Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Groups Structure Global Society
Question: Discuss about the Groups Structure Global Society. Answer: Introduction: The division of labour is an important concept, as it advocates the act of breaking down of the component parts of a work, in order to facilitate time-saving and energy saving production process. Since a long time, the practice of the division of labour has been common among various nations, although in recent times, with the growth of trade as well as the rise of the capitalism, the division of labour has assumed a more complex role (Levy and Murnane 2012). While at earlier times, the division of labour mostly revolved around the idea of increased efficiency and individual dexterity of the worker, in the capitalist era, the division of labour is used in a much wider sense. It not only refers to the process of splitting up the work among the co-workers according to individual skill, but it also implies the sharing of the responsibility of the task among the workers and the management. With the emergence of technology, the organizations operating in the local market have been expanding in other parts of the world. However, in such situations the international division of labour in the global market becomes a matter of huge importance. As an organization expands in other parts of the world, it must discreetly reflect before deciding the way the work will be allocated to the individual employee. For instance, a tourist organization intending to operate in a new country must choose a native inhabitant of the country for the designation of a tourist guide a cook or the receptionist. Although this can be deemed to be an advantage, it may not necessarily serve the ends of the laborers (Krempel and Plumper 2015). The specialization of the tasks, and the allocation of a task to a specific individual, reduces the organizational dependence on the skills and expertise of a single employee, and in turn this system leads to the development of new technology. Now, this is needle ss to state that the dependence on the new technology will make it easier for a selected number of employees to accomplish a single task, and although the production will enhance in a short span of time, the needs of the employees will decrease. This will consequently lead to the exploitation of labour in the global market. For instance, the Chairman of Nestle, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe in the year of 2006, announced a huge growth of annual profit earned by the company, and yet despite the fact it posed a serious threat to the employment security of the existent employees, as the service of many employees was being terminated (Rossman and Greenfield 2014). A very similar situation occurred in case of Heinken, when though the management authority of the organization announced a surge in the profit by 56%, it also had reduced the total workforce, by terminating the service of employees by as high a rate as of 10% (McMichael 2016). According to Rossman and Greenfield (2006) even though th e profit is likely to increase owing to the breaking of a task, and allocation of each task to the most suitable employee, the increased rate of organizational dependence on the use of innovative machines during the production process is likely to lead to employee exploitation and unemployment problems. Although in the pre-machinery phase, it can be said that the division of labour has indeed engendered new employment opportunities by creating diverse new roles, in recent times, the division of labour has led to the increased dependence on the machines, instead of the manpower. Besides, the division of labour also limits the dexterity and the professional expertise of the employees, as a result of which, the employees, once dismissed from an organization, fails to get them absorbed in a new organization, which may have a demand for a different work skill, than what is possessed by the said employee (Chander 2013). Besides, several critics have already argued that the division of labour has indeed facilitated global trade, allowing the goods of a country reach the other country in an organized direction. However, it is to be noted that the employees performing similar activities each day, will not only suffer from professional burn-out and stress because of the monotony of workplace, but will be unable to learn new skills, that can help in learning new skills, allowing him to improve his career development opportunities. Thus, the powerful group of organizational heads exploits the labour indirectly, by confining the employees to the single organization he is working for, and limiting his scope of career development and expansion. It should be noted that each individual possesses the knowledge, ingenuity and innovation required to perform almost any kind of manual activity, and hence this way of limiting this potential may not be just. Again, it should be noted that Frederic Taylor, the founder of Taylorism, spoke of the important concept of scientific management that had exercised a powerful influence over the nature and kinds of work performed by the laborers under the system of division of labour. According to Taylor, in recent times, in a highly global market, the division of labour may also refer to the splitting up of the work among the management authority and the employees working within the organization. While the employees are being entrusted with the task of physically performing a task, the mental labour of deciding the way in which the task should be performed, rests upon the management authority of the organization. Considering this point, even though this would imply a huge benefit for the organization, the employees are working for, this situation is likely to lead to the problem of labour exploitation. As and when the employee is being dictated to perform a task in a particular way, the employer is also likely to ask the worker to work for larger number of hours, even if that would imply the exploitation of the laborers in a less civilized nation, where the workers do not enjoy the access to modern equipment and machines (Janoski and Lepadatu 2014). The management authority of the organization competing in a highly competitive global economy, would try to sustain its position, by imposing almost an inhuman pressure on the laborers, for increasing the total output. As a result, the labor of the employees gets reduced to nothing but a mechanism to achieve organizational success, and leads to the exploitation of the labour (Bergesen and Bata 2015). However, this helps each organization operating its business activities in a global set-up, regulate the performance of the employees, and consequently enhance the organizational profitability. Besides, it should also be noted that with the emergence of a capitalist market in a global economy, the more developed nations are also compe ting with the less developed or the developing countries. As a result, even if the laborers are working under an organization belonging to an under-developed nation, deprived of the required privilege of an advanced technological infrastructure, the employees are being forced to compete with the high rate of employee efficiency of the developed nations (Acker 2013). Besides, Taylor had even pointed out that how as a result of this mental division of labor, although the net output of a product increases, the pay of the laborers does not witness any remarkable change. As the increase in output is achieved by all the laborers, any minimal kind of favor being shown to an employee in terms of his pay disappears. As it is suggested from the historical evidence, an organization often has discovered that some of his other employees are capable of producing greater number of output, than the other employees. Consequently, this employee was dictated to increase his output on a daily basis, in lieu of a high rate of wage, for the purpose of encouraging other employees to improve their productivity (Durkheim 2014). However, once the average productivity increases, the management authority no longer considers offering higher pay to any of the employees. Thus although it achieves a higher position, that helps it to sustain in the global market, and although the global market itself improves, owing to the increase of the average productivity of the employees, the employees are victimized by the labor exploitation process (Abbott 2014). However, a well-governed production system on a global scale is being created with the help of the division of labor. The management authority of the organization, operating in any part of the world is capable of creating an organized approach to the problem of task division, so that the task can be properly allocated among the employees. Besides, it should be ensured that the human labor should not be reduced to a mechanistic attribute. Although the present system of division of labor helps in increasing the average employee productivity, and maximizing the employee efficiency, this form of mechanistic attitude towards the employees is not desirable. This is because it is likely to treat employees as mere machines, and overlook their health and well-being. Consequently, the workers may also lose the skill as a result of the loss of autonomy at workplace, and hence this will fail to have a positive impact on the employees of the global market. Hence, it can be concluded that despite its advantages, the division of labor cannot be regarded as a favorable idea. Reference List: Abbott, A., 2014.The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. University of Chicago Press. Acker, J., 2013. Is capitalism gendered and racialized.Race, class, and gender: An anthology, pp.125-133. Bergesen, A. and Bata, M., 2015. Global and national inequality: are they connected?.journal of world-systems research,8(1), pp.130-144. Chander, A., 2013. The New Global Division of Labor. Durkheim, E., 2014.The division of labor in society. Simon and Schuster. Hung, L.H., 2014. How Firms Balance Social Responsibility with Surplus Value from Labor Inputs. InCapitalism and the Social Relationship(pp. 36-53). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Janoski, T. and Lepadatu, D., 2014. Synthesizing Three Models of the Division of Labor. InDominant Divisions of Labor: Models of Production That Have Transformed the World of Work(pp. 54-66). Palgrave Macmillan US. Krempel, L. and Plumper, T., 2015. Inter national division of la bor and global economic processes; an analysis of the international trade in automobiles.Journal of World-Systems Research,5(3), pp.486-499. Levy, F. and Murnane, R.J., 2012.The new division of labor: How computers are creating the next job market. Princeton University Press. McMichael, P., 2016.Development and social change: A global perspective. Sage Publications. Rossman, P. and Greenfield, G., 2006. Financialization: New routes to profit, new challenges for trade unions.Labour Education, The Quarterly Review of the ILO Bureau for Workers Activities,1(142), pp.55-62.
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