Organization Man, The: Book That Defined A Generation , The

Description:
Regarded as one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times, The Organization Man developed the first thorough description of the impact of mass organization on American society. During the height of the Eisenhower administration, corporations appeared to provide a blissful answer to postwar life with the marketing of new technologies-television, affordable cars, space travel, fast food-and lifestyles, such as carefully planned suburban communities centered around the nuclear family. William H. Whyte found this phenomenon alarming. As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual. With its clear analysis of contemporary working and living arrangements, The Organization Man rapidly achieved bestseller status. Since the time of the book's original publication, the American workplace has undergone massive changes. In the 1990s, the rule of large corporations seemed less relevant as small entrepreneurs made fortunes from new technologies, in the process bucking old corporate trends. In fact this 'new economy' appeared to have doomed Whyte's original analysis as an artifact from a bygone day. But the recent collapse of so many startup businesses, gigantic mergers of international conglomerates, and the reality of economic globalization make The Organization Man all the more essential as background for understanding today's global market. This edition contains a new foreword by noted journalist and author Joseph Nocera. In an afterword Jenny Bell Whyte describes how The Organization Man was written.

Review:
'Recognized as a benchmark, Whyte's book reveals the dilemmas at the heart of the group ethos that emerged in the corporate and social world of the postwar era.'-Nathan Glazer 'The Organization Man is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. It established the categories Americans now use when thinking about the workplace, the suburbs, and their lives.'-David Brooks, senior editor at the Weekly Standard and contributing editor at Newsweek 'The Organization Man remains a worthwhile read today.'-Philadelphia Inquirer

Table of Contents:
Foreword, by Joseph Nocera PART I. THE IDEOLOGY OF ORGANIZATION MAN 1. Introduction 2. Decline of the Protestant Ethic 3. Scientism 4. Belongingness 5. Togetherness PART II. THE TRAINING OF ORGANIZATION MAN 6. A generation of Bureaucrats 7. The Practical Curriculum 8. Business Influence on Education 9. The Pipe Line 10. The 'Well-Rounded' Man PART III. THE NEUROSES OF ORGANIZATION MAN 11. The Executive: Non-Well-Rounded Man 12. 12. The Executive Ego 13. Checkers PART IV. THE TESTING OF ORGANIZATION MAN 14. How Goon an Organization Man Are You? 15. The Tests of Conformity PART V. THE ORGANIZATION SCIENTIST 16. The Fight against Genius 17. The Bureaucratization of the Scientist 18. The Foundations and Projectism PART VI. THE ORGANIZATION MAN IN FICTION 19 Love That System 20. Society As Hero PART VII. THE NEW SUBURBIA: ORGANIZATION MAN AT HOME 21. The Transients 22. The New Roots 23. Classlessness in Suburbia 24. Inconspicuous Consumption 25. The Web of Friendship 26. The Outgoing Life 27. The Church of Suburbia 28. The Organization of Children 29. Conclusion Afterword, by Jenny Bell Whyte Appendix: How to Cheat on Personality Tests Acknowledgments Index

Author Biography:
William H. Whyte (1917-1999) was editor of Fortune magazine and Distinguished Professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is the author of numerous books of social and environmental analysis, including The Last Landscape, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Joseph Nocera, Fortune magazine executive editor, is an award-winning financial journalist. He is the author of A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class, which won the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, and he anchored the 1997 PBS Frontline documentary 'Betting on the Market.' Jenny Bell Whyte, a fashion designer, is credited with introducing African textiles to the mainstream American clothing market. Her current company, Museum Pieces to Wear, restores old textiles and incorporates them into new clothes. She and William H. Whyte were married in 1964.