Managing in the Corporate Interest: Control and Resistance in an American Bank

In the 1980s, corporate America experienced massive cutbacks and organizational decline after decades of economic growth and dominance. The institutional and ideological changes that were part of the fundamental transformation created a new landscape of work and social relations for corporate middle managers. The author assesses this new landscape by examining a large diversified bank that restructured its organizational and personnel policies to meet a new era of corporate competition.

Business & Money

Smith, Vicki

Economics

University of California Press

In the 1980s, corporate America experienced massive cutbacks and organizational decline after decades of economic growth and dominance. The institutional and ideological changes that were part of the fundamental transformation created a new landscape of work and social relations for corporate middle managers. The author assesses this new landscape by examining a large diversified bank that restructured its organizational and personnel policies to meet a new era of corporate competition.

In the 1980s, corporate America experienced massive cutbacks and organizational decline after decades of economic growth and dominance. The institutional and ideological changes that were part of the&nbsp; transformation created a new landscape of work and social relations for corporate middle managers. &nbsp; Managing in the Corporate Interest assesses this landscape by examining a large diversified bank that restructured its organizational and personnel policies to meet a new era of corporate competition. Drawing on interviews with managers and personnel management employees, observation of management training seminars, and documentary sources, this book examines the unique mission handed to middle managers to scale back paternalistic employment policies. It also analyzes the intra-management conflict incurred when corporate top managers attempted to disguise their downsizing strategies and refused to acknowledge their own role in creating the bank's economic crisis. &nbsp; Vicki Smith's work suggests that quick-fix strategies such as downsizing and cutbacks, which dominated corporate profitability strategies in the 1980s, can corrode trust and legitimacy in the workplace. In the long run, such strategies also undermine consent to the current and very necessary transformation of the way American firms do business. &nbsp; Managing in the Corporate Interest contains important lessons about the rise and decline of economic enterprises and provides a wide-ranging look at changes in the management, structure, and production processes of American corporations. Richly documented and accessibly written, this incisive work will appeal to business people and scholars alike. <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.</div>

In the 1980s, corporate America experienced massive cutbacks and organizational decline after decades of economic growth and dominance. The institutional and ideological changes that were part of the transformation created a new landscape of work and social relations for corporate middle managers.\nManaging in the Corporate Interest assesses this landscape by examining a large diversified bank that restructured its organizational and personnel policies to meet a new era of corporate competition. Drawing on interviews with managers and personnel management employees, observation of management training seminars, and documentary sources, this book examines the unique mission handed to middle managers to scale back paternalistic employment policies. It also analyzes the intra-management conflict incurred when corporate top managers attempted to disguise their downsizing strategies and refused to acknowledge their own role in creating the bank’s economic crisis.\nVicki Smith's work suggests that quick-fix strategies such as downsizing and cutbacks, which dominated corporate profitability strategies in the 1980s, can corrode trust and legitimacy in the workplace. In the long run, such strategies also undermine consent to the current and very necessary transformation of the way American firms do business.\nManaging in the Corporate Interest contains important lessons about the rise and decline of economic enterprises and provides a wide-ranging look at changes in the management, structure, and production processes of American corporations. Richly documented and accessibly written, this incisive work will appeal to business people and scholars alike. 
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.\nFrom the Inside Flap\n&#34;This is a landmark study of the modern American business organization, based on the experience of middle mangers in a large but troubled California bank. It offers fascinating sociological insights into the process of managerial reorganization, along with a trenchant analysis of policies seeking to promote economic and organizational flexibility. The book should be read by sociologists, anthropologists, and economists, as well as anyone interested in the future of business management in the United States.&#34;&;Sanford Jacoby, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles 
&#160; 
&#34;Vicki Smith's book is an invaluable and unique contribution to emerging literature on postindustrial organizations. Critically examining the prospects and dilemmas of middle management in an age of corporate restructuring, she effortlessly links the politics, economics, and sociology of corporate life to explore the dynamics of the modern corporation. I recommend this book to everyone&;economists, sociologists, and managers&;who wants to understand how a postindustrial economy is created.&#34;&;Larry Hirschhorn, Wharton Center for Applied Research\nFrom the Back Cover\n"This is a landmark study of the modern American business organization, based on the experience of middle mangers in a large but troubled California bank. It offers fascinating sociological insights into the process of managerial reorganization, along with a trenchant analysis of policies seeking to promote economic and organizational flexibility. The book should be read by sociologists, anthropologists, and economists, as well as anyone interested in the future of business management in the United States."—Sanford Jacoby, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles\n"Vicki Smith's book is an invaluable and unique contribution to emerging literature on p

Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy

The 1990s were years of turmoil and transformation in American work experiences and employment relationships. Trends including the growth of contingent labor, the erosion of the stable employment contract, the restructuring of jobs and companies, and the emergence of opportunity-enhancing employee participation programs reconfigured occupations, career paths, and labor market opportunities. Vicki Smith analyzes this shift, asking how workers navigated their way across the divide between bad jobs and good jobs, between jobs organized hierarchically and jobs requiring greater worker involvement, and between temporary and stable work.
Crossing the Great Divide uses original case study data from four diverse organizational settings around the country. Smith compares the situations of nonunionized, white-collar workers at a photocopy service firm; unionized blue-collar workers in a wood-products processing factory; temporary assemblers and clerical workers in a high-tech firm; and unemployed managers, technical workers, and professionals participating in a job search club. 
The very different experiences revealed in Crossing the Great Divide highlight the way diverse new relationships between companies and their employees play out in workplaces, where new forms of work organization simultaneously create opportunity, instability, and risk for workers. Smith's goal is to construct a new framework of employment that accommodates the unpredictability and turbulence of the 21st century, but that is also "characterized at its core by attachment, reward, protection, commitment, and dignity."

ILR PRESS

Temporary agencies place approximately two and a half million people in jobs each day in the United States. Every year, about twelve million people use these placement agencies to find temporary work. Many Americans, even those who desire permanent jobs, decide to enter the labor market through the portal of temporary agencies. Compared with the post-World War II era, when it was a marginal labor practice, temporary employment is today an entrenched feature of jobs and labor markets. How have temporary employment relationships become so widespread and normalized? In The Good Temp, Vicki Smith and Esther B. Neuwirth provide some novel answers to this question.Their provocative analysis is based on an insider's view of the interior dynamics of a temporary help agency in Silicon Valley. It incorporates a historical perspective on the rise of the temporary help service industry. Smith and Neuwirth document how this powerful industry not only created a new market for temporary labor but also played a fundamental role in the erosion of the permanent employment model. They analyze how agencies themselves came to manufacture and market this reinvented product-the good temp, an employee who is effective and efficient, committed, and sometimes preferable to a permanent staff member.Joining extensive participant observation data with historical analysis, The Good Temp contains some surprising findings about temporary employment today and fills a significant gap in our understanding of this important labor relationship.

The Good Temp

Neuwirth, Esther B.

Job Hunting & Careers

Df Good Temp Z

Cornell University Press

Temporary agencies place approximately two and a half million people in jobs each day in the United States. Every year, about twelve million people use these placement agencies to find temporary work. Many Americans, even those who desire permanent jobs, decide to enter the labor market through the portal of temporary agencies. Compared with the post-World War II era, when it was a marginal labor practice, temporary employment is today an entrenched feature of jobs and labor markets. How have temporary employment relationships become so widespread and normalized? In The Good Temp, Vicki Smith and Esther B. Neuwirth provide some novel answers to this question.
Their provocative analysis is based on an insider's view of the interior dynamics of a temporary help agency in Silicon Valley. It incorporates a historical perspective on the rise of the temporary help service industry. Smith and Neuwirth document how this powerful industry not only created a new market for temporary labor but also played a fundamental role in the erosion of the permanent employment model. They analyze how agencies themselves came to manufacture and market this reinvented product-the good temp, an employee who is effective and efficient, committed, and sometimes preferable to a permanent staff member.
Joining extensive participant observation data with historical analysis, The Good Temp contains some surprising findings about temporary employment today and fills a significant gap in our understanding of this important labor relationship.

Linguistic atlas of the Gulf States: The basic materials : an introduction and guide to the microfiche collection

Computers & Technology

Programming

University Microfilms International]

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Smith, Vicki. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Smith, Vicki

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Smith, Vicki. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Managing in the Corporate Interest: Control and Resistance in an American Bank

Managing in the Corporate Interest: Control and Resistance in an American Bank

Managing in the Corporate Interest: Control and Resistance in an American Bank

Managing in the Corporate Interest: Control and Resistance in an American Bank

Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy

The Good Temp

Df Good Temp Z

The Good Temp

Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy

Linguistic atlas of the Gulf States: The basic materials : an introduction and guide to the microfiche collection