Labor vs Capital

My professor challenged a statement I made in last week's class about how capital and labor are at odds and that is shown even in my own organization. Although he raises a valid discussion point, that by joining organizations we are submitting to their rules and culture, I was reminded of a discussion I had with a fellow student about how when he signed on as a trainer he immediately started to toe the line in an effort to blend in. 

This would seem to go along with what you wrote about how we agree to submit to the organizations dominating rules. But as you write, this isn't a bad thing. This conforming to organization's cultural norms helps to bring others into the fold, and helps them understand the cultural norms that they will be working in. In my own organization this process helps new-comers accept and understand the organization's mission of helping contractors stay safe.

The positive aspect of all of this is that each individual's own specific cultural characteristics and features can come into play and gently change, and shape the cultural norms of the organization. I was brought into my organization not to keep things as they are, but to shift the capabilities of the organization. My boss, also a contractor, and I have brought a far more aggressive approach to business than the organization was historical used to. We demand change happen quicker, we force improvements, we have shaken things up. So there's a blend of conforming to norms and applying our own standards. So the culture is always shifting based on the characteristics of the individuals who make up the organization. 

Farazmand (2002) discusses the irreconcilable battle between capital and the labor. Instead of a battle, I think the same shifting and blending that I've described above continues with labor and capital. Although each may be "seeking to further its own interests" they are also applying forces and changes on one another much like I've described above. As Farazmand (2002) states "(a)s new changes replace the old system, they generate their own negations and contradictions." These changes are the same type of conforming and evolving I try to detail above. So instead of an irreconcilable battle, there is a merging and evolution. 

Farazmand, A. (2002).  Modern organizations:  Theory and practice.  London:  Praeger.