The Organization Man is bestselling book by William H. Whyte, originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1956.[1]It is considered one of the most influential books on management ever written.[2]The idea of the organization man is now out of favor in management, which is now emphasizing integrating individual creativity into team work. The American workplace has changed drastically from the Fifties.
While employed by Fortune Magazine, Whyte did extensive interviews with the CEOs of major American corporations such as General Electric and Ford.[3] A central tenet of the book is that average Americans subscribed to a collectivistethic rather than to the prevailing notion of rugged individualism. A key point made was that people became convinced that organizations and groups could make better decisions than individuals, and thus serving an organization became logically preferable to advancing one's individual creativity. The author felt this was counterfactual and listed a number of examples of how individual work and creativity can produce better outcomes than collectivist processes. He observed that this system led to risk-averse executives who faced no consequences and could expect jobs for life as long as they made no egregious missteps.
I think this is reflected in politics in the resurgence of individualism, for example, in the renewed interest in the works of Ayn Rand on one hand and the works of Austrian economists on the other.
This is really the battle for the future of the GOP, and the future seems to belong to the Libertarians. This is also inevitably shape the future of the Democratic Party, if only in reaction.
Daily Kos
More Republican demographic death spiral: 'No religion' a plurality among Americans 18-30
Chris Bowers
3 comments:
"This is really the battle for the future of the GOP, and the future seems to belong to the Libertarians. This is also inevitably shape the future of the Democratic Party, if only in reaction."
Cant disagree Tom, and I saw a blurb where Rand Paul was in front in some type of GOP internal poll...
This is looking increasingly like a return of "man is the measure of all things...." ie the ultimate form of rampant out of control libertarianism running amok...
That said, I dont see the metals fitting into this scenario ultimately if it becomes "all about man..."... so I see metals being repudiated once and for all out of this and have a belief that things will eventually get much better for mankind with all sorts of patting ourselves on the back...
rsp,
Liberals/Progressives keep predicting the Republican Party's demise. They'd better open their eyes: The GOP is about to take control of the Senate.
What seems to happen, as dialectics would predict, is that the pendulum swings from one side to the other, as one position becomes dominant and then overreaches.
I think we are seeing the overreach of neoliberalism coming to a head and this will involves the replacement of the "old liberal" Democrats as holdovers from the New Deal.
The Democrats are going to have to come up with a new vision and younger faces to counter the decline of the old guard, who are now an anachronism.
I don't see any big shift coming before the next crisis hits, though. We are still in the working out of the neoliberal view that began with Jimmy Carter.
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