Analysis of Marxism

OBJECTIVES

As a person with experience knowledge of Marxism, the author has always brought up to his superiors the viability of strategy formation regarding the analysis of Marxism, and at times fails to understand the reasons or logic behind certain strategic implementations imposed on it.

By delving into this project paper, the author intends to have better insights into how Marxism was thought up, formulated and then imparted down into the society. The author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to why there have been criticisms regarding Marxism as a “bankrupt social theory”.

In order to reinforce the learning objectives, two key focal issues were focussed upon i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation was discussed with regard to Marxism where it was renowned for its developmental capabilities to constantly innovate. Diversity came under strategic thinking and formation as the author considered the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in order to better understand Marxism and its criticism of being a “bankrupt social theory”.

 

 

 

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

This essay utilized Marxism as the model philosophy to review its present management and how it dealt with critical situations. From the analysis, key trends in the Marxist philosophy were then identified, how it worked and its effectiveness in dealing with critical situations was then ascertained. The paper then moved on to assess these Marxist philosophies with regard to their suitability to critical situations, during which the internal capabilities of these Marxist philosophies in relation to the strategy being followed was determined also. An overall analysis of the criticism regarding Marxism as a “bankrupt social theory” was also conducted to assess and compare the capabilities of Marxist strategies with those of others. Gaps in the Marxist management capabilities and environment were then identified.

Finally, several choices of strategies to improve the Marxist philosophy as effective means in critical situations were recommended and evaluated in terms of appropriateness to the issues reviewed, feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change were also addressed as well.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Marxism’s main idea is the efficient and effective implementation of the policies and tasks necessary to satisfy a firm’s customers, employees, and management. Marxism focuses on the careful management of the processes involved in the production and distribution of products and services (Barry, 1992).

More often than not, small companies don’t really have the capabilities to implement Marxist ideas and principle. Instead, these companies engage in activities that various schools of management typically associate with Marxism. These activities include the manufacturing of products, product development, production and distribution.

However, Marxism deals with all operations done within business firms and social organizations. Activities such as the management of purchases, the control of inventories, logistics and evaluations are often related with Marxism. A great deal of emphasis lies on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, Marxism includes the analysis and management of internal processes.

The criticism regarding Marxism that it is a “bankrupt social theory” will be investigated in this research.

 

 

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Strengths of Marxism:

• Marxism employs services that boast of a very powerful retail. This includes a reputation for value of money, convenience and a wide variety of services (Dobson, 1992).


• The Marxist ideas and philosophies have grown significantly over the years, and have experienced global expansion.


• Marxism’s main competence lies on the use of labor to fully support its local and international mechanisms.


• Marxism is able to deliver good care to people and society in general, as the limited amount of work would mean plenty of time to devote to the citizens


• Marxism’s lead followers have established a strong reputation within the market.


• Marxist principles afford to change direction quickly if the management finds that the firm’s strategy is not effective.


• Marxist societies discourage the acquisition of deficits and overheads. Therefore the government can offer good value of service to citizens on a consistent basis.

 

 

Weaknesses of Marxism:

• Marxism is one of the world’s most followed philosophies but has a weak control of their subordinates, despite their advantages in labor manipulation. This could lead to a decrease in productivity in some areas where they have the least control of (Lewontin, 1992).


• Since Marxism promotes their products across many sectors, it may lack the flexibility that some of its more focused competitors possess.


• Marxism is known globally, but its presence is located in only relatively few countries worldwide.


• Some of Marxism’s weaker communities lack market presence or reputation.


• Some of the Marxist’s followers still lack the essential skills base in many areas.


• Marxist communities are vulnerable to the temporary losses of its vital people.

Opportunities for Marxism:

• Merging, or forming strategic alliances with other strong social philosophies while focusing on strong societies like Europe or the Greater China Region (Trotsky, 1972).


• The branches of Marxism operate only on trade in a relatively small number of countries all over the world. Thus, this would open the opportunities in expanding to various strong and big communities, such as those in China and Europe.


• The opening of new Marxist communities offers Marxism the opportunities to exploit the community development in various parts of the world. This could lead to the diversification of Marxism’s followers from large centralized communities to local-based sites (Trotsky, 1990).


• Opportunities exist for Marxism to continue with its current strategy of establishing large communities of followers worldwide.


• The Marxist philosophy is continuously expanding, with plenty of future opportunities to exploit for success.


• The local councils of Marxism are in the process of encouraging local businesses with work whenever possible.


• The critics of Marxism may be slow to adapt to new advancements that its followers show.

Threats to Marxism:

• Marxism is the target of critics, both locally and globally.


• Being a globally acknowledged philosophy means that Marxism might be exposed to political problems in the countries where it has strong followings.


• The latest developments in modern societies and their governments could possibly challenge Marxism’s ability to adapt to these changes


• A slight criticism with a strong impact might wipe out any global position that Marxism has achieved over the years. This could force the Marxist followers to specialize in rapid response but good value services to local businesses. This would put so much pressure on Marxist’s followers to keep informed with the latest changes where possible.

ANALYSIS

It is interesting to know the basic negative innate characteristics of Marxism which contribute towards the development of its “bankrupt social theory” image.

·        Disregards Political and Social Stability

Political and social stability is crucial especially in the pursuit of the correct decision as well as the management and development of the processes accompanying it. Since Marxism somewhat disregards the importance of political and social stability, it becomes impossible for the society to become updated with the latest developments to be able to stay aware and knowledgeable in all issues (Trotsky, 1975).

·         Disregards Performance and Credibility of Society

The production of their best outputs of the society comes as a result of well-funded research management and development activities. The strong performance of their products and outputs in the market could also be linked to the effective strategic planning and human resource mobilization of the society. However, Marxism does not give special importance to the performance and credibility of the people in a society (Mandel, 1982),

·        Disregards Planning and Strategy Formation Capabilities

Planning and strategy formation nowadays has created the need for societies to become aggressive especially in the area of marketing themselves. This is because the access to strong distribution channels is critical for their continued popularity.

·        Deprives people of decision-making abilities.

Upon arriving at the correct decision or choice, the people in a society now gains confidence in their ability to make critical decisions or choices especially when their society’s integrity is on the line. Thus, they will now search for even more challenges and opportunities where they could further enhance their decision-making abilities regarding current issues. However, in a Marxist philosophy people are meant to simply obey what the existing capitalist rules are (Mandel, 1982).

·        Biased and Partial Mindset of Issues

Through the exposure to various Marxist issues, the people in a society along the process are able to develop a biased and partial mindset regarding the issues surrounding them. The people now fail to become a keen observer of the truths and lies surrounding the issue being tackled, instead of searching on for the truth. The continuous exposure of the people behind the puzzling Marxist issues deprives them the opportunity to consistently practice and enhance a healthy and holistic mindset which would make it difficult for their detractors to give influence. Because of this biased and partial approach, the people in a society are not able to effectively select the right choice and continue to maximize this potential for future use (Lenin, 1992).

Marxism and its Failure to Educate the Public

In lieu of the present developments in Marxism, there have been significant visions of learning that evolved. A majority of these learning visions are based on the idea that learning is a social process where knowledge is denied instead of being acquired passively. Learning, then, transforms into an interactive process. The interaction is being verified through the help of the participants in the learning process such as the public. In this framework, high quality of learning would mean the continued guidance and support of the active learning process of the public. Obviously, this would call for an intensive and phased guiding strategy. And in this aspect Marxism is said to be “bankrupt” (Lenin, 1992)

When in the active pursuit of knowledge and skills, the interaction with the public form an integral part towards its success. Through this approach, the general public can learn through the imitation of the techniques in the socialization processes. In the process, the general public is able to obtain the chance to see their own ideas in a different aspect and therefore be able to take alternatives into consideration. The relative effectiveness of this approach is determined with the capability of the public to continuously challenge their pre-acquired knowledge.

CONCLUSION

The results of the analysis carried out on Marxism indicated very significant effects, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that Marxist philosophies could still be expected to improve faster than average.

The review of the Marxism’s operations management capabilities and resources revealed very little inconsistencies regarding its strategies. This is coherent with its traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for Marxism.

The analysis among the Marxist environment as well as its operations management and capabilities revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure Marxism’s competitiveness.

REFERENCES

Barry, S. Alienation, Reification, and Dehumanization in Late Capitalist America, 1992

Dobson, A. Green Political Thought, 1992, Unwin Hyman, 224.

Lenin, V. The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism, Collected Works, 1992, Vol. 19, 23-28.

Lenin, V. The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government, Selected Works, 1992, Vol. II, 643-677.

Lewontin, R. C. Not in Our Genes: Biology, ideology, and human nature, 1992, Pantheon Books, 322.

Mandel, E. Materialist dialectics, Pluto Press, 1982, Chapter 16 of Introduction to Marxism.

Mandel, E. Historical Materialism, Pluto Press, 1982, From Introduction to Marxism..

Trotsky, L. The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it going?, Pathfinder Press, 1972, 314.

Trotsky, L. In Defense of Marxism, Pathfinder, 1990.

Trotsky, L. Terrorism and Communism, New Park Publications, 1975, 208.

 

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