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Organization Man--Prospect for the Future
Strauss, George
6/3  (Spring 1964): 5-16

These two issues, decision-making versus analytical skills and individualism versus organizational loyalty are closely related. Those who view management's primary job as that of human relations naturally look upon indoctrination as a useful means of co-ordinating activities and implementing policies. Those who claim that management's job is chiefly to make decisions see implementation as less of a problem, and at lower levels their specialized skills and viewpoints may conflict with loyalty to the organization as a whole. Management development is a battleground on which many of these issues are fought. Those who support the decision-making approach, particularly at lower levels, also feel that the company should recruit specialists, that rotation for its own sake is not desirable, that rewards should be given for concrete performance rather than personality traits, that authority should not be sugar-coated and that broad, organization-oriented training is relatively worthless. Since the human-relations party occupies the staff personnel positions where formal statements of company policy are made and since it frequently writes the speeches made by company executives, one often gets the picture that human relations and conformity are the order of the day.

 

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