QUESTIONS

Questions on People, Organizations and Management

Questions on People, Organizations and Management

Explain the concept of 'self-estrangement' at work and provide an example of a job which might be expected to lead to it.

Karl Mark spoke about the idea of self-estrangement in his Philosophical and economic manuscripts of 1844, as well as, in Das Kapital. It consists of the parts of Marx's alienation theory. An individual gets estranged or alienated from the labour products that we buy or produce in stores, offices and factories. An individual can be self-estrangement from work when he/she is not happy with his work process (Brooks, 2005, pp. 67). The individual just goes through the daily tasks and motions of the work but in reality is alienated from the work.

Outline some of the key characteristics of call centre work, as identified in the relevant academic literature

The key characteristics of the work in call centres revolve around the phone calls. The quality and content of the calls in the call centres can vary with the calls' complexity. The employee is supposed to sit in front of the computers all day long to make and attend the calls of the customers. They have to do mental and physically monotonous and repetitive tasks every day. On average, one employee can manage to make a call as short as 20 seconds long meaning that he is expected to make 1000 or more calls throughout the day (Westin, 1992, pp. 35).

Explain what is meant by the term 'instrumental orientation to work'. Does every employee have it?

The term “instrumental orientation to work” means that that the employee sees their work merely as a means to end, the need to obtain a steady income. These employees have specific calculating attitudes towards their organization and they don't carry their work relationships and experiences to the other aspects of their lives. Some of the employees do have this work orientation as they view their work merely as a source of income and their work is not the central aspect of their lives. Mostly such employees are students, housewives and other individuals who are looking for extra income to support themselves (Morgan, 1986, pp. 45).

Explain the concept of 'task significance' and provide an example to illustrate it.

The concept of task significance is to provide some opportunities to the employees to fulfil a task which creates a positive impact on other individual's well being or positive impact on the overall society. The work or task performed by the employee contributes towards helping other people. This makes the employees feel good about themselves and works as a motivation for them to work harder and to do the job well. An example of the task significance can be the fire fighters (Mullins, 2010, pp. 67). The fire fighters work together for the betterment of the society and this important task helps them to feel good and happy with their jobs.

Explain what Anna Pollert meant by the double oppression suffered by factory workers she ...