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Essay / The role of worker emotion in the labor process
Marx's view of labor was that labor was broken down into property and the means of production, where capitalists were the owners and workers the means of production . Workers were unable to realize their full potential in this capitalist economy, where they were moving away from an artisanal system towards a monopoly system. The decline of the artisanal system allows the worker to produce more, and as "the worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces... The devaluation of the world of men is in direct proportion to the increasing value of the world things. » This is important because it means that systems of control forced workers to mass produce even if they were unable to reap the benefits of their labor or the wealth they created. Furthermore, the more standardized work is, the more alienated workers become: from the products of their work, from the process of their work, from their colleagues, and from their species-being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayMarx predicted that a revolution would occur once workers developed class consciousness and were pushed to achieve more of power. Although this revolution never came to the forefront, its contributions nevertheless helped us understand the negative effects of alienation caused by moving away from a craft system and toward a standardized capitalist system. Weber's two major contributions to the understanding of work are the ideal type and rationalization. Weber viewed bureaucracy as highly hierarchical and that "methodical arrangements are made for the regular and continuous fulfillment of these duties and the execution of the corresponding rights." His concept of the ideal type was more conceptual than practical in practice, but aimed to identify the characteristics of a social form. He cited the six characteristics of the "ideal type of bureaucracy" as a hierarchy of authority, a division of labor, meritocracy, a set of written rules, impersonal relationships, and a goal of efficiency. The degree to which a bureaucratic structure possessed these characteristics determined its optimality. The characteristic of impersonal relationships in his ideal type of bureaucracy also reflected his concept of rationalization, where science and calculations reign supreme over feelings and beliefs. The concept of rationalization is important because elements of it are visible today in the McDonaldization of society, where work has elements of efficiency, predictability, control and calculability. Braverman's contribution to the understanding of work was the importance of the division of labor. . He believed that the division of labor was not only specific to modern capitalism, stating that "methods of analyzing the labor process and its division into constituent elements have always been and still are today common in all professions and professions”. Beyond the division of labor, he also believed in the necessity of the careful worker: in addition to dividing complex work into simpler parts, workers were also separated to complete a simple, specific part. This involves the deskilling of work, or the creation of increasingly specialized jobs in order to mass produce. Although Braverman did not recognize that workers are autonomous beings and would likely challenge authority when tasked with doing this simple work, as power struggles are ongoing, his notion of work deskilled and meticulous workers helped to.