Monday, September 17, 2012
Worker psychology
Again, sorry this is late! I want to expand on our comments today about the psychology of the workplace. Is there value to the argument that a slave perpetually in fear will work harder than the free worker who loves his/her job? How do tonight's articles (as well as our articles from the past) elaborate on this?
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I do believe that fear creates a better slave worker. I agree with Thomas Dew's view in "The Virtues of Slavery" that "slave labor, in an economical point of view, is far superior to free negro labor". The economic success of the Southern cotton economy was booming during these times because of the immense work slaves did to produce the goods. The "free negro workers" in the North still worked hard, but the difference is that they are FREE. The physiological mindset of the free workers is that they do not have to work as hard because they are not living under the fear of their authorities as much as slaves were. Therefore, I strongly believe that the mindset of working (drawn from fear) translates into a harder worker. This can be related to anything in our daily lives. For example, our soccer team purposely works extremely hard during practice so that we are not punished with extra running due to laziness. The same goes for a slave. Fear of the consequences forces slaves to work to their full potential, thus leading to the creation of a hard working environment.
ReplyDeleteThe free worker who loves his/her job will probably be more productive than one works in fear. The evidence is found in workplaces of Fortune 500 companies everywhere. Places like Google or Facebook heavily invest in perks that would make you love your job. Amazing food courts, child care services, world class fitness centers, arcades. Also, love is the strongest emotion, and trumps fear. Also, one of the tactics that slaves used to resist their masters and unfair treatment is slow work. This seriously hampers productivity, and when one love's their job, they often put all of their effort into it. "The Virtues of Slavery..." mentions that when a slave has a benevolent owner, he wants to see his master succeed. So if a slave hates his master, he probably does not want to see him succeed, which slightly counters the productivity gained in fear tactics.
ReplyDeleteA free worker who loves their job will work much better than a worker who works in fear and dislikes their job. If someone loves their job they will be willing to go the extra mile and get more things done and do them better. A person who works in fear wants to get the bare minimum done and hope they escape notice. In "The Virtues of Slavery" the author makes a pain to mention that if the slave has a kind master he wants to work for him. If that is the than a slave would work best went not in fear of being whipped or beaten.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Nicki and Abdoulaye. However, I do believe that the psychological mindset of the slaves who live in fear results in them working harder and getting a massive amount of work done. In previous articles I remember slaves writing about how they had to do certain things because their master said to. This relates to the whole fear aspect. However, I can relate to the free men mindset. On days where I feel carefree and fearless, I perform better in both my athletics and in school. Having fear sometimes will make me anxious or nervous, and often fail or not reach my potential on whatever is causing the fear. But, there have also been several instances in my life similar to Nicki's example about her soccer practice. All in all, I believe that both fearful slaves and free men are able to be very hard workers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nicki. Fear creates a much better slave worker. Slaves who were afraid to be punished always worked more diligently. If they are free, they know that if they don't work hard it doesn't really matter. All they are thinking about is, "What's the worst that could happen" Whereas, a slave who actually knows what the worst thing to happen is, will work harder so they wont receive the punishment. I think of it as when I am at baseball practice and we have to run sprints. My coach always says that the person who comes in last has to run it again. And our team would do everything in our power to make sure that it wasn't us in last. So the person that works the hardest won't be punished.
ReplyDeletethis is basically the question "is it better to be feared or loved by the people you rule?". i believe that it is better to be loved for a number of reasons. one being that if you treat someone with the same respect you deserve then most time they will repay that same respect in their work. the workers will feel as though they need to work and make the master happy because they need to please they provider of their life's. As seen in the article "The virtue's of slavery" it says "...the slaves of a good master are his warmest, most constant, and most devoted friends." i think that this quote is a little dramatic but it still makes a valid point that if the slaves feel affection from their masters it will want them to work hard to please and in a way thank the master for keeping them safe and alive.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a slave who fears their master, and is consistently beaten by him may decide to work less in the hope that he/she could be sold on because of their slacking mentality. There would be beatings, but the slave may feel that if he/she is going to be beaten regardless of how hard they work, they may as well work less.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a slave who works believe that they have a relatively 'kind' master may work hard to impress the worker, and to thus avoid being beaten. Also, they might hear stories from other slaves about more brutal slave owners. Working hard could also discourage this 'kind' master from selling them on to a potentially 'more evil' owner.
Fear in anybody can create better result and more outcome, that is no secret to anybody. I believe the fear that was inputted into the slaves was a fear much greater than any we have experienced. I work hard on tests because if I get a bad grade, my parents might not let me go out the next weekend. That's has to be a pretty small punishment to what many slaves would have to go through if they didn't perform to task. Slaves worked under constant fear for their life while working on the field, which is far greater than I can say I have experienced. I also agree with the part in the article about having a nice master. This could in fact drive the slave to work harder to please a caring master. I believe in order to run a good plantation with hard working slaves, the slave owner had to be extreme in either of these two strategies.
ReplyDeleteIn the minds of Southern slave owners, worker psychology among slaves was an important factor in terms of work productivity. Slave owners went to great lengths to make sure that slave were constantly in fear. I think that there is some validity to the statement that greater pressure on workers results in higher work yield. Speaking from experience, my best work is often a product of a high stress environment.
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, the mistreatment of slaves very well may have an adverse effect. Slaves could see the master as being too harsh. and work less, so he/she can be sold off, or given a different job. Slaves had subtle resistance techniques that made day to day life on the plantation a struggle for an oppressive master.
i believe to let slaves feel fear is necessary because fear let people feel nervous so that they really care about stuff than they do usually. For, example, people do really care about their health because it is the essential part of themselves. And so does the slaves, if they are afraid of something they would try their best to avoid it, which is to work hard.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, i think bright masters should use the fear slaves and the happy slaves strategies at the same time. Just like how teachers treat students in the school, they set their own prestige and use test or challenges to let kids feel dangerous; occasionally,teachers could give out some extra points or bring food to class to let student feel appreciate.
I believe that using fear as a both a motivator and a form of control works, but only in the short term. If you constantly use fear it will eventually provoke inefficient labor and the victims will far less willing to put out maximum effort. Also a hatred from the subordinates can arise causing further problems. So fear as a means of control and/or motivation will not work without additional methods, such as repressing the slaves access to knowledge, learning, and the outside world. Although the more so called intellectual piece disagrees with my hypothesis indirectly it doesn't bring up information to counter my ideas. On a side note i have decided my Hotbed topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/science/plasma-gasification-raises-hopes-of-clean-energy-from-garbage.html?pagewanted=all
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