Summary-History Of Management Thought-The Social Person Era in Retrospect-a book of Daniel A Wren

CHAPTER 18.
THE SOCIAL PERSON ERA IN RETROSPECT
Resume by Alamanda

THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT: FROM DEPRESSION TO PROSPERITY
The 1920s were prosperous, characterized by price stability, a doubling of industrial productivity, and a 55 percent rise in the real income of individuals
By November 13, 1929, the stock value lost totaled $30bilion, and more than a decade afterward life in the United State was substantially changed by that crash and the Great Depression.
Recovery from economic morass was paint fully slow, but from the social and psychological view point, it was even slower.

Attempt At Economic Recovery
In November 1929, President Herbert Hoover asked for labor-management cooperation in reducing the hours of work per worker per week rather than laying off workers
In the early days of the Depression, labor and management responded positively to work sharing, and the workers had a better cushion against the decline
The new political regime of Franklin Roosevelt promised from fear, from want, and from the other anxieties that bound the United States. Hoover had tried the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932 as a scheme to pump government funds into private business enterprise
Keynesian economic was a challenge to the protestant ethic dogma of thrift, Keynes held that saving withheld from consumption could lead to dislocation and underutilization of economic resources
This strategy was designed to destroy the financial control of Wall Street, to link government assistance with industrial capitalism, to aid agricultural and small business in the progressive tradition, and to increase benefits to the workers who formed the chief electorate
Friedman’s supporter’s maintained that proper monetary action by the Federal Reverse could have prevented contraction of money supply and allayed the Depression

The Grass Roots and Bottom-Up Movement

Economic policy was to come from the grass roots u to counterbalance the concentration of power in Big Business
The Mayoist saw the root of economic problem in social problems. They think that people’s anomie was made manifest in pessimistic reveries, in obsessive-compulsive behavior
Once social solidarity was restored, primary group rebuilt, communication channel opened, and social and psychological needs fulfilled, people could turn their efforts to being more productive
From the people and organizations point in view, industrial problems were to be solved by democratizing the workplace anf thereby improving human relationship within the organization

Organization as the Answer
For Mooney and Reiley, Gulick, Urwick, and others of the organizational bent, the solution resided in he proper, orderly arrangement of formal relationship
In their cultural context, those who focused on people and those who focused on the organization were attempting to cope with the massive social and industrial dislocations presented by the depression

SEEDS OF CHANGE: THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES
In transportation automobile were miracle inventions, but were limited in their scope of travel by the lack of paved roads
In communication and entertainment, the radio was becoming a house hold staple
War and depression did not quell innovations and inventions. There was a lag as these products and services came into fruition in a booming post-war economy. automobile production resumed after the war, gas was longer rationed, and the new roads and bridges could carry the consumers to a revived marketplace

THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: THE SOCIAL ETHIC AND THE ORGANIZATION MAN
Broadly viewed, two fairly distinct paths were reshaping social values: 1) a decline of the tenets of the Protestant ethic and the rise of a social ethic; 2) a decline in the level of esteem given the business leader

Shifting SocialValues
Apparently nearly everyone had been affected in some way, the loss of a job here, a saving account there, or a friend who had lost everything in the stock market
Erich Fromm noted the desire of people to escape the loneliness of standing alone
McClelland found in his studies that the need for achievement increased in the United States from 1800 to 1890 but decreased regularly after the date. The trade off between the need for achievement the need for affiliation took a dramatic shift between 1925 and 1950. in 1925, the need for affiliation was primarily a familial concern, by 1950,affiliation had become an alternative for economic achievements.
For Riesman, he shift from invisible hand to glad hand actually began about 1900
After 1900, the closing of the frontier and restrictions on immigration began to bring less confidence in self-interest and more confidence in groupism

The Confusion of Souls
Carnegie established the personal magnetism ethic, relete with how-tos of human relations, advised that the path to success resided in (1) making others feel important through a sincere appreciation of their efforts; (2) making a good first impression; (3) winning people toone’s way of thinking by letting others do the talking and being sympathetic, with caveat,” never tell a an he is wrong:, and; (4) changing people by praising good traits and giving the offender the opportunity to save face.

The Social Ethic
The social ethic in fiction underscored conformity and depersonalization of the individual into a “they” and portrayed the corporation as a monster machine
As the Mayoist sought to reform the organization through the group, the organizational engineers sought to reform the group through the organization
For Mayo, the answer was to rebuild social solidarity and collaboration through the small group

THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT: FROM FDR TO EISENHOER
One of FDR’s brain trusters, Rexford Tugwell, wrote that the idyllic days business doing what it willed were gone and that the new leadership of industry must recognize unions, democratize industry by encouraging participation, and keep in mind the “greatest good for the greatest number”
The NLRB was also instrumental in destroying employee representation plan
Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization, whose purpose was to bring workers into unions regardless of occupation or skill level
In retrospect, it is clear that labor gained substantial power during the 1930s through legislation. the new deal labor policy was part of a power-equalization drive
In general, the whole environment of management had changed, not just with respect to labor, but also in all relations with government
After World War II, the search for general management theory would emerge as a solution to complexities of managing in modern era