Company Man : The Rise and Fall of Corporate Life.

Sampson, A.

ISBN 10: 000255271X / ISBN 13: 9780002552714

Published by HarperCollins, London, first edition, 1995, 1995

About this Item

Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm, xii, 353, [1] pp. From the introduction: "In this book I set out to trace the story of company men - and later company women - as social rather than economic beings. I try to depict them, not just as actors in company histories, nor as 'humanware' alongside software and hardware, but as individuals in the round who have always faced difficult and changing relationships with their employers, and between their offices and homes. I make much use of writers and outside observers who have provided insights and sidelights into human predicaments which have been too often ignored by management experts, and obscured by mechanical structures and attitudes. And I give special attention to the recurring tension between the human spirit and the machines which it has created: the thème which has kept returning in différent forms since the Industrial Revolution, and which has reached a new phase in the age of computers. In covering such a wide geographical canvas, I have not tried to provide a comprehensive history. I do not attempt to furnish an economie analysis, or to describe the development of unions, industrial disputes or strikes. I have concentrated on the changing character of middle-class company man, picking out the phases and episodes which seem most significant and enlightening, and providing close-ups of a few big companies which have provided models and fore-runners for others: including General Motors and IBM in America, Shell and ICI in Britain, and Toyota and Sony in Japan." An ex-library copy with a callnumber on the spine, library bookplate on the front pastedown endpaper (overstamped withdrawn), stamps on the title-page and verso of the title-page and on the final text page, agetoned at margins, otherwise near Very Good.

Seller Inventory # ABE-18475

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Company Man : The Rise and Fall of Corporate Life.
• Publisher: HarperCollins, London, first edition, 1995
• Publication Date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 000255271X
• ISBN 13: 9780002552714
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Miscellaneous Books

About this title

Synopsis

This work tells the story of the evolution of the social phenomenon of the 20th century - company man. The business corporation has become not only the engine of economic power, but the dominant community in much of the industrial world. Its executives have become enclosed in their own hierarchies and bureaucracies which have dominated their careers and their families' lives. The book shows how this new breed emerged and developed across the world, through successive industrial changes, and how different versions of company men - in America, Europe and Asia - are now competing for survival. Anthony Sampson is the author of "The Anatomy of Britain", "The New Europeans", "The Sovereign State of ITT", "The Seven Sisters", "The Arms Bazaar", "The Money Lenders", "Black and Gold", "The Midas Touch" and "The Essential Anatomy of Britain".

From Publishers Weekly

In this provocative and incisive social history of the corporation, British journalist Sampson observes that the "organization man" of the 1950s and '60s?a loyal worker confident of annual raises and a growing pension?is virtually extinct. Today's company men and company women face insecurity in offices that seem placeless networks of telecommuters and data banks, with short-term specialists and consultants increasingly replacing lifetime employees. Drawing on an array of writers, including H. G. Wells, G. B. Shaw, Franz Kafka, Sinclair Lewis, Thorstein Veblen, Kurt Vonnegut and John Kenneth Galbraith, Sampson explores the often dehumanizing fabric of corporate life and charts the history of corporations from 17th-century European merchant companies and Rockefeller's Standard Oil to the present, with profiles of IBM, Microsoft, General Motors, Sony, Toyota and Shell, among others. While middle managers and clerical employees are being squeezed and are more vulnerable to layoffs, top bosses have become more powerful and better-paid than ever, and Sampson urges safeguards to protect both shareholders and employees against the lack of corporate accountability.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.