Managerial Jacobinism and performance in the private sector: Evidence from the Turkish shipyards for a vertical frame

• Author: Surhan Cam,Serap Palaz
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12321
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Published date: 01 March 2021

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Managerial Jacobinism and performance in the

private sector: Evidence from the Turkish

shipyards for a vertical frame

Surhan Cam

1

| Serap Palaz

2

1

School of Social Sciences, Cardiff

University, Cardiff, UK

2

Department of Labour Economics,

Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University,

Bandırma, Turkey

Correspondence

Surhan Cam, School of Social Sciences,

Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.

Email: cams@cardiff.ac.uk

Abstract

Long-lasting euphoria of the private sector mana-

gerialism has begun to be questioned even by its ardent

advocators in recent years. Substantiating a distinct

concern, this paper sheds light on what one might call

‘managerial Jacobinism’through unstructured inter-

views conducted in Turkey's shipyards. As its most

defining characteristics, the undervaluation of manage-

rial work by the companies and the punitive treatment

of good practices by the mediocre superiors provoke

ill-concealed defensive reactions among the managers

to their insecurity at work while undermining both

employees' productivity and the firms' performance in

the midst of regulatory deficiencies. Managerial

Jacobinism also spirals around a vertical frame by

being more apparent and survival-driven in the case of

immediate managers whereas more ambition-driven

and detrimental when it comes to top managers reso-

nating with their higher influence. Empirical findings

further indicate that results are officiated by the inter-

secting variations in age, gender, ethnicity, occupa-

tions, administrative divisions and establishment size.

Received: 13 May 2020 Revised: 11 January 2021 Accepted: 8 February 2021

DOI: 10.1111/irj.12321

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,

distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2021 The Authors. Industrial Relations Journal published by Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Industrial Relations. 2021;52:161–182. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/irj 161

1|INTRODUCTION

The proponents of neoliberalism have praised private sector managerialism since the beginning

of global privatisation and deregulation initiations in the early 1980s (World Bank, 2019). As

globalisation loses momentum nowadays, however, their optimism has begun to be treated with

caution not only by the critical opponents but also by a growing number of nervous marketeers.

An important reason for the rise of scepticism was related to the unsustainable impacts of

globalisation on inequalities between social classes and nations.

In recent years, attention was also paid to the challenges that the middle classes have

encountered. They become, for example, more vulnerable to financial downturns, whereas

upward mobility demises, especially in the West (Green, 2019). In particular, a growing propor-

tion of managers were reported to earn minimum wage or less as a culmination of deskilling

and over-qualification processes (Lloyd & Payne, 2016). It was further documented that those

who have higher incomes than the rest of the workforce experience a paradoxical precarity:

they feel less secure and less satisfied with pay, working hours and participation than others

(Cam & Palaz, 2018).

Building on such observations, this paper will contribute to the debate by specifically argu-

ing that workplace pressures in the private sector create what one might call for the sake of con-

venience ‘managerial Jacobinism’predicated on the defensive reactions of managers. As

expounded in what follows, we will contend that despite a progressive and unitarist rhetoric

that promises to serve both companies and employees, managerial Jacobinism has adverse

implications for the company performance and labour productivity. It will also be stipulated

that managerial Jacobinism takes place within a vertical frame because the individual motiva-

tions behind the reactionariness shift up from survival to ambition and its harm heightens along

with the managerial ranking. Approaching the issue from a critically intersectional perspective,

we will further argue that this situation is not altered, but reproduced through the variations in

age, gender, ethnicity, occupations, administrative divisions and establishment size.

Turkish shipyards constitute a suitable setting for the purpose of this paper. Being an off-

shore manufacturing hub of Europe, the industry boasts strategic roles for the EU and NATO

as a civilian and military maritime supplier. Shipyards are also quintessential for Turkey as one

of the largest and fastest growing emerging market economies in the World. Following a long-

term expansion, however, Turkey's shipyards have endured financial hardships ignited by the

2008 turmoil. The surge in the number of employees during the decade preceding the recession,

for example, was from less than 5000 to 34 000 in 2007 as opposed to a one-third plunge by

2012 (UBAK, 2014). Yearly exports of the ships also halved to $1.3bn between 2009 and 2012

(Ship2Shore, 2012). The recovery signs were modest until 2018, with a growth in the output

capacity to 4.4 m dwt, exports to $1.4bn and employment to 32 500 (MofTMAC, 2019).

Although empirical research in the sector is limited, it has already been established that

managerial pitfalls such as authoritarianism and patronage prevail across the industry (Cam &

Palaz, 2016).

1.1 |Conflict of interests

Unitarist interlockers have long argued that enterprises and employees are on the same side

owing to the complementary nature of their interests as a misfortune for the firms, for instance,

generates knock-on effects on labour in the shape of low wages, limited welfare provisions and

162 CAM AND PALAZ