The Organization Man

The Organization Man came out of magazine articles and an earlier book by Whyte on corporate and suburban life. Following a distinguished war record in the marines, Whyte had gone to work at Fortune magazine. The acquisition of a proper frame of mind toward all this was a slow process. The faded yellow second sheets of our daily report book tell the story. The advice of the old salesman became invaluable. While he had a distaste for any kind of dealer, with druggists he was implacably combative. The old salesman would bring us together in batches for several days of demonstration. The most immediately apparent thing about the General Electric program is the fact that it is a school. The most noteworthy feature of the General Electric approach is the emphasis on the “professional” manager. As in all training programs, the bulk of the instruction is on specifics.