Masculinity and the British Organization Man since 1945

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 argues that despite the rise of professional management, relations between managers continue to function in highly subjective ways. An "emotional economy" flourishes among men in management, but its workings have been hidden by the myth of the rational organization man.

Michael Roper is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex.