Work Better, Live Better: Motivation, Labor, and Management Ideology PDF
Preview Work Better, Live Better: Motivation, Labor, and Management Ideology
i n the United States, a strong work ethic has long been upheld as a G WorK BETTEr necessity, and tributes to motivation abound—from the motivational R posters that line the walls of the workplace to the self-help gurus who a draw in millions of viewers online. Americans are repeatedly told y they can achieve financial success and personal well-being by adopting a motivated attitude toward work. But where did this obsession come Live BETTEr from? And whose interests does it serve? Work Better, Live Better traces the rise of motivational rhetoric in the workplace across the expanse of two world wars, the Great Depression, W and the Cold War. Beginning in the early twentieth century, managers recognized that force and coercion—the traditional tools of workplace o discipline—inflamed industrial tensions, so they sought more subtle means r of enlisting workers’ cooperation. David Gray demonstrates how this K “motivational project” became a highly orchestrated affair as managers and their allies deployed films, posters, and other media, and drew on B the ideas of industrial psychologists and advertising specialists to advance E their quests for power at the expense of worker and union interests. T T “Work Better, Live Better provides invaluable insight into how E corporate management attempted to refashion the American work ethic in the twentieth century. An ambitious, intelligent, and r thoughtful account of work and its ideological management that is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of capitalism.” L —Tim Strangleman, i author of Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery v e “By focusing on the idea of ‘motivation’ and the level of effort, energy, and engagement that managers have historically put into attempting to shape B the inner psychic lives and experiences of workers, Gray renders strange E and unusual some of the most familiar tropes of economic culture.” T —Kim Phillips-Fein, T author of Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade against the New Deal E DaVID GRay r is teaching assistant professor of American studies and history at Oklahoma State University. MOTIVATION, LABOR, AND MANAGEMENT IDEOLOGY Cover art by Packer (poster artist), “We’re Ready for the Challenge Tomorrow, Let’s do the Job Together!”. c 1941–1945. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration DaVID GRay (NAID) 516115. www.umasspress.com Cover design by Frank Gutbrod GGrraayy__ssooffttccoovveerr..iinndddd 11 1100//1155//2200 33::4466 PPMM This page intentionally left blank WoRK BETTER LIVe BETTER This page intentionally left blank WoRK BETTER LIVe BETTER MOTIVATION, LABOR, AND MANAGEMENT IDEOLOGY DaVID GRaY University of Massachusetts Press Amherst and Boston Copyright © 2020 by University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978- 1- 62534- 534- 9 (paper); 533- 2 (hardcover) Designed by Jen Jackowitz Set in Minion Pro and Cache Printed and bound by Books International, Inc. Cover design by Frank Gutbrod Cover art by Packer (poster artist), “We’re Ready for the Challenge Tomorrow, Let’s do the Job Together!,” ca. 1941–1945. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration (NAID) 516115. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Gray, David (Ph. D. in American Studies), author. Title: Work better, live better : motivation, labor, and management ideology / David Gray. Description: Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2020019274 | ISBN 9781625345332 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781625345349 (paperback) | ISBN 9781613767832 (ebook) | ISBN 9781613767849 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Management—United States—Psychological aspects—History. States—Psychological aspects—History. | Psychology, Industrial—United States—History. | Success in business—United States—History. Classification: LCC HD70.U5 G687 2020 | DDC 658.3/14—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019274 British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. A portion of chapter 2 was previously published as “Managing Motivation: The Seth Seiders Syndicate and the Motivational Publicity Business in the 1920s,” Winterthur Portfolio 44, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 77– 122. A portion of chapter 4 was previously pub- lished as “New Uses for Old Photos: Renovating FSA Photographs in World War II Posters,” American Studies 47, no. 3 (2006): 5– 34. Used by permission. for Sarah This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Motivation, Management, and Industrial Modernity 18 CHAPTER 2 Quests to Shape the Worker’s Mind 51 The Rise of Psychological Motivation CHAPTER 3 Visions of Striving 81 Debating Work’s Promises in the Great Depression CHAPTER 4 The War over Motivation 119 Prosperity Rhetoric and the Remaking of Work’s Rewards during World War II CHAPTER 5 Selling Workers on Their Jobs 160 Consumption- Based Motivation and Management Dominion in the Postwar Era CHAPTER 6 The New Hucksters of Cooperation 203 Cold War Consensus Campaigns and the American Way of Work vii viii | Contents EPILOGUE Motivation in an Age of Diminishing Rewards 250 NOTES 275 INDEX 329
The list of books you might like
