Class conflict and social order in Smith and Marx: a case for the relevance of social philosophy to business management

How Karl Marx derives his concept of class conflict from Adam Smith's theory of social order. Based on these findings, we argue that both Smith's and Marx's political economies should be interpreted in relation to each other- from the perspective of social philosophy, in particular their shared concepts of social order and necessary opposition of class interests. By appeal to process philosophy, we also argue that this reinterpretation needs to take into account two other ideas shared by Smith and Marx, namely the social individual as person-in-community, and the pursuit of desirable social forms from a humanistic perspective. We conclude by contending that business management practice would benefit from understanding the role of class tensions and social order on economic activities in an organization in a way that is far more appreciative of the social relations of individuals as being the primary, rather than a secondary, concern