Essay about Workplace Alienation

The Marx’s theory of alienation was based on antagonism that things that are related together and are in harmony as well as social separation of man from aspect of man’s nature. One can only be left to ponder if alienation is a systematic result of capitalism. Predominance of private ownership of means of production and exploitation of wage labor all characterize alienation, therefore, alienation is the culmination of capitalism.

“Political economy conceals the estrangement inherent in the nature of labor by not considering the direct relationship between the worker (labor) and production” (Pg. 30). According to Marx, human nature is neither fixed nor transcendent; instead, it is alterable and embedded in the productivity of everyday life. The only fixed attribute that we have is our openness. We are different from other animal species in the sense that we are able to adapt to different natural environments by creating a social environment. We recognize what Marx termed us as ‘species being’ when we plan our actions, organize collectively to draw a living from nature, and make sense our experience in the different form of cultures. Generally speaking, estrangement

This essay will look at various methods that have been used in the historical and modern context to give employees ‘voice’ which include Voluntarism, Trade Unions (TU’s) and

There are also varying degrees of alienation depending on the particular work environment. Some workers subject to particular tasks may feel 'distant' from their co-workers. Without this sense of belonging, these workers let their work related alienation penetrate their personal spheres which is seen in the struggle they have maintaining personal relationships, as a result of the feelings of isolation that they harbour. This in turn can lead to problems of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness such as depression and violent behaviour stemming from underdeveloped social interactions. (Macionis: Chapter 4)

Working in today’s society has changed in the last few decades. The economy and technology are the main reasons for this change. The type of job and environment where one works has also changed. The fact that many people work from home via the internet has drastically changed the workforce and the environment surrounding it. With this change have come new demands, expectations, and opportunities for employers. Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future.

Making products in a capitalist system puts many people in a position that are repetitive and laborers end up going through the motions. They have one specialized job in producing the whole product. The labor does not give input into the purpose of design, distribution, and marketing of the product. According to his essay “ Alienated Labor,” Marx tells us the things we go through in a work under the capitalist society:

was how workers in capitalism are alienated from their work .It covers 4 forms of

As human beings, one of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, according to philosopher Karl Marx, is the act of work. More specifically, it is the idea that work fulfills human being’s essence. Work, for Marx, is a great source of joy, but only when the worker can see themselves in the work they do, and when said worker wants to partake in the work they are performing. In the capitalist identity, workers are “a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital” (Marx and Engel, 1946, pg. 116). Labourers were simply described as “a commodity” (Marx and Engel, 1946, pg. 117) by the ruling class; they are but pieces of a large, intricate gear system, all for the profit of those above them. In this, the worker loses touch with their essence. This concept is referred to, more or less, as alienation. Alienation is a form of separation of how one sees themselves, and how one sees themselves in what they do. Alienation, in many ways, relates to the idea of false consciousness. False consciousness, for Marx, revolves around the idea of misleading society; It is an ideological way of thinking in which no true perception of the world can be achieved. Both alienation and false consciousness delve into the notion of what constitutes true reality. Alienation describes how those that are controlled by the ruling class are subject to a form of disconnect, and false consciousness is a hierarchal idea in

Old Navy is a corporation that exhibits all of the characteristics of a business in an industry where good tactical management is the key to long-term success and survival. There can be little doubt that the backbone of every successful business or company is its staff of employees. Employees are the vital parts of the business machine that can aid in its success or contribute to its failure. It is, for this reason that it is imperative to possess the ability to acquire and maintain effective employees. The chief method by which a business or company can accomplish this task is through employee-centered motivational programs. While being an assistant manager at Old Navy I was able to look into how the business motivated its employees,

7. According to Marx, how does capitalism alienate workers? How did Marx feel that workers could overcome their alienation?

Conflict between team members will happen in the workplace because the fact that there will have an environment where decisions are made and personality clashes will occur. This doesn’t mean you have an unproductive workforce, it means you will have to be able to catch the problem early and know what to do with each individual case. People are going to disagree because they have different view points, different backgrounds and a different thought process, maybe even a different agenda for that project. People disagree for a number of reasons (De Bono, 1985). College graduates will be put into positions of uncertainty due to the lack of work history. This will in turn cause conflict, not knowing

The concept of alienation plays a significant role in Marx's early political writing, especially in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1848, but it is rarely mentioned in his later works. This implies that while Marx found alienation useful in investigating certain basic aspects of the development of capitalist society, it is less useful in putting forward the predictions of the collapse of capitalism. The aim of this essay is to explain alienation, and show how it fits into the pattern of Marx's thought. It will be concluded that alienation is a useful tool in explaining the affect of capitalism on human existence. In Marx's thought, however, the usefulness of alienation it is limited to explanation. It does not help in

Topic: One of the essential elements to Marx’s alienation concept is that of people or workers being alienated from each other under capitalism, it is still relevant in explaining the problems of the modern world.

Employees are at work, but are they actually engaged in their jobs? In October 2013, The Gallup Organization conducted a survey with 230,000 full-time and part-time workers in 142 countries which consisted of 12 questions. According to Gallup’s latest findings, 87% of workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces (O'Boyle & Harter, 2013, p. 11). Most studies have broken the various types of workers into two groups, engaged and disengaged, but Gallup’s study has broken it down even further. They have determined that there are three types of employees: engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged (O'Boyle & Harter, 2013). The terms actively disengaged or not engaged are not

The theory of alienation developed by Karl Marx depicts the estrangement of people due to living in a capitalist system of production. Through the manuscript “Estranged Labor” from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx describes his theory of alienation and specifies on the four types of ways in which the worker is alienated. A vivid example of Marx’s theory of alienation can be seen through Charlie Chaplin’s comedy film Modern Times. In his film, the central idea of the theory of labor alienation and how the worker is affected by the alienation are depicted. The notion of alienation depicted in Marx’s “Estranged Labor” is also depicted in Chaplin’s Modern Times.