Masculinity and the British Organization Man since 1945OUP Oxford, Jan 20, 1994 - 272 pages The post-war period is often regarded as a time when Britain underwent its managerial revolution, the family firm and the "gentleman amateur" giving way to the large bureaucracy and the trained management expert. Yet the conception of modern management as an objective process could hardly be further from the truth. Drawing on detailed life-history interviews with the post-war generation of "organization men", this study explores the intimacies that operate among men in management. It argues that despite the rise of professional management, relations between managers continue to function in highly subjective ways. The pleasure of technical innovation or of seeing a new product through to the market, the mixture of rivalry and patronage that surrounds management succession, the hard bargaining of industrial relations: at every level, managerial functions involve the dramatization of emotions among men. By challenging the enduring myth of the rational organization man, this book sheds new light on gender segregation in management. It argues that the exclusion of women from senior positions cannot be understood simply as the outcome of unprofessional practices. A focus on the emotional relations between male managers reveals the psychic dimensions of exclusionary behaviour. An "emotional economy" flourishes among men in management, but its workings have been hidden by the myth of the rational organization man. |
Contents
PART ONE Masculinity and the Rise of | 17 |
Management Succession | 77 |
The Cult of Toughness | 105 |
Product Fetishism and the Cult | 132 |
Images of Wives and Secretaries | 161 |
Images of the Lady Manager | 189 |
The Fall of the Organization Man? | 214 |
Appendices | 230 |
Bibliography | 245 |
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Common terms and phrases
agers aggressive Aldridge American Middle Classes Anatomy of Britain Bannerman bread-winner Briar British bureaucracy Cambridge career managers Chemtex Cockburn Collinson Cook's tour Corelli Barnett corporate cult of toughness culture depicted described divisions of labour domestic dominant Dowell Dowell's early career economic emotional engineering entrepreneur explained family capitalism family firms fantasies father feel felt feminine Fisher Electronics functions gender Gidley graduates Grainger Hansard Society hierarchies Ibid ideal identity industrial inheritors interview Kanter kind Lee Iacocca London male managers managerial managing director manufacturing marriage married masculinity Max Weber men's ment mentor mid-career middle-class mother office wife older organization man's organization men organizational Pahl Patriarchy personnel post-war promotion psychic recruitment relations role Seddon Atkinson senior management sexual shop-floor skills social stories strategy structure success Swan Oil technical Tinsley tion wife woman women in management women managers younger