Company Man : The Rise and Fall of Corporate Life

HarperCollins, London, first edition, 1995. Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm,. xii, 353, [1] pp. From the introduction: "In this book I set out to trace the story of company men - and later company women - as social rather than economic beings. I try to depict them, not just as actors in company histories, nor as 'humanware' alongside software and hardware, but as individuals in the round who have always faced difficult and changing relationships with their employers, and between their offices and homes. I make much use of writers and outside observers who have provided insights and sidelights into human predicaments which have been too often ignored by management experts, and obscured by mechanical structures and attitudes. And I give special attention to the recurring tension between the human spirit and the machines which it has created: the thème which has kept returning in différent forms since the Industrial Revolution, and which has reached a new phase in the age of computers. In covering such a wide geographical canvas, I have not tried to provide a comprehensive history. I do not attempt to furnish an economie analysis, or to describe the development of unions, industrial disputes or strikes. I have concentrated on the changing character of middle-class company man, picking out the phases and episodes which seem most significant and enlightening, and providing close-ups of a few big companies which have provided models and fore-runners for others: including General Motors and IBM in America, Shell and ICI in Britain, and Toyota and Sony in Japan. An ex-library copy with a callnumber on the spine, library bookplate on the front pastedown endpaper (overstamped withdrawn), stamps on the title-page and verso of the title-page and on the final text page, agetoned at margins, otherwise near Very Good.