Godina izdanja: Ostalo
ISBN: Ostalo
Jezik: Srpski
Autor: Strani

Kao na slikama
Unutra jako lepo očuvana

Prosveta, Beograd Godina izdanja: 1967. Obim: 573 str.

The Organization Man is a bestselling book by William H. Whyte, originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1956.[1]

Whyte`s approach[edit]
While employed by Fortune Magazine, Whyte did extensive interviews with the CEOs of major American corporations such as General Electric and Ford.[2] A central tenet of the book is that average Americans subscribed to a collectivist ethic rather than to the prevailing notion of rugged individualism.[3] 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. Whyte 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. He also thought that everyone should have more freedom.

Influence[edit]
According to Paul Leinberger and Bruce Tucker, the book is, `the most compelling portrait of middle-class Americans at midcentury and the starting point for all subsequent investigations of their legacy.`[4]

Deborah Popper and Frank Popper contend the book energized dissidents:

[The book] offered a new perspective on how post–World War II American society had redefined itself. Whyte’s 1950s America had replaced the Protestant ethic of individualism and entrepreneurialism with a social ethic that stressed cooperation and management: the individual subsumed within the organization. It was the age of middle management, what Whyte thought of as the rank and file of leadership, whether corporate, governmental, church, or university. [For those] of us who grew up in the 1950s....It formed our ideas about conformity, resistance to it, and the meaning of being part of an organization. The book and its title gave many of us reason to disparage the security the organization promised; that was for others but not for us.[5]
The impact of Whyte`s book complemented the fiction best seller of the period, The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (1955) by Sloan Wilson in inspiring criticism that those Americans motivated to win World War II returned to ostensibly less-meaningful lives. Whyte`s book led to deeper examinations of the concept of `commitment` and `loyalty` within corporations.[6] According to Nathan Glazer, the book was hailed as a benchmark for American corporate culture. It gave concrete evidence to a watchword of the decade: “conformity.” Whyte identified what he claimed was a `major shift in American ideology` away from an individualistic Protestant Ethic.[7]

In actual corporate practice, according to Robert C. Leonard and Reta D. Artz, personnel managers in the San Francisco Bay area generally preferred the organizational man over the individualist. However individualists were preferred in smaller companies, and those with college-educated personnel managers.[8]

Dok je bio zaposlen u časopisu Fortune, Vajt je dao opsežne intervjue sa izvršnim direktorima velikih američkih korporacija kao što su General Electric i Ford.[2] Centralno načelo knjige je da su prosečni Amerikanci pretplaćeni na kolektivističku etiku, a ne na preovlađujući pojam grubog individualizma.[3] Ključna poenta je bila da su ljudi postali ubeđeni da organizacije i grupe mogu da donose bolje odluke od pojedinaca, i stoga je služenje organizaciji postalo logično poželjnije od unapređenja nečije individualne kreativnosti. Vajt je smatrao da je ovo kontračinjenično i naveo je niz primera kako individualni rad i kreativnost mogu proizvesti bolje rezultate od kolektivističkih procesa. On je primetio da je ovaj sistem doveo do rukovodilaca koji nisu skloni riziku i koji se nisu suočili sa posledicama i mogli su da očekuju posao doživotno sve dok ne čine velike greške. Takođe je smatrao da svako treba da ima više slobode.

Uticaj[uredi]
Prema Pol Lajnbergeru i Brusu Takeru, knjiga je „najupečatljiviji portret Amerikanaca srednje klase sredinom veka i polazna tačka za sva kasnija istraživanja njihovog nasleđa.“[4]

Debora Poper i Frenk Poper tvrde da je knjiga podstakla disidente:

[Knjiga] je ponudila novu perspektivu o tome kako se američko društvo posle Drugog svetskog rata redefinisalo. Vajtove 1950-te Amerika je zamenila protestantsku etiku individualizma i preduzetništva društvenom etikom koja je naglašavala saradnju i upravljanje: pojedinac je uključen u organizaciju. Bilo je to doba srednjeg menadžmenta, o čemu je Vajt mislio kao o rangu rukovodstva, bilo korporativnog, vladinog, crkvenog ili univerzitetskog. [Za one] od nas koji smo odrasli 1950-ih... To je formiralo naše ideje o usklađenosti, otporu prema tome i značenju biti deo organizacije. Knjiga i njen naslov dali su mnogima od nas razlog da omalovažavaju sigurnost koju je organizacija obećala; to je bilo za druge, ali ne i za nas.[5]
Uticaj Vajtove knjige upotpunio je beletristički bestseler tog perioda, Čovek u sivom flanelskom odelu (1955) Slouna Vilsona, inspirišući kritiku da su se oni Amerikanci motivisani da pobede u Drugom svetskom ratu vratili naizgled manje smislenim životima. Vajtova knjiga dovela je do dubljeg ispitivanja koncepta „posvećenosti“ i „lojalnosti“ unutar korporacija.[6] Prema rečima Nejtana Glejzera, knjiga je pozdravljena kao merilo američke korporativne kulture. To je dalo konkretan dokaz za slogan decenije: „usaglašenost“. Vajt je identifikovao ono za šta je tvrdio da je „veliki pomak u američkoj ideologiji“ od individualističke protestantske etike.[7]

U stvarnoj korporativnoj praksi, prema Robertu C. Leonardu i Reti D. Artz, kadrovski menadžeri u oblasti zaliva San Francisko generalno su preferirali organizacionog čoveka nad individualistom. Međutim, individualisti su bili preferirani u manjim kompanijama i onima sa fakultetski obrazovanim kadrovskim menadžerima.[8]

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