Volume XXIII – Number 2
Septimus M. Kaikai
Abstract: This article provides insight into the beliefs of entrepreneur and manager Robert Owen, who, despite being a significantly lesser-known icon of economic thought, greatly advanced the British Socialist movement. Owen used his personal experiences as working-class citizen of Wales during the Industrial Revolution to form new ideas about labor standards, working conditions, and education. He believed the capitalist sentiment that mobilized the Industrial Revolution was inherently individualistic and inevitably led to immorality, resulting in oppression and poverty for the working class. Discontented with the human injustices that he attributed to the Industrial Revolution, he started his own factory, which operated to a very different set of standards. As a factory manager, Owen required fewer hours of his workers, paid higher wages, and focused on creating a work environment that was encouraging of collaboration and creativity in order to enhance productivity. Owen’s intent to counteract the injustices that he believed were caused by capitalism was evident not only in his business operations, but also in his writing and leadership of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. While Robert Owen’s dedication to the development of collaboration in work environments and in governance may often be overlooked, they were nonetheless critical to the development of socialist economic thought.
Keywords: socialism, economics, economic theory, Industrial Revolution, working-class, factory, management, capitalism, injustice, oppression, poverty
