In this essay the writer will be analysing the main theories of both Marx and Blauner in order to see to what extent can a management-led approach to reducing alienation in the workplace can be effective.
According to Karl Marx alienation arises from capitalism. Alienation comes part and parcel with the labour process of the capitalist society and cannot be separated. It is a situation that all workers find themselves in once they have agreed to sell their labour to the capitalist. While agreeing to sell their labour they have also agreed to sell other aspects of work such as the right to control their own work or have any say in the final outcome. All of the decisions of the labour process and everything else are made by the employer. Because the worker has sold himself to the employer and has lost all of the natural right of the labour process making work a difficult and painstaking process.
In the working environment, workers undertake tasks because they are instructed to. …