One recent national survey found 67 percent of U.S adults agreeing that, for the average person, life is getting worse not better (30% disagree and 3% offered no opinion, NORC, 2003) I am positive and pretty sure that 90% of Nigerians will agree that life is getting worse too. Surely the rough economic times have played a major part in this rising pessimism. The news has been full stories of Corporate CEOs booting companies and forcing them into bankruptcy, throwing people out of work and often dissolving their pensions as well. The aim of this article is to appraise industrialization as it is on its way to postindustrialisation and claim the need for REFORMS towards a complete overhaul.
Postindustrialisation Age is a period of time beyond industrial revolution era. It is a period of time where productive technology is supported with the use of Computers on information-based economy. High increase in the rate of specialization which is common with industrialization will decline in postindustrial era and persistence of social inequality with information processes and other work will gradually replace industrial production. (J. J. Maccons, 2006)
This new industrial paradigm, the 'post-industrial' society, was originally an original work of Daniel Bell, in the 1950s (Webster, 1995). The construction is characterized by a move away form the industrial, manufacturing markets of old, and instead a reliance on service driven, information-based industries. A post-industrial society is "based on services... what counts is not raw muscle power or energy, but information" (Bell, 1973). This means that human phisical effort will decline and as the focus of transactions and commerce transitioned from manufactured goods to informational flow, so too did the accompanying power structures change. No longer was power simply in the control or ownership of the means of production, but rather in the control of systemic knowledge and information (Barney, 2004, p.6). Labor therefore is divided into physical labour(use of muscle power) and informational labour (use of intellectual power). A new economic sector is thereby identified, the Information Sector, which amalgamates information-related labour activities.
In 1976, Bell declared that "the post-industrial society is an Information Society"He further stated that a post-industrial society is not just the shift from tangible property and goods to knowledge as a commodity, but "the character of knowledge itself". Indeed in his later works, Bell used the words 'post-industrial society' and 'information society' interchangeably. Let me quickly say that what is interesting about this postindustrialism is that early post-industrialist theories were infused with optimism (barney, 2004). Academics, including Bell, saw the new social structure as having the potential to overcome the unjust, unbalanced and degrading aspects of industrialism (Bell, 1973, p.168). The advent of post-industrialism was envisaged as establishing "a more educated, leisured and engaged citizenry, a levelling of economic inequality, a thriving global economy, scientific advance immune to ideology, and rational management of public affairs" (Barney, 2004,). This however will only be ascertained if all stakeholders could endeavior to change our orientations towards achieving all the benefits promised by postindustrialism. This means that for an economy to sustain or survive in this present modern world, immediate effort should be made to avert a severe social crisis that may arise as a result of modernity. It should therefore make sense for governments of African Countries to strategies ways through which industrial reforms can be ascertained and maintain in industries.
Although, modern society may give us more things but people are now working harder than ever to hold onto them and are less sure that the hard work they do is even a ticket to happiness. This is because as the economic scandal of the last few years suggest, our cultural individualism seems to have dissolved into pure selfishness in industrial organization. This is why it is not surprising that pessimism is on the high rate. The evidence is mixed; life is getting better in some ways and in other ways life is getting worse. Lenski (2007) explains that it is easy to equate “high tech” with “progress” and to expect technological discoveries to keep making life better but history shows us that advancing technology may offer real advantage but it is no guarantee of a better life. This is neither an optimism nor it is a pessimism but a reality.
THEORETICAL EXTRAPOLATION
Great thinkers among the social scientists have provided a lucid explanation of the modern world today. Extrapolating from their thoughts and theories on what they call modernity to industrial relations create a new way of thinking and a more radical ideologies as well as enlightenment. Resulting from such enlightenment is the exigency of reformation in industrial relations where radical change and improvement will be made regarding the working lives of social partners in industrial organizations.
Cited in J. Ritzer (2008), Mestrovic (1998:2) has labeled Anthony Giddens “the high priest of modernity”. This is because of the dexterities with which Giddens theories about modernity. He used such terms as “radical”, “high” or “late” modernity to describe society today and to indicate that the society of those days continues in its modernity till the emergence of another more radical or high modernity. Giddens sees modernity today as a “juggernaut” which to some extent is out of control (J. Ritzer 2008). His intenssion is to note that traditionally, society to some extents was under the control of man but the more radical modern society of today is out of man's control. This is envident in the current trend of globalization today where activities in industrial organization that was managed among people in organizations now tend to loom larger and attain some level of independence of its own and thus dictate the pace for the industrial actors. Managers in industrial organization for example now depend on global financial and market forces before embarking on any activity.
Ulrich Beck (1992, 2005) also contends that whereas, the classical stage of modernity was associated with industrial society, the emerging new modernity is best described as a “risk society”
Thus a new way of thinking among industrial actors and the entire society should be fostered and such thinking should become the creation of dichotomy between the classical modernity and the emerging modern or radical mordenity(postindustrialism). While the central dilemma during industrialization was the creation of wealth and how it ought to be distributed, the central problem in modern industrialism should now be the prevention, minimization and channeling of “Risks” in industrial organizations.
A good example of such risk is the risk of increase in the number of men and women becoming unemployed estimated to be 2 million (rising unemployment from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in late 2009) as a result of the current “Global financial crisis” It is pertinent to mention here that Globalization is a manifestation of high modernity. The director General of the International Labour Organization [ILO] Juan somavia in October,2008, made this prediction that the Global financial crisis could increase world unemployment by an estimated 20million women and men [Nigeria Tribune, Wednesday 22, October, 2008). The ILO estimate is based on the revised global growth estimate by the IMF, the UN and early reports suggesting rising job losses from most countries where data was available. This is a global phenomenon that depicts the reflexions of what Giddens and Ulrich termed “juggernaut” and “risk society” respectively.
Reacting to the above submission it is expedient to follow Jurgen Harbamas’(1981,1987) perception of modernity as a “unfinished project” i.e. the central issue in modern world continues as it was in Weber’s days of rationalism. The Utopia goal is the maximization of the rationality of both the “Industrial System” and the “life world” (Ritzer, 2008).
Talking on rationality from Weber’s perspective, we may say that as modernity of the days of rationality is increasing to hyper-modernity, people around the world should strive to improve their rationality to hyper-rationality in other to on one hand explore, achieve and enjoy all the goodies that the modern industrialization brings and on the other hand, avert all the possible menace associated with the modern industrialism. I think our hyper-rationality in African Countries therefore is to recognize the fact that the state of industrial relations especially in developing countries like Nigeria may not meet up with the challenges posted by modern industrialism. Having recognized these facts, then necessary reforms in all aspect of industrial relations should be the nest task ahead for government.
Among the numerous aspects which call for immediate reforms are viz;
- The state control of industrial relations
- Wages system reforms
- Redefinition of redundancy
- Reinstallation of industrial democracy
- Reformation in the aspect of collective bargaining
- Trade union reorientation
- Employment contract modification (legal & psychological)
- Restandardization of dispute resolution
- Restandardization of ergonomics
- Readjustment of compensation system
- Reenactment of employment laws and enforcement
- Pension and pension scheme reforms.
The list of these areas where reformation and restructuring is needed is however inexhaustible.
CONCLUSION
The point here conclusively is that technological advancement certainly changed society but innovation of this kind is no solution to many problems associated with it. Evidence suggests that new technology makes some problems worse, forcing us to work even harder than normal. Yet the technological advancement is transforming to a higher or radical advancement. This transformation then post many advance treats to the social partners in industrial organization as well as the larger society. It therefore becomes imperative for people of the world to change our orientations and our ideologies in a more radical way and create a platform for reformation of all kinds in the world of work and the larger society. It is only by so doing that the task of building a satisfying and just industrial organization can be achieved as one of the prerequisites for meeting up with the post industrialism and its consequents.
Oludeyi Olukunle Saheed.
Postindustrialisation.
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www.klatz238.blogspot.com
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