Management Divided: Contradictions of Labor Management

by Matt Vidal

One of the central dynamics shaping organizations today is a contradiction managers face between ensuring workforce discipline and harnessing worker creativity. This contradiction has been intensifying over the last four decades as employee involvement has become increasingly important in response to rapid technological change, requirements for flexibility, and demands for continuous improvement. In manufacturing, global best practice includes lean production with substantive worker empowerment; cross-training in enlarged tasks and inclusion in problem solving and decision making. Yet, many managers instead face these conflicting pressures by training workers in narrow tasks and using them exclusively for manual labor.

In this richly evidenced study of American manufacturing, Matt Vidal presents a synthetic theory called 'organizational political economy', integrating concepts from organization theory into a classical marxist framework. This theory emphasizes how contradictory developments - conflicting pressures and competing logics of labor management - lead management to be divided. Some managers adopt best practice by substantively empowering their workforce while others settle for good enough. Capitalist management is increasingly a source of organizational inefficiency. This argument is not limited to manufacturing. Managers experience contradictory pressures - for standardization versus discretion, deskilling versus upskilling - in a wide range of occupations including education, healthcare, software development, and many more.

386 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2022

Reviews

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Management Divided by Matt Vidal is a refreshing and insightful examination of the dynamics within modern workplaces. Vidal expertly navigates the complexities of management practices, labor processes, and organizational structures, with particular attention to concepts such as ‘lean’ management and the notion of ‘satisficing.’ He delves into the debate between labor process theory and organizational political economy, offering a nuanced perspective that blends theoretical rigor with empirical richness. Vidal contrasts the tendency of management to satisfice with the drive for work efficiency through intensification, providing valuable analysis into the tension between these approaches. By highlighting that most companies choose to satisfice over fully adopting lean methodology, Vidal challenges the notion that capitalism rewards companies based solely on their value creation efficiency. This book is a must-read for marxists, labor activists, and students of management and labor studies, offering clarity and depth on the evolving nature of work and management in today’s globalized world.