MARCH MEETS MARX: THE
POLITICS OF EXPLOITATION
AND EXPLORATION IN THE
MANAGEMENT OF LIFE AND
LABOUR
Christian Maravelias, Torkild Thanem and
Mikael Holmqvist
ABSTRACT
In contrast to the largely functionalist and apolitical literature which
dominates organisational scholarship on exploitation and exploration
after March, this paper seeks to complement this view of exploitation and
exploration with a Marxist reading which is unwittingly implied by these
terms. More specifically, we combine neo-Marxist and paleo-Marxist
arguments to more fully understand the conflictual relations that underpin
exploitation and exploration in the management of firms. This enables us
to address both the objective and subjective dimensions of exploitation and
exploration which firms and workers are involved in through the
contemporary capitalist labour process. We illustrate this by drawing
on a case study of a large Swedish manufacturing firm which sought to