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Title Arab socialism, human resources development policies and labour control in an Egyptian state enterprise
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/1842/7145
Date 1984
Author(s) Ereisha, Mohamed M.
Abstract In 1961, Egypt's major industries were taken into public ownership. This was accompanied by the enactment of a series of Laws which provided workers with guaranteed wages, protection against dismissal, and a package of other benefits. Bureaucratization took over and public enterprise was brought under the operational sphere of the Civil Service. The present study considers the impact of Arab socialism on the effectiveness of rewards and sanctions as a'means of control of workers in a state textile enterprise in Egypt. This involved an interview survey of a sample of workers and management to investigate the workers' orientation to work and the company's human resources development policies. The study was particularly concerned with the payment system, promotion, performance appraisal and discipline. The findings reveal that the workers are instrumentally oriented, and that years of employment experience is the most important variable in wages d9termination. Prospect of promotion has little effect on workers because the chances of promotion in the company are limited and also there are wide overlaps in the wages and salary structure. Workers, and management' responses indicate that performance appraisal neither reflects workers' performance nor their behaviour. Disciplinary sanctions are not effective because of the protection provided to the workers by socialist laws, and also because the company suffers from shortages of labour. The workers respond to labour control mechanisms in the company in different ways. Four 'typical' responses were revealed in the study: stayers with no second job, stayers with a second job, workers planning to'quit and victims of the system. A final part seeks to link control of workers in public enterprise with the situation in the society at large, comparing the Egyptian case with some other developing countries. Finally, two proposals to revive control at the workplace are considered.
Subject(s) Labor; Political; science; Public; administration
Language eng
Publisher University of Edinburgh
Type of publication PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Format application/pdf
Identifier 351657
Repository Edinburgh - University of Edinburgh
Added to C-A: 2022-08-22;11:49:56