Organizational Behavior Analysis: Exploring 'The Organization Man'

This essay analyzes William H. Whyte's influential concept of "The Organization Man," exploring its origins, core tenets, and relevance in contemporary organizational behavior. The essay defines the 'Organization Man' as an individual who prioritizes organizational goals over personal objectives, emphasizing loyalty, teamwork, and conformity to corporate culture. It discusses the historical context of the concept, the propositions Whyte put forth, and the evolution of its relevance in today's business environment. The essay highlights the shift from traditional organizational structures to more flexible and employee-centric models, discussing the impact of work-life balance and the importance of individual needs. It also examines the role of organizational commitment, the impact of technology, and the need for modern organizations to balance individual and team contributions. The essay concludes by suggesting that the 'Organization Man' concept is still relevant, but only if management takes care of the interest of individuals.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 1
“The Organization Man”

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 2
It is very well-known that human resources in an organization play a significant role in its
growth and success. “The Organization Man” is a book and a wide concept that is given by
William H. Whyte in the year 1956. It is one of the most effective books of the 20th century. It
developed different kinds of American people use, when they think about the environs,
workplace and life of people. This book of Whyte shows the American workplace. The theory of
Organizational Man believed in necessary rightness of large teams and necessary wrongness of
the individual (Whyte, 2013).
However, organization man is an individual, who has fully taken on the behaviors and attitudes,
which are expected by an organization that she or he has lost her or her individual personality
and identity. The example of organization man is the employee, who cares only about the
organizational objectives and not their personal objectives outside the workplace (Greenberg,
2013). According to the theory of organization man, the people become more satisfied that
companies and groups can make better and effective decisions in comparison to individuals, in
this way serving a company became preferable to enhancing individual creativity of an
individual. These people are fully devoted to their organization with fully commitment and
loyalty. This term comprises of an idea that the American employees had become traditionalists
who lack the individuality and creativity and they wanted to go ahead with the large corporations
and enjoy comfortable environment (Ghorbanhosseini, 2013).
The concept of organization man is an extension of the social man. By introducing this concept,
William Whyte believed that it is significant for a person to become loyal to the company and
cooperative and collaborative with the colleagues. The people, who rely upon the organizational
value chain system and perform the tasks in a way, are known as organization man (Ladge,
Humberd, Watkins and Harrington, 2015). The foundation of this concept shows that each and
every individual must sacrifice his individual identity for the sake of his organization. The author
has given different prepositions regarding the concept of organization man.
The first proposition is that an individual is meaningless and isolated by himself. The
organization is the means of activity. An individual creates only when they come in a group. A
group assists the individuals to produce as a whole, which is greater than total of its parts
(Marcuse, 2013). Another proposition of this concept shows that team work plays an important
role in achieving organizational objectives. Each and every person needs the belongingness.

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Everyone wants to belong to any team, group, families, relatives and any society. In this sense,
the author states that there should not be any conflict between organization and man. If there is
any conflict between organization and man, then interest of that individual will be sacrificed for
the benefit of organization to eliminate that situation of conflict.
It is true that despite all the changes in the business environment, the Organization Man is not
that much relevant to today’s business organizations (Pinder, 2014). In today’s business
environment, even organizations motivate their employees to balance their work and personal
life. With the changes in the corporate landscape, the relevancy of organization man is also
changing. In today’s organizations, the top management submerged the personal goals and
individualism in the favor of organizational traditionalism. They think that it is essential to
survive at workplace.
There were so many organizations, which have implemented the concept of organization man at
their workplace, like; IBM, American Steel, Xerox and Sears Roebuck etc. In past decades, the
organizations have taken many advantages by implementing this concept. Now, the things are
changed, so people are not that much loyal to their organization. Instead of becoming committed
and loyal, the employees made uneasy by the years of restructuring and reducing are now
concentrated on their own accomplishments and careers. Changes in the systems have made
these employees more movable, i.e. free agents, like they were. The modern organizations think
that it will be ridiculous now to talk about “The Organization Man” in the diversity in today’s
workforce (Salas et al, 2015).
Apart from this, to respond the changes in the society and international market place, some of the
organizations are again trying to take the benefits of contributions of people and teams. In the
process of decision making, there is the need of creating teams, which can assist in solving the
problems and dealing with the challenges in competitive business environment.
After looking at today’s organizations, whether the ethic is social or protestant, there is more
concern today about the work-life balance. In the global marketplace, the organizations are
gulping one another up, looking for challenging positions and beginning up or going down
(Wagner III and Hollenbeck, 2014). In his organizational theory, Whyte stated that it may be

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 4
possible that organization man is not relevant now, but social ethic and its inactive abandonment
to the organizational life is still relevant.
Now, the organizations possess portable leader in their business environment, who works as
organization man. This type of leader is equivalent to organization man of demanding, valued
and problematic ideal, which enhances both the position of organizations and careers of its
employees as well. However, in today’s business environment, the organization man will be
beneficial if the management take care about the interest of individuals. Now, the individuals
only sacrifice their interests for the organization, if they feel positive that organization will care
about them in every situation. It is the duty and responsibility of management to satisfy the
expectations and needs of individuals (Whyte, 2017). The management should fulfill the needs
of employees in an organization, so that they can stay engaged and motivated in performing their
tasks and responsibilities in the interest of their organization.
If today’s organizations want to adopt this concept of organization man, then they need to give
preferences to their employees and organizations need to look into the personal needs and lives
of employees. An organization may have an organization man manager that will have a moderate
concern for its people. Although, the organization man and teamwork may be beneficial for the
organization, as employee commitment towards organization brings the better productivity of
workforce. For example, employees in Japan are more committed to the organization as
compared to Australian employees; this extent of commitment reflects the effective productivity
of Japanese workers (Whyte, 2013).
Sometimes, high level organizational commitment may create issues for the organization. It may
have both positive and negative consequences on the organization. A moderate level of
organizational commitment may enhance the productivity of employees and organization as a
whole. When the concept of organization man was introduced, it worked as the answer to
postwar life with the marketing of new and advanced technologies, like; affordable cars,
television, phones, space travel and better lifestyles. In the current era, the rules and regulations
of large organizations are less relevant because small business men are making fortunes from
new and advanced technologies in order to lower the trends of corporate scenario. This new and
modern economy appeared to have troubled the original analysis of Whyte (Wittkower, 2015).
But now, different collapse of several business start-ups, mergers of national and international

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 5
multinational corporations and economic globalization make create “The Organization Man”
more necessary as the background for knowing about the modern global market.
From this analysis, it can be stated that the concept of organizational man is relevant in some
situations. But sometimes, it can raise issues in the organization. The people, known as
organization man are totally committed to their organization and they sacrifice their own
interests for achieving organizational objectives. Being an organization man is a need of an
individual. Everyone needs a group or an organization to survive in the business environment.

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