Analytical Overview of Labour Management

Abstract

Research on labour management has hitherto been carried out from the perspective of management science as an area of management alongside production control and financial management. However, as is well known, this perspective is but one of the numerous ways in which the subject may be analyzed, ranging from one based on management techniques to one based on a theory of the logic of capital. The resulting definition of labour management differs according to each perspective. But if one were pressed to seek an approach common to all, the following perspective emerges because much of management studies has hitherto had its theoretical foundation in economics: labour management is about management action to achieve the objective of the enterprise through an efficient use of labour. However, even those who hold this view of managerial economics recognize the fact that labour is a special commodity which cannot be considered as separate from the personality of individual workers. They therefore include the management of both workers and work attitudes in the study of labour management. And in order to understand the latter, sociological and psychological perspectives are becoming widely adopted in contemporary theories of labour management.