# Management as the Conflicted Class By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-02-18 Societies are comprised of different classes. Focus is often given to the working and leisure classes. There is another class operating between these two, the enforcement class. The enforcement class, as the name suggests, exists to enforce the rules of the leisure class on the working class. In societies, the enforcement class frequently includes the police and military. Management is a paradox as it exhibits elements of all three classes. It has some prestige and autonomy, suggesting that it is like the leisure class. But management is required to make one's living through the sale of one's labor, so in its fundamental characteristics, it is like the working class. Lastly, management is the one who enforces organizational rules onto the workers, so management engages in the functions of the enforcement class. In such situations, it is easy to get seduced into adjudicating which class "really" describes the functions of management. A better solution is to admit that management is a conflicted class lacking a unified core and called to engage within organizations in inherently contradictory ways. These contradictions can make being a manager frustrating. Perhaps management consists of the desires of the leisure class, the enforcement class's responsibilities, and the working class's fears. Management is a relatively small and conflicted cohort. It isn't one thing. Management holds revolutionary potential. Directing this potential toward something useful requires understanding and overcoming its inherent contradictions. #### Related Items [[Management]] [[Work]] [[Class]] [[Paradigms]] [[Revolution]] [[Contradiction]] [[Society]]