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The Myth of Corporate Security and the Changing American Workplace (Part 1 of 3)
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Just as the world has changed, so has the career landscape. It’s not what it was a half century ago, and it’s dramatically different than it was a century ago.
This three-part story looks at the American workplace from the post-World War II early 1950s to the present, concluding with some assumptions about the future.
The Organization Man died a long time ago
The “Organization Man,” as described by William H. Whyte in his apocalyptic 1956 book by the same name, is a mythological figure. Yet Whyte’s book is still considered one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times.
Whyte described the American corporation, its prototypical white-collar workers, bureaucratic control and conformity. He said that the corporate career builders, the organization men, identified their own well-being with that of their companies. Throughout the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Whyte’s organization man thrived. Most companies took good care of their people, offering secure futures and pleasant lifestyles all rolled into one. Lifetime security was taken for granted. Workers repaid their companies with hard work and blind faith.
By the mid-1980s, fantasies of climbing organizational ladders shattered. The world had changed, and the economy took a nose dive as new overseas…
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"Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet." - Dave Barry |