Question

Briefly explain the concept of the indeterminacy of labor power in labor process theory.

Answer 1

Labour process theory is propounded by Karl Max in 1976 that depict creation of final product or value addition in the production process through effective use of work force and capital. According to Marxian theory, labour process is a transformation process in which human resource of the firm devotes their efforts and skills for creation of final product. It also states that labour process uses production inputs such as work force, machines or tools and others to produce valuable products or services. All economy types i.e., socialism, capitalism and mixed have labour process that consists of work force, machines or equipment and specific objectives. The objective of labour process can be private i.e., produced goods and services intended for specific customer groups in the capitalist economy; or co-operative which means produced goods and services can be used by every section of the society.

A new labour process theory was enunciated by Thompson and Smith in 2009 that lays emphasis on the concept of labour power in production process. The new labour process theory defines labour power as a commodity that is sold for wage. Some economists see “labour power” as fictive commodity which is never created during production process but sold for wage. The quality and scope of “labour power” does not quickly respond to the market dynamism. The labour power in the Marxian labour process theory is defined as “variable capital” while other inputs have a fixed value. The value of labour power differs significantly in terms of worker class, skills and talents that firms hires for labour process. Workers must have requisite skills and talents required for labour process. Similarly a firm hires workers on the basis of skills, talents and other criteria and pay wages to the hired workers.

The significant aspect of labour power is its capacity to add more value than the cost of production of products and services. The cost of production varies nationwide which also influences the value of labour power. Labour power is also differentiated on the basis of gender, castes, nationality, personality etc. of the people. Therefore, hiring of labour power in labour process is different than buying fixed assets e.g., machines, tools etc. Workers are inducted into the labour process through specific terms of job also known as employment contract that specifically mentions job duties, wage amount and other contract terms.

Another key feature of labour power is worker management conflict which is more aggressive in the capitalist economies.   As there is no specific agreement between workers and management on quality and quantity of labour power that is required in the labour process. There is continuous variability in quality and quantity of labour power as employers’ use different strategies such as robotics, cloud computing, skill upgradation etc.) to derive more value of labour power. Therefore there is need of consensus building measure between workers and management on different issues in capitalism and not the policy of coercion and oppressive measures to be adopted by management against any conflict of work force.