionist approach rejected that societal structure or workplace structure causes isolation. The experience of work depends on the meaning workers give to it. In a study of three factories in Luton, their attitude to work was a means to an end, just to get money in a secure way i.e. they didn't particularly seek job satisfaction.

 Evaluation

  • Blauner says the problem is industrial society, not capitalism. Technology can be good or bad, though generally he was optimistic about it.
  • Marxists say technology is introduced to exploit the workers.
  • Interactionalists reject structural explanations, saying people react individually.
  • Feminists focus on women's experience. They are doubly exploited by men as well as employers. Oakley revolutionized the attitude to housework by treating it as real work and comparing its monotony and meaninglessness to factory work.

CONFLICT AT WORK

Types of Conflict at work

Individuals may be absent or leave. Collectively, strikes, work to rule, sabotage of equipment or products. Theft is one or may. Conflict can be caused by sackings, new contracts or conditions. Strikes are less now because of:

  • Unemployment
  • Fear of unemployment
  • Declining union membership
  • Where strikes are illegal, more covert forms of conflict may occur

 

 Reasons for Conflict

 

  • Pay is most common.
  • Alienation of meaningless work.
  • Worse conditions; more work.
  • Fear of redundancy.


 
  

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