CORPORATE MAN

...Unless this be done, and soon, corporate man, like Jeremiah's children, will receive no correction: instead, driven by powerful institutional pressures from which there is no escape, he will destroy both the prophets who warn him and the capitalistic system which nourishes him...

...Such men substitute ill-considered, hasty action for careful planning and calm judgment...

...rather, his behavior is dictated by the institutional pressures to which he is subject...

...Neither exhortation, nor punishment, nor fear of Communism will suffice to make them otherwise...

...Fourth, he has a set of deeply felt convictions and values by which to appraise and criticize what he has observed...

...Randall's most severe strictures, however, are reserved for those managers who, through ignorance or lack of sensitivity, fail to articulate their actions and decisions with the goals of the society they serve...

...This avoidance of responsibility is frequently concealed behind a smokescreen of frenzied activity under the spurious principle of action for action's sake...

...they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion...

...he has been displaced by an equally mythical character—collective, organization, or corporate man...

...Second, retired from active duty, he can speak freely and without regard to business sensitivity...

...the Cost Cutter, who lays about him furiously with total disregard for the consequences, and the ulcerous Overworked Executive, who is incapacitated by imaginary problems of his own creation...

...Those at the top, who must make the final decisions, are thus constrained to do so on the basis of inadequate, overly cautious, and unimaginative recommendations from the lower echelons of management...

...Such men, in Randall's view, are extremely dangerous because their irresponsible, anti-social behavior arouses public hostility and discredits private capitalism, both at home and abroad...

...The corporate way of life has its own special system of values, or imperatives— profit, power, privilege, status, security, survival—and the first responsibility of corporate man is to serve these values...

...Randall finds that he is driven by a frenetic, irresistible urge to communicate, to project his ego, to create a favorable "image'' of himself and his works...

...Under this system corporate man is not, in any meaningful sense, a free agent or a socially responsible man...

...So long as corporations are socially irresponsible their managers will also be...

...To this end he devises an elaborate bureaucratic maze in which to hide—organization charts, job descriptions, management committees, statistical surveys, studies by numerous specialists, interminable reports and correspondence...

...Third, he can report with the authority of direct knowledge because he has observed the behavior of corporate man for many years and from the vantage [joint of a top executive position...

...If free capitalism is to retain the confidence of the American people, prove acceptable to the underdeveloped nations, and successfully meet the world challenge of Communism, it must eschew all forms of socially irresponsible behavior and demonstrate both its capacity and its willingness to serve the general welfare...

...This strange new creature has attracted the attention and aroused the curiosity of numerous investigators and critics, from television comedians to the most serious and learned social scientists...

...These inquiries and speculations, particularly since World War II, have produced a large and fascinating body of anthropological literature on corporate man...

...Corporate man suffers from a proclivity toward avoidance of responsibility...

...There is involved here an element of institutional determinism, which though neither natural nor permanent is nonetheless controlling...

...the voluble Communicator, who sounds off on all subjects...

...Randall believes profoundly that business men are inherently capable of acting responsibly...

...To this accumulated, but still deficient, store of knowledge Clarence B. Randall, former president of Inland Steel Company, now adds further illumination in a series of brief, sharply drawn vignettes depicting some of the myths and idolatries of modern corporate management...

...Reviewed by Horace M. Gray Economic man, that mythical being of Eighteenth Century, individualistic philosophy, is for all practical purposes extinct...

...Randall enjoys certain unique advantages over other business men who have ventured to analyze the corporate wav of life...

...he criticizes corporate man not to destroy him but to uplift him, to challenge him to higher levels of performance and social responsibility...

...Within this labyrinth, and behind these paper ramparts, responsibility becomes so diffused and attenuated that no one, except the top executive, is really responsible for anything...

...What we already know about the nature of corporate man, particularly in the large corporations, suggests that Randall's admonitions will prove no more effective than the impassioned prophecy of Jeremiah: "In vain have I smitten your children...

...First, he is a keen observer and a gifted writer...

...They have traced his origin, described his habitat, probed his psyche, analyzed his rationalization and his apologetics, and noted in detail his economic behavior, social customs, political views, fetishes, gaucheries, and irrationalities...

...But corporate man is no Milton seeking nobly "to justify the ways of God to man...

...These are the socially irresponsible...

...hence, much of his communication is worthless, inane, insulting to intelligent people, and palpably false...

...rather, he is a weak, insecure, vain, frequently ignorant creature who craves acceptance, status, and prestige...

...In his ethical code, all means and all modes of behavior relevant to the attainment of these ends are institutionally justifiable...

...They rush about madly, issuing foolish and contradictory orders, interfering with the work of others, disrupting channels of communication, spreading confusion throughout the organization, but never making the firm, judicious decisions essential for orderly, efficent operations...

...Among them are the price fixers, the tax dodgers, the expense account cheaters, corrupt purchasing agents, false advertisers, makers of defective goods, seekers after special privileges and protection, and the partisan enemies of organized labor, social welfare measures, and government...

...Fifth, he has a sense of mission...

...Here we find the Production Wizard, who knows everything and comprehends nothing...

...Specifically, what are some of the principal myths that corporate man, with slavish and fatuous addiction, pursues even to self-destruction...

...This calls for basic reforms in the organization, structure, and control of corporate enterprise in the United States...

...Some, going beyond mere observation, have considered what society can and should do with him...

...his book is an eloquent exhoration for them to do so...

...If the public law, which derives from different institutional sources and from a different code of ethics, declares otherwise, then the law is an ass, to be ignored, evaded, opposed, or corrupted according to circumstances...

...Randall, noble Roman that he is, makes the common mistake of applying his values, his ethics, and his sense of social responsibility—all derived from an earlier age of individualism—to corporate man, who lives by a different code and functions in an institutional context where individualistic values are neither relevant nor viable...

...If Randall is very much the preacher, and if he flays the sinners unmercifully, it is to save them from perdition—and by saving them to preserve free private capitalism...

...When this becomes apparent and when his actions belie his words, the whole system of private business is brought into disrepute...

...If we would make corporate man free and responsible, we must create for him an institutional environment in which freedom and responsibility can nourish...

...At this point the social scientist, who studies man in his institutional context, must take exception...