|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
American Character and the Organizational Man
| Article
# : |
18043 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1990 |
4,080 Words |
| Author
: |
Michael Maccoby
Michael Maccoby is director of the Project on Technology,
Work, and Character in Washington, D.C. His most recent book
is Sweden at the Edge: Lessons for American and Swedish
Managers, University of Pennsylvania Press, (1991). |
Reading William H. Whyte, Jr.'s The Organization Man at the start of the 1990s is a trip back to an economically secure, more benign America of the fifties. U.S. industry, relatively unscathed by World War II, dominated global markets. It appeared that problems of production had been solved, that corporations had discovered the secret of creating unlimited wealth. All that was required to man the managerial roles of these companies (most women were secretaries and clerks) were self-effacing, cooperative, loyal team players: organization men.
Whyte was disturbed and alarmed about the threat to the American character by the organization man. Rugged individualism was being eroded by the syrupy acid of conformity. The social ethic of helping and fitting in with the bureaucracy was replacing the Protestant ethic of hard work, innovation, and competition. The drive for security and belonging was replacing entrepreneurial risk-taking. America was on a slippery slide to control by Big Brother and a debilitating collectivized socialism.
The organization men of the fifties, according to Whyte, were the future of this country: "It is their values which will set the American temper." They were more than employees; they were true believers. "They are the ones of our middle class who have left home, spiritually as well as physically, to take the vows of organization life, and it is they who are the mind and soul of our great self-perpetuating institutions."
From the vantage point of the nineties, the organization man seems a casualty, looking at the middle managers who in the eighties were pushed to an early retirement - loyal bureaucrats who lost their jobs as large American corporations downsized into lean and mean business units - to compete with Asians and Europeans. In the afterglow of the eighties, one might be nostalgic for the helpful, cooperative organization man as contrasted to the rugged Wall Street individualists who in fact set the temper of the times.
Indeed, as U.S. industry of the nineties compares itself to successful Japanese competitors, the problem seems to be that Americans are too individualistic, not cooperative enough. And this is especially the case with American managers, the very group that Whyte spotlights. From the Japanese and European point of view, American managers put self ahead of company. Overcontrolling and insensitive to the needs of employees, they are self-promoting careerists.
It seems ironic that
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
