Beneficiaries and Benefactors on Labor Markets - Essay Example

Labor Markets: Beneficiaries and Benefactors (Add (Add (Add Labor Markets: Beneficiaries and Benefactors Introduction Since the beginning of globalization, the need for restructuring the business operation models has become a recurring challenge to business owners. As scientific device to extract the best labor, class variations are of great value in the process of effective management of human resources. Labor market analysis and economic speculations are largely related to the significant influence of various employment classes in the modern business. Different management thoughts have discussed volumes in connection with the implications of class differences in the labor category and analyzed their influence on the economic sector. In order to ascertain the benefactors and the beneficiaries of the labor market, it is necessary to evaluate the concept of class as a relationship between the workforce and the owners in a largely capitalist economy. The Concept of Class Class in a general sense is a collection of people working in an organized way, based on predetermined principles for the achievement of certain goals. Each class is determined on the basis of the quality of individuals and the expectations meant to be met by them in connection with the fulfillment of the objectives. According to certain opinion, “classes are groups of people connected to one another, and made different from one another, by the ways they interact when producing goods and services” (Zweig, 2000, p.11). Differences in opinions and skill levels always worked effectively behind making the factional groups among the workforce in different societies from the development of industrialization. These groups were originated and nurtured by the political, cultural and socioeconomic factors prevailed during the pre-globalization era. In a political scrutiny, majority of the factors reveal that Karl Marx was the first to identify the prospect of class differences and their influences in the productive sector. According to Marx’s speculations (as cited in Dawnemars, 2011), individuals belonged to specific classes determining their scope of productivity and improvement of lifestyle in a collective labor market, as a significant result of the social, political and economic conditions already existed in the owner-worker distinction in the organized sectors of production. The presence of a class-based thought has expectedly promoted harmony among the workforce which can assure the productive development. According to the views of Yetes, (2003) (as cited in study guide), the concept of capitalism created the class-concept whereby dividing people into those who want jobs and those do not. This disparity has constituted the massive participation of new investors and workers in the labor market (p.30). According to Yates (2003, p. 33) modern markets are “critical and ubiquitous institutions”. Participating in a class generally meant that the individual was able to find similar-minded persons and exchange ideas and discuss issues for the necessary negotiations in the work field. In the labor segment, the most basic determinant of a class belongs to the economic factors like wages and levels of remuneration proportionate to the workload and the positional responsibility in the organization. According to Erckel (2009, p.5), classes are identical to the individuals in the social groups in framing ideologies and policies as a relationship with the economic factors employed in the group. The economic factors and their influence in the society determined the scope of each class and the strategies formed by the organizers worked around the conceptual focal points of owner-worker disparities. As capitalism constituted the entry of people directly owning business and taking the assistance of paid workers, there came the concept of rich-poor class. As Zweig (2000) points out, there has been a common criticism that capitalism promoted the class difference between top level managers and middle and lower level workers in terms of their right to remuneration (cited in study guide, p. 32). The organizational culture that promoted the presence of this class difference gradually promoted the entry of the middle class – the managers of the business, whose work was to connect the objectives between the owners and the workers in a productive and organized way until each of the objectives of the business was met. The potential influence of classes in the labor segment is of appositive effect in the operational management of every business. However, in industrial units where the number of the lower class is much higher than the middle level, it becomes difficult for the owners to entertain the class concept for the reason that employee protests are feasible in such situations. A great amount of emphasize is needed to evaluate the role of financial factors involved in the operations of the business to ascertain the influence of class concept in the labor market. Property and Class Capital investment and the management of labor have great relationship in the context of modern business. Property in business brings about the concept of capitalism in the views of economics. As Yates states, “in pre-capitalist societies, work and consumption were directly connected, that is, production was for immediate use or consumption” whereas “in capitalism, we do not know who made the things we use” (Yates, 2003, p. 36). Property plays a prominent role in the employment sector as it is logical to have a leadership with powers to guide and control the collective efforts of the human elements. Some studies like that of Zweig (2000) focus to the fact that capitalist ideologies force the investors or their representatives to enormously pressurize the young and new professional entrants who eventually turn the organizational middle class (p.24). Such conditions indirectly design the role of property in the formulation of a class-identity even among entry level professionals who eventually choose to remain among the workers category. Although the class concept is a prominent factor, investment is the prime requirement of the inception of any creative labor market. In a straight-cut definition, the relationship between the working class and the owners is an indispensible part of the business; and the investors of business are conceptually bound to secure the value of their money by employing the skills and the optimum productivity of the workforce in all the possible ways. Capitalist investors are determined to adopt flexible changes with their power of property in the business. As such, while reserving the right to procure raw materials and produce goods and to put them to trade, the owners dominate the human labor market by fixing their employment opportunities and determination of their wages. In a general sense, as Marglin (1996) points out, capitalism places the owners and workers on the two opposite sides of the business with equal dependence on each other; while the owner sells the worker’s effort for profit, the worker receives wages to run his life (Cited in study guide, p. 32). In that point of view, employers are the direct beneficiaries of business through the capitalistic decisions of strategic changes, market segmentation and procurement of human capital. Role of the Middle Class It has been for many years that the idea of classification of labor worked effectively and the middle class emerged as an identical market power. Majority of the world’s business economy derives from the endeavors of the middle class in the productive sector. This class is a significant proportion of labor, mainly in the service sectors such as hospitality, tourism, education and healthcare. As the importance of the middle class is on the growth, a sudden change in the economic sector can influence the life of a large community of workers very badly. According to Henry (2009, p. 140), inflation has a huge impact on the middle class as this category covers small business-owners and their workers, who collectively fail to survive the loss from foreign trade speculations. Inflation directly affects the middle class of any economy; therefore, the workers of such inflations-hit business units are likely to recommend their employers for socio-economic reforms in the operation models for better financial stability. There are evidences from countries like America to prove that the employment sector consisting of the middle class is on a tragic falling line after the economic depressions and frequent recession of the western economy (President of the United States, 2010). Thus the job-cuts and wage reductions in the employment sector have consequently resulted in the lowering levels of productivity in the economic sector. Therefore it may be seen that the new development in the labor market sector constructively designs plans to minimize the cost whereby promoting a disguised conflict between capital and labor markets. Demographic implications of such disparities are the indirect effect of the declining powers of the middle class. Since majority of the world economies settle around the middle class labor and consumer market, it is needless to say that the class diversity has to be well balanced. According to certain observation, “the continuing existence of the big business class and the capitalist economic dynamics are good for modern society if the middle and working classes can balances their power.” (Glassman, 1995, p.332). Hence it is evident that the present trend of cutting down the entry of middle class in the employment sector is not of any progressive economic effect. Conclusion Classification of the employment sector into various levels has been a prominent aspect of modern economy. Although the ideologies of Marx and other great thinkers worked well behind the improvement of a pre-capitalist era, the modern business largely relies on the principles of capitalism and free market options of globalization. From the entry of corporate ownership, the focus has been largely given on the lower class whereby creating a diminishing economic prospect of the middle class. In order to maintain the sustainability, emphasize should be given to the middle class workforce as they constitute the major parties to every economy. References Dawnemars. (2011). Karl Marx and his class theory. Hub Pages. Retrieved from http://dawnemars.hubpages.com/hub/Karl-Marx-and-his-Class-Theory Erckel, S. (2009). Marxist and Neo-Marxist Theories of Class. Germany: Grin Verlag. Glassman, R. M. (1995). The Middle Class ND Democracy in Socio-Historical Perspective. Netherlands: Brill. Henry, H. (2009). Inflation Crisis and How to Resolve It. Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute President of the United States. (2010). Annual report of the White House task force on the middle class, 1-43. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/100226-annual-report-middle-class.pdf Yates, M. (2003). Naming the system: Inequality and work in the global economy. Michigan: Monthly Review Press. Zweig, M. (2000). The working class majority: America’s best kept secret. NY: Cornell University Press. Read More