My way or the highway

Managerial Prerogative, the Labour Process and Workplace Health

Bibliographic Data

ID3634613
AuthorsDennis Mcintyre (The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume14
Issue1
Pages59-68
Publication date2005-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Sociology Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1446-1242 • E-ISSN: 1839-3551
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.5172/hesr.14.1.59
OpenAlexW2037003140
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited7

This paper, based on a study of the impact of workplace stressors on the health of bus operators, argues that occupational illness and injury are produced by the labour process. Further, the extraction and obfuscation of surplus value that occurs through the process ensures that working-class employees receive the lion’s share of ill health. Such class-structured patterns of occupational illness are largely dismissed by corporate managements. Moreover, where employment relations are dominated by the ideology of neoliberalism, managerial bullying is a more visible feature of the labour process. This reflects the organisational dominance of, the ‘managerial prerogative’ and its structural indifference and hostility towards actions to improve workplace health. The research concludes that until individual workers and managers become aware that the surplus extraction process is the fundamental mechanism by which poor workplace health is produced and reproduced, their attempts to improve workplace health will be frustrated

Business · Capitalism · Economic growth · Economics · Health care · Ideology · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Prerogative · Public relations · Sociology · Sociology of health and illness · Surplus value · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Occupational Health and Safety Research · Industrial Relations

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