PROTECCIÓN DE TARJETA

The industrial transition, the rise of waged employment and the consequent effect on        mediating socio­economic relations through the ‘cash nexus’ were acutely observed        by Marx, Durkheim and Weber ( Baldry et al. 2007 ;  Bolton 2007 ). Each of these        founding sociologists identified a distinct way that capitalist employment relations        eroded the dignity of paid work, and introduced enduring analytical concepts that will        be briefly reviewed here. 

Alienation   

For Marx, ‘alienation’  was a specific product of capitalist relations, it fundamentally            arose from divergent class interests and was thus considered inevitable under such        conditions. The processes of industrial mass production fragmented the artisanal        skills that previously resided holistically within craftsmen, extracted the embodied        skill into a commodified form, and divested it across conveyor lines within factories        and later, Marxist scholars would argue, across multiple production sites around the        globe. The deskilling of individual workers in order to transfer the intelligence of ‘the        new system of management’ has been recognised as an explicit goal later pursued        by Taylor under the rubric of scientific management ( Braverman, 1974 ).  

From this perspective, the very processes  of organising lead workers to become                alienated, not only from the end products of their labour but from themselves and        each other. The historical massification of production and managerialist control was        said to reduce workers’ sense of agency, or the ability to influence the larger systems        surrounding their work activities (Giddens 1971). ‘Naked self interest’ and ‘callous        cash payments’ were understood to be elevated above all other relational bonds with        work, and it thus became an instrumental means towards pecuniary ends, stripped of        any intrinsic value or meaning (Marx and Engels [1848] 2002).  

In the Marxist orientation, because profits for the owners of capital are maximised        when costs are minimised, workers and capitalists are locked in an ongoing struggle        between exploitation and domination versus resistance and subversion. The only       

redemptive path for dignified working conditions is for workers to gain control over        the means of production and the processes of organising. Although early Marxist        conceptions framed the culmination of this process in societal revolution that would        collectivise ownership of capital (Yack 1992), the analytical perspective introduced by        Marx persists in liberal democracies behind arguments for protective regulation of        labour markets through minimum wage laws, occupational health and safety        standards and other safeguards.   

Instrumental rationality 

For Weber, alienation was not only a product of the cash nexus of market relations        but the growing pervasiveness of an ‘instrumental rationality’, instantiated through        the spread of bureaucratic institutions and their reordering of social relations through        the prism of legalism. ‘Rationalization’ was described by Weber as a historical        process by which modern states became emancipated from their religious and        cultural traditions, which led, in more poetic terms, to a ‘disenchantment of the world’        ( Weber [1920] 1993 ). One consequence of these changes was the separation of        what Weber termed ‘value spheres’, clustered activities of human endeavour that        came to operate by distinct modes of logic. Weber enumerated six value spheres:        religion, economy, politics, aesthetics, the intimate and the intellectual ( Oakes 2003 ).        Habermas later synthesised these into a Neo­Kantian conception of three value        spheres with their own mode of ‘validity’: science or theoretical reason; morality or        practical reason; and art or aesthetic­expressive reason ( Habermas 1984 ) . Whilst      68    these spheres were imagined to previously exist in an ‘unbroken whole’, the very        processes of modernisation involved their separation and set their trajectories apart.        By this reasoning, modern individuals attempting to live a life that pursues all three        (or six) in an integrated fashion can experience a ‘fractured’ or ‘fragmented’        experience of being. The logic of the economic sphere can appear irreconcilable with       

68  _{The notion that different value spheres harbour distinct ‘institutional logics’ which can be} 

evoked through particular social practices will be further explored in  Chapter 6.6 Shaping the  institutional logic .  

religion, politics, art, sexual intimacy or intellectual life, said to lead to a peculiarly        modern sense of dislocation and disempowerment that ‘permeates and fragment        everyday consciousness’ of the self ( Habermas 1984 ). More recent empirical        surveys suggest that the family and work are still the most meaningful parts of most        people’s lives, yet are frequently experienced as realms in conflict and competition        ( Cully et al. 1999 ). 

This drama plays out in an acute way within the administrative logic of organisations.        In explaining social action, Weber contrasts ‘instrumental­rationality’  ( zweckrational ) ,         

or the concern only with means to achieve ends; with ‘value­rationality’ (wertrational),         

or the consideration of ends that are good and worth pursuing in themselves .      69  Modern capitalist societies saw the growth in size and administrative complexity of        organisations; technical knowledge that enabled systems of calculation and control,        and a valorisation of management by formally codified rules that efficiently allocates        resources and separates working roles into areas of functional specialisation. The        logic of instrumental­rationality thus shapes social relations inside organisations, as        employees become ‘human resources’, mere objects to be directed towards ends        decided by managers, leaders and owners. This framing of human relations can be        construed to violate a definition of dignity that traces its roots back to Kantian ethics,        that human beings should be treated as ends in themselves, never merely means to        an end .   70

This view sees the growth of instrumental rationality as an imperial project within the        economic and organisational spheres, colonising all other areas of human        experience, social, emotional, embodied, within the calculus of efficiency gains and        legitimate rewards derived from hierarchical offices. It positions other forms of       

69  _{Weber also discusses ‘affective’ and ‘traditional’ modes of rationality but considered these}  largely unreflective or unselfconscious.  70  _{“ Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the}  person of any other, never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end ” ( Kant  [1785] 1997 ). This principle was first introduced as a second formulation of the  categorical  imperative,  and is also known as the  formula for humanity .   

sociality at work as subservient to the regime of formal rules. “ Value­rational action          may thus have various different relations to the instrumentally rational action. From                        the latter point of        view, however, value­rationality is always irrational .” ( Weber              1922:26 ). This move ultimately displaces ‘shared values and sentiments        and…undermines meaning and dignity at work’ ( Hodson 2001:27 ) as ‘each man        becomes a little cog in the machine’ (Weber on Bureaucratisation, quoted in  Hodson        2001:28 ). Thus the Weberian perspective sees more than mere economic relations        between classes as the source of workers’ antipathy but the creeping reach of        instrumental rationality into organisational and other areas of life.   

Anomie and solidarity 

Durkheim’s observations on the causes of alienation shared much with Marx and        Weber but were more hopeful in their estimation of possible remedies.  Anomie , or an        absence of appropriate norms, was his term for the social dislocation wrought by the        advent of industrial capitalism through its ‘melting’ of prior social structures.        Durkheim claimed this left workers either without purpose and meaningful frames of        social identity, or captured by the ‘mechanical solidarity’ of regimented forms of        labour that fail to keep pace with the social changes. Both ends of this spectrum        resulted in a form of social paralysis.  

In place of Weber’s grim fatalism concerning the loss of freedom through        modernisation or Marx’s anticipation of class based revolution, Durkheim held that        these problems could be mitigated through the cultivation of new shared orders        based on an ‘organic solidarity’  ( Baldry et al. 2007 ). Anomie was understood to result                from the fracturing of ‘unity of purpose’ undergirding the collective identity of workers        and the relationship between the products of their labour. The Durkheimian        response, therefore, was to revive a sense of the moral contribution that workers        roles hold within the wider system, and thus engender a positive sense of social        identity. These elements would constitute an ‘organic solidarity’ (Giddens 1971).        Organic solidarity emerges as groups voluntarily associate and recognise their       

mutual interests, constructing shared norms that ‘give direction and meaning to work        and…provide safeguards against abuse, exploitation, and overwork’ (Hodson,        2001:26).  

Whereas Marxist analyses construe expectations of meaningful work within a        capitalist system as misplaced, the Durkheimian perspective holds the prospect of        constructive reform from within the existing framework of employment relations as a        plausible goal. For these reasons Durkheim’s ideas were drawn upon in the early        human relations literature that argued constructive management practices could        temper the alienating experiences of labour, fostering intrinsic rewards of work        through, for example, devolving more control over the whole job or supporting        participatory organising practices (Starkey 1992).