Option 1
Discuss Marx’s theory of alienation and assess whether it is still relevant in the contemporary workplace. In a capitalism society of those days, workers worked solely for the profit and rarely any focus will be spared on if the products were of the social need. On top of that, while the social classing was still heavily emphasized, most of the employees were not given sufficient protection and the fundamental benefits as a committed worker. This brought to the rising of Karl Marx with the term ‘Alienation’ in the year of 1844, which reflected that things naturally belong together had been separated or to put another antagonism between things that were properly in harmony. Making this statement, Karl Marx attributed the cause of alienation to the systematic result of capitalism. From the term alienation, Karl Marx had classified it into four types of alienations, namely alienation from the product, alienation from productions, alienation from others and last but not least, alienation from self. Referring back to Karl Marx, alienation from products gives the meaning that the workers have no rights to decide what they are going to produce, instead they are only focusing on the profits while the social needs are entirely ignored. Alienation from productions refers to the condition whereby the workers are not allowed to develop freely physically and mentally, they are forced to cling to the rigid rules and regulations. For the alienation from others, it incurs the competition between workers at the cost of harmony between people is disrupted. Lastly, alienation from self, whereby the worker might have the view that he is well apart of the world and his very own feeling is left aside. This statement has the support from Enrich Fromm (1961), who rose up the topic in a similar manner, a worker will become a tool which only belongs to the market or economic force. Workers, being hauled by the alienation of products, hold no decision on determining the products being produced, instead they have to accustom to the instructions given by the superior or the owner of the factory in order to get their payoff. Whereas for the factory owner, profits appears to be the priority ahead of the social needs and they are obsessed with the mindset that products are just a medium to bring more wealth and this leads to the social needs being abandoned. On top of that, they are not given the fair treatment as the profits earned are not equally distributed to the workers, instead the employers have the larger share of the profit and these results in the meager wage received by those workers. Nowadays, human beings work for money. This is a statement made by Erich Fromm (1961). It hits the fact soundly as money remains the ultimate reason for ones to work so hard. Despite the unfair treatment and the meager wages, those workers still have to continue and be persistent in their work for the sake of survival, This situation was described by Karl Marx (1844) in such a way that the more products a worker produces, the cheaper labour he appears to be. This is the main reason lies behind why the poor becomes poorer and the rich becomes richer, resulting in the phenomenon of imbalance society eventually. In the contemporary world of today, there is no more room for the sharing profit launched by the communist countries, where all the profits were equally shared no matter how much effort you had injected. Though they have the point that doing so will mould the society into a more united figure but at the same time, it cancels out the competition between the workers. Under such condition, the workers would not give their best to enhance the production as they are well informed that no matter how hard work they are, the share that they are going to be spared is the same. Competition between the workers will help to increase the production of the company. They will try their best to improve their production, hoping to get a better pay rise and to enjoy a better lifestyle. However, for the sake of minimizing the cost, meager wages will be the remuneration for the hard work. It matches Karl Marx’s claim that the products that they produce actually have more value compare to the workers. Alienation from the process of production, according to Karl Marx (1844) and Erich Fromm (1961), refers to the rigid form of rules and regulations that refrains the workers from developing the mental and physical energies freely. Having been repeating the same monotonous work day after day, the worker will soon lose his creativity and innovative, resulting in losing the satisfaction from the job itself. ( Erich Fromm 1961) This situation has been taking place in the factory especially assembly line whereby the daily job is routine and mundane. The workers in assembly line keep repeating the same motion in a boring way as long as they are still in the same position. They will undergo training sessions that eventually distribute them into certain tasks which they think they can handle best. Without a doubt, doing so will be able to enhance the efficiency of the work which in turn increase the production as well as improve the quality. However, the workers only equip themselves with a single skill which leaves them no where besides clinging to the current job. It is like a robotic style of working where they have no difference from the machineries. Besides, monotonous workload often leads to some adverse effects, for instances like low level of job satisfaction, occurrence of accidents, fatigue among the workers, little or no contact between the management and workers which might bring about industrial strike. During the days of capitalism overhauling the society, the term alienation too refers to the situation whereby the workers were estranged from one another. Quoted from Karl Marx (1844), this is the occurrence where workers take their colleagues as their rivals and competitors. This causes the breakdown of the relationship between the colleagues and harmony in the workplace is seriously jeopardized. The workers compete for their jobs and wages, hoping that they will get the promotion or pay rise instead of their colleagues. Personal success appears to be the sole concern for the worker, leaving the ethic and morale behind just for their own success. From here, the particular worker will try his best to maximize his production for the sake of getting the attention from management where the chances of promotion may come knocking on his door. From the view of the management, surely they will favour the workers with higher efficiency of production and higher wages will be given as a token for their hard work. In another way to view this matter, this will definitely incite the rage and jealousy of other workers who are not given the pay rise or promotion, causing the conflict which ruins the harmony of the working environment. In order to curb with the ongoing alienation, some of the remedies are suggested to surmount the deteriorating matter. One of the antidotes raised up is automation. Automation, on its term, carries the meaning that the workers will be replaced by those mechanical tools. By then, the workers will have to gain the knowledge in controlling the machines instead of carrying out the duty himself. Nevertheless, this receives both positive and negative feedbacks. Some may hold on to the opinion that it is a good sight as the workers are freed from the monotonous routine job. However, another party suggests that the matter worsen in that case in the sense that the workers are more alienated as their job is nothing more than controlling the machine. It leaves them with the feeling as in they are nothing much different from the machine itself. This is later branded by David Hall as on guard duty where the workers are limited to the control of the machines and no space or room for their development. Karl Marx echoed the statement by claiming that the workers are actually at a lost and feel homeless in their work. Last but not least, alienation can be the term to suit the setting whereby one discovers himself as separated from his own nature of a human being. Losing a self entity to the job may be a norm nowadays as many are clinging on hard to their job, putting in much effort and sacrificing most of their time just to have their job done. However, they are oblivious that they are at the edge of losing their meaningful life since the free development of mental and physical is impeded altogether. Getting the job done and helping the company to maximize the profit seems to be the only concern that bothers the workers. Quoted from Karl Marx, he opted for the view that the value of the products is even higher than the value of the workers who work so hard in the production line. It’s mean but the truth is that once the worker loses the ability to work for the factory, then he is of no use to the factory and he will be facing the axe from the management. Assessing if alienation still exists in the contemporary world of today, it brings me back to the memory of a friend of mine, Alvin who worked in a clock manufacturing factory. Alvin just finished his SPM and was pondering on whether to continue pursuing his study or commit himself in the working society. It was then the chance came as the clock factory was hiring workers which Alvin happily accepted. It was a daily job whereby he was required to reach the factory by 8am in the morning and worked until 6pm for the morning shift while night shift started at 8pm till 6am and the shift would change fortnightly. Having found a job, Alvin was quite contented though the meager salary of RM800 did not fancy him much. Upon starting the work, the unique behind the manufacturing of the clock did amaze Alvin as it was new to him. After few brief training sessions, Alvin was appointed in the packaging section whereby he had to handle the final steps as in sealing the package. However, weeks had passed and the job that he was conducting daily was still unchanged. Boredom started to take over his anticipation towards the working life and frustration over the monotonous life did bother him much. He threw the questions to his fellow colleagues and they responded in a way that matched Alvin’s feelings. However, due to the limited knowledge and working ability, they were constraint to the job. Most of the workers had been there for quite some time and were facing the same problems that haunted Alvin. The long hours of working restricted Alvin’s time for himself as well as for his family. Having economic curfew, Alvin overcame his mental hurdle and forced his way into becoming one of the most productive workers despite his seniority. He was then praised and received a pay rise of RM100 as a token of hard work. The joy of the appreciation from management was mauled by the protest from some of the fellow workers. They did it out of jealousy despite the effort manifested by Alvin. It matched the situation described by Karl Marx as alienation from others. (Karl Marx 1844) On top of that, the long hours of working had restricted Alvin’s time for himself as well as his family. In order to get more pay off, he had to work overtime. As Erich Fromm (1961) mentioned before, human being works for money and survival. Thus, they commit themselves to the job and factory and sacrificing most of the time in their job, leaving behind their social time and leisure. (Karl Marx 1844) Coming into the third month of the job, Alvin’s job satisfaction had been as low as his monotonous job scope did not allow him to work his way out. Without a doubt his packing speed had improved but he still had no idea how the clock was manufactured, instead he knew only how the made clock is packed which did not meet his curiosity. His position was well described by Karl Marx In the statement alienation from production. (Karl Marx) Eventually, after six months of working in that condition, Alvin decided to quit the job as he had had enough of it. The routine and meaningless job had nothing constructive for building ones career and he would have avoided that job given the nature of it. In conclusion, alienation is still relevant in the contemporary workplace. Though the workers’ welfare are given much attention by the restructured rules and regulations, there is still room for alienation to take place as some of the individual are forced to accept the unhealthy job environment. Necessary precautions and methods should be taken in order to curtail the malaise from haunting the workplace nowadays.