Introduction
The human resource department is considered responsible for setting the cultural tone of a company. They issue policies and raise awareness of the current workplace legislation and educate employees on the right way to discharge their duties. HR is also responsible for attracting and retaining high-quality professionals. Obviously, the workplace will lose its savor without the important role of the HR department. In today’s workplace, soft capitalism has been effectively wielded by the organization as an invaluable human resource management tool. Soft capitalism as opposed to hard capitalism is employee centric and has a strong relationship with emotional capitalism and therapeutic habitus. This paper investigates the relationship between soft capitalism and human resource management in a workplace.
Capitalism and Soft Capitalism
The capitalism is associated with individualism, the accumulation of wealth as well as power, personal ambition, and an identity established on personal accomplishment (Schwartz, 2013). Schwartz (2013) pointed out that capitalism crudely practiced, it involves the accumulation of wealth for a few selected folks while paying most employee subsistence wages, aggressive regulation while blithely degrading the environment and neglecting responsibilities for the communities in which they are based as well as avoiding taxes. These definitions of capitalism very well fit into the context of ‘hard’ capitalism. Soft capitalism can be defined as the concept of subjectivity and ‘self’. Costea et al. (2008) used the term ‘soft work’ to describe soft capitalism because it involves more intense regime of self-discipline. It goes without saying that with the adoption of soft capitalism, organizations have consistently changed their culture.
Thrift (1997) indicated that soft capitalism connotes the employment of soft characteristics by organizational managements. On the other hand, Costea et al. (2008) further indicate that the word ‘soft' should not be confused with the implication that the contemporary work would become easy. However, it indicates that the demand on the self is being expanded and intensified so as to involve the entire self in work with its entire subjectivity. The soft characteristics would result to hard labor in an entirely new way when the subject is placed and focused at the very center of the work. The ethics of self-work describes this new hardness of labor that results from soft capitalism. As a matter of fact, soft capitalism simply involves a change of work ethics, tailoring it towards self-work and the good of employees.
Soft Capitalism and HRM
According to Costea et al. (2008), therapeutic habitus gives soft capitalism an immediate and every day concreteness. They further pointed out that the modalities of soft capitalism require managements to provide a therapeutic formula facilitating self-expression rather than appearing as a strict instance forcing upon workers a series of limitations. It does this by making individuals to work upon themselves to release their fully realized identity. The management since the latter part of the last century uses self-work to bring the therapeutic into the domain of labor (Costea et al., 2008).
Soft capitalism in the workplace can be traced back to the 1980s following a shift in the general conduct of business. It involved the softening of the language of management to focus on subjectivity and the self, and hence the concept of self-work came into play. Prior to soft capitalism, management considers individuals as a source of emotional problems and troubles, but soft capitalism reoriented managerial thoughts and gave new meanings to these concepts. With soft capitalism, individuals and employees are considered as sources of values that can be harnessed and tapped. Soft capitalism views work as an integral activity of life rather than distinguishing it from integral human activities. Work is seen as an inherent part of life and self-actualism as well as performativity is seen as an invaluable tool needed for effectiveness in the workplace. However, Ek (2010) pointed out the need for willing subjects in a soft capitalism that involves creativity, tacit skills, and knowledge. In other words, for soft capitalism to deliver its full dividend, it is necessary for the managed body to do more work and simultaneously be passionate about the work and invest cognitive skills in the work.
The beauty of soft capitalism is that it illustrates a management that is interested in the emotions of the employees (Schulz, 2013). The primary difference between soft capitalism and hard capitalism is that soft capitalism is supposedly caring and involves sharing an ethos. Attributes like creativity, empathy or flexibility, known as soft skills, are emphasized by soft capitalism. These skills are emphasized in soft capitalism because they are supposedly needed to get full human potential in the process of working. Human resource management is particularly related to soft capitalism in the workplace today because of its role in personnel development. As one would expect, this branch of operational management comes in to plan, organize or carry out soft skill training. Moreover, since the human resource department is responsible for staff recruitment, the relation between this department and soft skill in the workplace cannot be overemphasized. In the sign of social capitalism, it emphasizes on soft skills in the recruitment procedure to select the best and suitable candidate for each position or job. The human resource is particularly responsible for the employee welfare and activities in the workplace. As pointed out earlier, it sets the workplace culture and helps employees live up to it. In the contemporary workplace characterized by soft skills and self-work, the human resource ensures that it reflects in the organizational culture as well as in the relationship of the management and the workforce.
Schulz (2013) further indicated that soft capitalism directs its attention to the development of knowledge and practices that allow the management of employees from the inside. Needless to say, soft capitalism is strongly linked with emotional capitalism, and it also involves therapeutic culture. This culture supplies practices through which the intimate priorities of individuals are made accessible to intensive self-work. Illouz (2008) illustrated how capitalism has been able to seize the intimate priorities of self and further emphasized that emotional and economic discourse mutually shapes one another today. The role of psy-discourse in the transformation of capitalism today cannot be overemphasized. Illouz (2008) opined that psy-disciplines have a persuasive energy and have thus become an important and central agent in the capitalist dynamic. In the western world today, psychological discourse is seen everywhere and has become basic for the constitution of the modern self. Psy-discourse evidently shows its relevance in all aspects of the human lives because it gives the self a new language.
Schulz (2013) argued that the human resource management department in most organizations today has adopted a different measure of discipline than the traditional measures. The discipline in the contemporary times takes particular interest in the management of the workforce through interventions. Traditional methods involve the use of interventions and avenues that attempt to control employees via external mechanisms. Such traditional methods may involve the use of force and not paying any attention to the emotions and therapeutic needs of the employees. However, human resource management in organizations has transited to soft capitalism which does not attempt to control employees through external mechanisms but through internal mechanisms. This involves governing employees from the inside, in other words appealing to their emotions in the workplace. This is obviously the reason why HR in workplaces relies on psychotherapeutic practices as an avenue to manage the workforce.
Person Centered Intervention
Person-centered interventions are vital tools used by human resources to ensure soft capitalism in workplaces. The person-centered interventions identified by Schulz (2013) include supervision, mentoring, and coaching. These approaches are extensively used in managing employees through HR interventions in the contemporary times. Coaching is a widely used intervention approach. Clutterbuck (2014) outlined their interviews with hundreds of HR professionals around the world who are responsible for coaching and mentoring. Interestingly, the interview revealed some imperative elements of a successful strategic approach. Furthermore, he identified that there is no single right model of coaching or mentoring. This is primarily because people have different needs, and a single model would lead to cynicism. Effective coaching or mentoring can be achieved by leveraging externally resourced professionals, internally resourced professional coaches, coaching by line managers, team coaching, developmental mentoring and so forth.
Management coaching is mostly employed in workplaces. It represents a new generation of person-centered interventions which encourages employees to engage in intensive self-work and promote the regulations of emotions. Management coaching typically involves a one-on-one conversation between a coach and manager usually funded by the manager's host company. Management coaching can be understood as a specific form of conversation (Schulz, 2013). This is obviously true because management coaching intervention is realized through a one-to-one conversation between a coach and manager. More importantly, management coaching takes place in a work setting and therefore fits in perfectly as a form of organizational intervention.
Coaching and mentoring as discussed above are not the only form of person-centered interventions leveraged in workplaces, supervision is also a form of intervention leveraged. In soft capitalist organizations, supervision is done in such a way as to ensure internal intervention. In other words, supervision here attempts to appeal to employees' emotions and in effect ensuring that the employee delivers to the full capacity of his work. Supervisors employ therapeutic formula mediating self-expression rather than appearing as an authoritarian.
Soft Characteristics
Soft capitalism places emphasis on soft characteristics over characteristics that may not be considered otherwise. According to Jack (2002) and Ek (2010), soft characteristics like culture, creativity, and knowledge as well as tacit skills are preferred over technological or cost-based advantages. As a matter of fact, soft capitalism opines that economic success is associated with the aforementioned soft characteristics. Thus, organizations can attain greater economic success by paying greater attention to the workplace culture. This is a sharp contrast to the old-form of capitalism. In the traditional form of capitalism, the focus is on solving the so-called "problem of work". Individuals are seen to constitute problems and troubles in the workplace, and thus the capitalism aims at solving such problems. However, soft capitalism is simply the production of work as a meaningful activity with the aim of ensuring and improving commitment and also motivating employees. Jack (2002) argues that soft capitalism involves a call towards more culturalization of the workplace. This does not in any way connotes that work has suddenly become more cultural, however, there is an increasing call to culture, and this is achieved through the use of experts, training, and development programs.
The work ethics has been completely revamped by this new form of capitalism. This ethics gives the organizational subjects which include the employees and even the management, the opportunity to work on themselves, to learn and to become more effective. In other words, the central goal and objective of soft capitalism is self-development towards improvement in productivity. Here, work is related much more personal identity and gives the organizational subjects leveraging to display their individual differences in order to offer rare uniqueness to the workplace. Remarkably, such soft skills as pointed above are really in great demand in workplaces today.
Soft capitalism is highly praised, but it is not in any way flawless. Of course, it is invaluable in the hands of the human resource management and has been effective in completely revamping the workplace, offering it a unique beauty and ensuring much more effectiveness. However, these strategies can only become effective when employed on willing subjects (Ek, 2010). Moreover, soft capitalism aims at the personal development of the workforce and of course, the organization may have to spend more than it would in the traditional form of capitalism in order to achieve the desired needs. For instance, the organization would have to hire coaches, mentors and so forth but ultimately soft capitalism yields better dividend to a firm when well-practiced.
The aim of business organizations is to make the profit. Soft capitalism is a handy tool as it helps organizations to realize this aim. Research shows that capitalist organizations perform ten times better than non-capitalist organizations. The beauty of soft capitalism is that it takes advantage of all the benefits of capitalism and at the same time stresses on personal development and harnessing of the immense potential in an individual. It also makes conflict management a whole lot easier to handle and makes employees feel more comfortable and happy with the workplace. The transition from the traditional form of capitalism to soft capitalism is one of the most outstanding revolutions that have taken place in the workplace in the contemporary times and evidently it has helped modern organizations to realize better economic fortunes and profitability than they would have realized without such a change in culture and value.
Conclusion
The human resources play a major role in organizations by ensuring the smooth and effective management of the workforce. Soft capitalism focuses on soft skills such as creativity, tactic skills, and knowledge. These pillars of soft capitalism now form the central focus for recruitment in workplaces. Skills, creativity, and knowledge are given preferences among many other factors because of the indispensable role they play in the productivity and profitability of organizations today.
The concept of soft capitalism was coined and came into effect in the 1980s, but it is still a being studied today. Person-centered intervention is also highly emphasized in soft capitalism. Unlike traditional capitalism that leverages forceful and external intervention, soft capitalism employs internal intervention of which person-centered intervention is a good example. Management coaching is an imperative tool in person-centered intervention as it plays a vital role in personal development. Soft capitalism is all about personal development, and that is why it offers immense benefits not only to the workforce but also to the organization's management. The use of therapeutic habitus in the workplace makes it concrete mediates self-expression.
References
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