Managerial Control and Workers’ Collective Action

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Assignment 3: Managerial Control and Workers' Collective Action
Today's corporate world is characterized by a highly competitive climate that requires effective ways to achieve and sustain high performance. Thus, organizations' managers employ the control function to meet this goal. Managerial control is fundamental because it ensures the organizational activities and employees do not deviate from the set standards. Managers try to achieve organizational goals by motivating employees, making decisions, and planning for and coordinating organizational change. They have always strived to control workers to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce employees' resistance to authority. Occasionally, defiance signifies dissatisfaction. Employee dissatisfaction may lead to high turnover or collective actions like joining unions and organizing strikes. A knee-jerk reaction to these actions would be to keep employees satisfied and satisfied, but this approach may depend on the workers' demands. Therefore, understanding managerial control and workers' collective action is an important activity that enables managers to make appropriate decisions.
Why Do Managers Claim Control Over the Labor Process?
Managers claim control over the labor process to gain workers' cooperation and commitment through the bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a management system where most of the critical decisions are made by the top authorities. The theory of bureaucracy suggests that a corporation's hierarchical structure, official chains of command, and independent rules and regulations are created to stimulate employees' cooperation and obedience (Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe, 257). The extensive hierarchical division of labor in bureaucracy enables the employers to gain workers' commitment by providing career advancement prospects. The notion that bureaucracy is an efficient management approach rests on the premise that employees will robotically submit to managerial authority. This assumption is valid because workers tend to accept the legitimacy of the current administration, abide by the regulations, and obey their seniors because they believe in the impartiality and fairness of such authority.
Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe (258) posited that high-ranking officials in organizations set reasonable goals from the management's point of view but not from the junior workers' perspective. These workers' rational behavior reflects their interests and workday experiences like higher wages, secure jobs, and safer working conditions. While employees seek better pay and improved working conditions, employers focus on maximizing profit. To some extent, they exploit the workers because their primary concern is profitability. Through bureaucracy, employers obtain the commitment and obedience of workers regardless of the workplace situation. Often employers feel good when employees do not raise complaints. Bureaucracy, therefore, enables the managers to have complete control of the workers' affairs. It also limits the employees from fighting for their rights through trade unions, which are always the best organizations that protect the employees' rights and freedoms.
Maintaining orderly and peaceful social relations has always been challenging for individuals in power. Managers often strive to inspire workers to achieve the necessary output quality and quantity. Ideally, they would like to promote employee participation in the organization by encouraging them to work hard for the company's advantage. However, managers are far from complete control over workers' beliefs, attitudes, and effort expended. This incident can easily trigger conflict due to mismatched perceptions about wage and work environment expectations. Claiming control over the labor process helps managers prevent such conflicts' eruption.
Restructuring bureaucracy can increase the efficiency of the labor process, as evident in the Japanese employment system. The internal labor market defines the Japanese work organization. Japanese employers strive to attain optimum employee commitment in the long run by maintaining a well-functioning internal labor market. Workers share responsibility and accountability, which, when combined with the consensus-building networking process used in decision-making, shows a high level of employee integration (Krahn, Hughes, and Lowe, 277). Japanese corporate decision-making combines centralized authority with consultations to maximize the input.
Which Forms of Collective Action Might Workers Pursue to Improve their Incomes and Working Conditions?
The best form of collective action workers might pursue to improve their incomes, and working conditions is joining a labor union. A labor union is a workers' organization whose purpose is to fight for employee rights and protections. The union operates by selecting representatives to negotiate with employers through a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that stipulates working conditions like wages, schedules, benefits, and work hours for a specific period.Generally, this agreement protects workers from bad management practices. If the union and the employers disagree, the union may call for a strike, encouraging all workers to stop working until their employers meet their demands deliberately. Since workers sell their labor power to an employer in return for payment, their ultimate bargaining level is to withdraw that labor.
The union uses strikes to press for increased pay, improved security, and workplace policies needed to minimize workplace injuries. This strategy is typically reserved as a threat of last resort during negotiations. Strikes sanctioned by a labor union often attract the magnitude and attention of the employer. Such action stimulates the negotiation process to prevent potential losses. Most employers feel safer going on strikes called by trade unions than deciding to strike without the union's sanction. The union uses the employment law to protect the workers' rights, and this law may bar the employer from dismissing the employee for picketing lawfully.
Studies have shown that union members earn more than nonunionized counterparts working in the same industry. Union workers are more likely than non-union members to receive additional non-wage benefits. For instance, a Canadian Child-care workers' study found that unions increased wages by 15%, significantly impacted benefits, and offered financial incentives for employees to enhance their skills and qualifications (Krahn, Hughes,...