MARX REVISITED: DISPOSAL, SURPLUS AND RATIONALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

The direct contribution of Marx to management sciences is minimal.  It is basically limited to the appreciation of the division of labor within organizations and to the proposal of a socialist model of management.  However, the inversion of perspectives in the rationality-labor binomial, namely the idea that it is labor that governs the rationality of human life rather than reason that is imposed upon labor, is a fertile notion, which can assist in comprehending what happens in contemporary organizations. In the paper I present the implications of some of these notions will be assessed.  The explanatory possibilities of the categories that Marx established will be discussed in order to attempt to understand current intra-organizational phenomena.  The following concepts will be highlighted: i) rationality; ii) domination and exploitation; iii) alienation; iv) surplus labor and surplus value. In conclusion, the applicability of these categories in the administration in the digital age will be appraised.