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Cited by 212Political Economy and MarxismManagement Theory and PracticeMarxism and Critical Theory

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The Future of Critical Management Studies: A Paleo-Marxist Critique of Labour Process Theory

Adler, Paul S.·2007·Organization Studies
DOI 10.1177/0170840607080743
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Abstract

For many years, the core of critical management studies was labour process theory (LPT), building on Braverman's (1976) reading of Marx. Recently, LPT has been losing momentum in favour of post-structuralist approaches. This paper takes one step back with the hope of taking critical management studies two steps forward. Whereas post-structuralists have largely discarded the Marxist foundations of LPT, this paper argues that LPT has been hobbled by its insufficiently Marxist foundations. I argue that LPT ignores the fundamental contradiction Marx saw between the progressive `socialization' of the labour process and the persistence of capitalist `valorization' constraints. Understood in Marx's terms, socialization is the movement away from local isolation towards `universal interdependence', and it is a key trend both in the objective structure of industry and in subjective self-construals. I use this framework to develop a modified conception of skill, one that reveals how capitalist development drives a process of long-term skill upgrading. On this platform, I sketch a reinterpretation of two well-known cases of work reorganization — Taylorism and lean production. In both cases, useful insight is garnered by showing how the socialization of the labour process represented by these new management principles and the associated skill upgrading was simultaneously stimulated, retarded and distorted by valorization pressures.

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  • A focus on the socialization of labour can extend Marxist organizational analysis beyond traditional labour processes.

    “Drawing on the intuitions of paleo-Marxist (Adler, 2007) and post-workerist Marxist perspectives (Harney, 2007; Fleming and Mandarini, 2009), we suggest that a focus on the socialization of labour can extend Marxist organizational analysis beyond traditional labour processes (Böhm and Land, 2012).”

    From Free Labour, Social Media, Management: Challenging Marxist Organization Studies (2015) · cites this paper as Adler, 2007

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Metadata

Authors
Adler, P. S.
Affiliations
University of Southern California (US)
Corresponding author
Adler, Paul S.
ORCID
Adler, Paul S.
Venue
Organization Studies
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2007-09
Volume
28
Issue
9
Pages
1313-1345
ISSN
  • 0170-8406 (ISSN-L)
  • 1741-3044
DOI
10.1177/0170840607080743
OpenAlex
W2152051345
Cited by
212
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 7
FWCI
26.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
Organization Studies (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management Theory and Practice
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Marxism and Critical Theory
Keywords
labour process theory, critical management studies, Marxist theory, valorization, skill upgrading, scientific management, lean manufacturing, poststructuralism, work reorganization, self-construal

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