Description
Book SynopsisRegarded 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 achieve
Trade 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
