Relationship that Exist between Workers and their Bosses - Term Paper Example

 Relationship that Exists Between Management Control, Organization of Labor Process and Production of Surplus Values Management Control The definition of management control has been derived from control and management. Control has been viewed as a way of checking whether work has been done in a manner that had was planned. It is aimed at pointing out errors, correcting them in the most appropriate ways, and ensuring they never occur again. A process of management compares actual performance with the planned, measures the difference between the actual and planned performance, identifies the factors causing the difference, and, finally, takes corrective actions to eliminate the differences that are available. Lawson (2003) defines management control as a process during which the business management practitioners follow a systematic procedure to compare the performance against the set objectives to ensure that they do conform to the standards set by the organization. They are meant to ensure that the employers work in the most efficient manner, that the corporate resources are used in the most effective way, and that organizational objectives are achieved. The management is meant to set standards, measure actual performance, and solve problems (taking corrective actions). Therefore, the management control has the following stages: Planning – setting of the organizational objectives that are well understood and agreed upon, measurable in time, achievable, consistent, and require available resources Programming – setting up of strategies of achieving the set objectives, taking into accounts the restraints of the organization. Result checking – checking whether the set objectives of the organization have been achieved. Shifting analysis – analyzing the shifts that take place between the set objectives Corrective action implementation – in order to increase the probability of realizing the objectives. Organization of the labor process According to Harry (1974), the labor process refers to how people work. It then tries to control their work, performance, skills and the payment they receive for the work done. Labor is the process by which nature and man participate in achieving a certain function. The man starts, regulates, and controls the actions that take place between the function and nature. Labor is taken to be human by supposition. At the end of every labor process, the result that is found corresponds to what already existed in imagination before the work started (Albert & Hahnel, n.d). Man’s activities during which the resources are used are, therefore, essential in the labor process. The process is accepted depending on the product manufactured at the end of the process. Art, for example, is the product of all the artistic work done by the artist, from the initial stages to the realization of the final product. Though products are a use value of the labor process, other products of the previous labor enter into the use value in the form of production. When taken from the perspective of process, a product is a subject of labor and also a means of production, qualifying labor to be considered as productive. Young (1974) argues that unlike the extraction industries where the labor material is provided instantly by nature, industries have to convert raw materials through labor. Every product is realized after a series of processes takes place during transformation. All this transformation requires a supervisor, who has to offer services in the form of labor, so that a final product that conforms to the objectives is produced or realized. Raw materials being the primary subjects of a final product, they should be used by instruments of labor; these materials have to be used so that the end product can be realized. An example is petroleum that has to be used by an engine so that work and movement can be achieved in a vehicle; the raw products at the end cannot appear as they were in the product; the intended purpose of the raw material has been achieved by means of it. It is noticed that, whenever a product enters a production process, it loses its characteristics as the raw product and becomes a factor in the process. With the example of a spinner, spindle, and flax, a spinner can never do any spinning without the presence of the spindle and the flax. And before the process starts, all these products of a previous process should be available for a process to be accomplished and a product produced. The resources that never served their purposes in the labor processes are deemed useless; moreover, they are viewed as destructive to the process of production. Labor makes use of all the material factors, its subjects, and the resource, thus becoming a process of consumption – a useful kind consumption to be differentiated from other kinds of individual consumption. Labor, therefore, consumes products so that they can create other products. The abovementioned is to explain the factors that make up the labor process. These factors are: The work or activity performed by a man The subject of the work The instruments used to perform the activities. Labor process is, therefore, concluded as a human action using resources and manpower to obtain an end product. Production of surplus values For a product to be produced, there must be a manager or the owner of the whole process. They do not work alone but employ manpower and use resource to achieve all that is required in the process of realizing the end product. The managers of the product usually have a motive or an objective that they wish to achieve. This would include production of goods that are of value when taken for exchange. It means that when the product is to be sold, it should have a value that is greater than all the expenses needed to produce it. In total, the expenses used for manpower or labor and the cost of the resources used to achieve the end product should be less than the value of the product. This is the production of surplus value. The production of value in a certain product depends on the quality of labor that was used and all the conditions that the product was subjected to during production. During the process of producing value and creating surplus-value, we find that the surplus-value is the continuation of producing value. This is because when one process is done without considering the other, the value put in by the owner for the manpower is replaced by an equivalent, and this is simply a production of value. But when the process is continued further, the creation of surplus-value is achieved. On comparing the process of producing value with the labor-process, we find that labor process has all the useful labor which produces the final product but is seen as a value-creating process, which presents itself under its quantitative aspect. The materials that take part in the process do not count any longer as necessary processes of labor-power in the production of a definite, useful object. With a lot of theories that are there to explain the relationships that exist, Young (2005) says that the technologists and the scientists studying this are disappointed by the fact that the exchange of man power or labor and creation of surplus value lead to the economy and not to labor process. Relationship between management control, organization of the labor process, and production of surplus values Having discussed all the three aspects of production, we realize that there exist relationships that make them related to one another in certain ways. We realize that here the managements act as bosses and the workers act as laborers. The aim of the two is to achieve an objective of creating a product. The product cannot be merely a product but should be a value for the money that has been invested from the start till the realization of the final product. The labor process used to acquire manpower from the worker in the form of labor has two characteristics. Firstly, the laborer has to work under the supervision of the bosses, who, in turn, have to ensure that an admirable work has been done in order to produce a quality product, which, in turn, produces the surplus-value. Secondly, the labor that is given out belongs to the boss, making the product of the work done belong to the boss. We realize that surplus value is the extra amount of labor a worker gives to the investor against the labor he receives in his or her wages for the work done during the production process. Conclusive evidence that showed that surplus value depended on the contribution of investors/ bosses and the labor power was shown by Yates (2003) and Marx (n.d) in the Marx economic theory. These theories enlightened readers to realize that there are so many relationships that link the three together. Each of them has a part to run for a smooth operation to be achieved, and there is no way that any of them can be omitted in the industrial production the economical world. References Albert, M., & Hahnel, R. (n.d). A quiet revolution in welfare economics. The Labor Process. Retrieved from: http://books.zcommunications.org/books/2/2.htm Harry B. (1974). Labor and monopoly capital. New York: Free Press. Lawson, S. (2003). What are management control systems? Retrieved from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-management-control-systems.htm Marx, K (n.d). Capital: The labour process and the process of producing surplus-value. Retrieved from: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch07.htm Yates, M. D. (2003). Naming the system: Inequality and work in the global economy. New York: Monthly Review Press. Young, M. R. (1974). Braverman’s labour and monopoly capital. Retrieved from: http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/blmc1.html Read More