Organizational Behavior Essay: The Relevance of 'Organization Man'

This essay explores the continued relevance of William Whyte's influential book, 'The Organization Man,' in today's organizational behavior landscape. Published in 1956, the book examined the shift from rugged individualism to collectivism in post-World War II America, highlighting the rise of corporate culture and its impact on individuals. The essay delves into Whyte's observations on the conformity of the era, the influence of organizations on individual lives, and the changing dynamics of work and society. It analyzes the book's core arguments about the tension between individual creativity and the collectivist mindset, and its impact on American corporate culture. The essay also considers the book's relevance in the context of contemporary issues such as income inequality, globalization, automation, and the ongoing interplay between individual aspirations and organizational structures. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding the historical shifts described in 'The Organization Man' to analyze socio-cultural changes and the evolving nature of work and society. The provided references offer additional insights into the topic.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Relevance of 'The Organization Man', by William Whyte, in Today's World
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‘The Organization Man’ is a benchmark and one of the most influential books in the
history of management, written by William H. Whyte. It was published in 1956. This book has
dealt with the dilemmas of the group ethos, which were generated in the social and cultural
world after the World War II. This book is regarded as a very significant sociological and
business explanation of modern times. This gives a detailed description of the effects of public
organizations on the American people (Rao 2012). The central idea of this book is that, over
time, the average Americans have started to follow the collectivism principle rather than
following the existing rugged individualism notion. Whyte showed in the book that, in today’s
world, people are becoming convinced that, the groups and the organizations can take better
decisions for the wellbeing of the society than what an individual can take. The organizations
provide more efficient platform for the individuals to perform better and benefit all (Nocera
2014).
The mid century conformity and the difference between collectivism and individualism
are illustrated in this book by Whyte. In the 1950s and 1960s, the working life of the Americans
focused on the image of conformity. At that time, the idea of conformity was depicted through
business people wearing identical gray suits and sitting in long rows of identical work desks.
This was highlighted in this non-fiction book by Whyte. The author depicted an entire era of the
business world in his book. Whyte observed and studied the American businesses and said that
the principal of collectivism guided the American workers. This practice of behaving according
to the socially accepted norms of collectivism, depicted in ‘The Organization Man’ has helped to
explain the organizational culture and behavior of the American businesses in the mid century,
and later, generations rebelled against it (Mills 2017).

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Being the editor of the famous financial magazine Fortune, Whyte was able to observe
the corporate world of America. He found that, the idea of a perfect society was shifting from
individualistic view to the collectivistic view. The period after World War II, i.e. from 1940s to
1960s, brought about huge economic growth in America. At this time, the companies grew
larger, created infinite number of jobs for the middle-class people, and brought great prosperity.
The growth of the pre-planned suburban communities, and the revolution of technologies, from
television to frozen food, has also emerged in this period, which was making life easier (Whyte
2013). Whyte was encouraged by this idea that the new technology and the corporate American
culture could bring solutions to all the problems of life. With this notion, he interviewed the
CEO’s of many large corporate houses of America. To his satisfaction, he found that this attitude
was present among all the CEO’s and the employees. Thus, he came to conclude that, American
people no longer believed in the principle of individualism, rather they started to believe in
collectivism. In the previous era, people used to believe that the progress was achieved by the
talented individuals alone, with no much contribution from the others of the society. Whyte
found that this idea of progress was changing (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). People now started
to believe that the problems could be best solved by a group or organization, where individuals
come together and contribute in finding solutions to the problems by dedicating their individual
talents in the group. However, Whyte argued that individual creativity was required for
advancement and collectivist mentality resulted in hesitation for trying out new things (Cho et al.
2013).
This book had significant impact on the corporate culture of America. After the release of
the book, the workplace of the modern America has undergone huge changes. This had made the
corporate organizations to rethink and restructure their management and strategies. The

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organizations realized that their structure did not encourage to take risks in business. When the
Silicon Valley in California developed in 1970s, the organizations followed the advice of Whyte
and created small companies, where individual’s inputs and risk taking attitude were given more
importance. Over time, the large companies lost much of their relevance while the small
businesses grew leaps and bounds with the help of new technology (Nocera 2014). As a new
economy has emerged, the structure of the socio-cultural economy has changed. In the 1990s,
when the large companies became less relevant and small companies gained importance, the
logic of the book became significant.
In Whyte’s book, it was full of the explanations on rising equality. As the new era has
come, it has been found that equality has been expanding too. The young people, who believed
in corporate bureaucracy, effectiveness, and equality, gained power within the organization, and
their values were reflected in the corporate pay. Thus, the organizations moved towards
achieving equality (Lewis 2012). However, it has been found, that following the collectivism
principle, as mentioned in ‘The Organization Man’, the CEOs of the big organizations earned 20
times more than what a typical worker earned in the respective industries. By the end of 2015,
the disparity ratio skyrocketed to 276 times. Hence, the rationale of social welfare mentioned in
the book was not applicable in this case. This phenomena for the huge inequality in pay resulted
from globalization and automation. The technological revolution has brought about a wave of
automation, which has made life and work easier, but at the same time, resulted in loss of jobs
for many throughout the world. Hence, with the improvement in financial service and
technology, the companies are generating supernormal profits. However, the profits are reflected
in the pay of the CEOs and top management people, and not in the pay of the workers. The

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collectivism is present in the organizational work structure and culture, but not in the pay
structure (Sernovitz 2016).
‘The Organization Man’ mostly considered the cultural changes happening outside the
organizations. The author had focused on people’s personal and professional lives and how they
react to any changes in the social ethics. The shift from individualism to collectivism within the
organization was accepted by the people and they started to work accordingly. It is still relevant,
because, now, many Americans, who live in the suburbs, think of getting a job in the cities and
moving ahead, and this reflects the individualistic attitude. At the same time, to achieve
something bigger and better, the involvement of the organizations is indispensable, supporting
the collectivism attitude. The shift in culture, economy and organizations was following
collectivism (Taras et al. 2014).
The book is still relevant in today’s world, because, it described a culture that was in
motion, in every aspect of life and within and outside the workplace. The transition between
equality and inequality in the pay structure is reflected in the lives of people, and it is essential to
understand this transition to analyze the socio-cultural changes. When Whyte wrote the book, the
inequality of pay in the corporate world was not present, still the transition in organizational
culture happened. In the modern world, the inequality is a huge thing, which influences the way
of life of people. However, the Protestant Ethics and rugged individualism, as seen by Whyte in
the American corporate, are gone to some extent, giving way to the collectivism in today’s
world.

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References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cho, Y.N., Thyroff, A., Rapert, M.I., Park, S.Y. and Lee, H.J., 2013. To be or not to be green:
Exploring individualism and collectivism as antecedents of environmental behavior. Journal of
Business Research, 66(8), pp.1052-1059.
Lewis, M., 2012. The New Organization Man. [online] Slate Magazine. Available at:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/millionerds/1997/10/the_new_organization_man.html
[Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
Mills, A.J., 2017. Man/Aging Subjectivity, Silencing Diversity: Organizational Imagery in the
Airline Industry. The Case of British Airways☆. In Insights and Research on the Study of
Gender and Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures (pp. 367-392). Emerald Publishing
Limited.
Nocera, N., 2014. The Organization Man - Review. [online] Upenn.edu. Available at:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13785.html [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
Rao, V., 2012. The Organization Man by William Whyte: Introduction. [online] ribbonfarm.
Available at: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/11/18/the-organization-man-by-william-whyte-
introduction/ [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].

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Sernovitz, G., 2016. What “The Organization Man” Can Tell Us About Inequality Today.
[online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/what-
the-organization-man-can-tell-us-about-inequality-today [Accessed 12 Sep. 2017].
Taras, V., Sarala, R., Muchinsky, P., Kemmelmeier, M., Singelis, T.M., Avsec, A., Coon, H.M.,
Dinnel, D.L., Gardner, W., Grace, S. and Hardin, E.E., 2014. Opposite ends of the same stick?
Multi-method test of the dimensionality of individualism and collectivism. Journal of Cross-
Cultural Psychology, 45(2), pp.213-245.
Whyte, W.H., 2013. The organization man. University of Pennsylvania Press.