Description
Once American businesses provided a secure, cozy home for millions of organization men and women. Large, prosperous companies offered lifetime security in exchange for the hard work and loyalty of their numerous middle managers. But today the corporate world is a cold, hostile war zone. Middle managers with decades of seniority are being fired or forced into early retirement. One employee now does the work that five used to perform. Promotions lie stagnant. Employees flee to smaller businesses or strike out on their own.
No corporation, no industry, remains unscathed by today's mania for mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations. What began in the auto and the aerospace industries in the seventies soon spread to computer firms, television networks, publishers, drug companies, chemical companies, and virtually every Fortune 500 company. As a result, the corporate beast is a far different animal from the one William Whyte described in his classic 1956 best seller, The Organization Man.
Amanda Bennett has been covering the business world in The Wall Street Journal for over ten years. She has interviewed hundreds of people for this book, looking in depth at such companies as AT&T, Kodak, Du Pont, Xerox, IBM, Ford, ABC, Westinghouse, Owens-Corning, Cincinnati Milacron, and Gulf Oil. She looks at the big picture, explaining how and why the seemingly secure corporate environment has changed so much, and at the individuals and companies who have adapted, and even prospered, under the new rules. What she has discovered is sobering but also inspiring. Life outside the Organization can mean less money and stability, but it can also lead to new, more satisfying careers as independents and entrepreneurs.
