HIST 2057 UNIT 2 The Organizational Revolution 09 29 2015 I Introduction The cities being more of the center of American life More economic activity going on in cities America started turning away from rest of the world after WWI Americans tried to concentrate on its own economic situation Herbert Hoover was the secretary of commerce for most of the decade and then became president in late 20 s o He said the 1920s was a new era However America was still going through growing pains o Going from urban to industrial o Eventually there was a backlash against this modern society some of it actually worked The 1920s characterized by the business of America is business said by Calvin Coolidge The values and ideology of business were central attitudes of Americans during this time but people started questioning values in 1929 when the stock market crashed In the early 20s it seemed like America s peace would last for a long time Wages increased slightly number of hours in a work week went down people had more money and more leisure time o emerged as the cutting edge industry of the decade o all because of Henry Ford became the most admired man in America by using new technology and new techniques started in 1893 by building a gas driven carriage that became an automobile started ford motor company in 1903 success of company reached one of its peaks in 1920s developed the ideas of interchangeable parts and the assembly line II Industrial and Urban Growth A Auto using the standardized interchangeable parts putting them on a conveyer belt and having workers along the way assembling the car each person doing one task allowed ford to hire unskilled labor and teach them to do that one thing before the assembly line the company could produce a car every 14hrs and then 93min and then better and better as yrs went on by 1925 company was so efficient workers started working 5 days instead of 6 River Rouge plant Contained in one plants everything necessary to create a car Greatest achievement by Ford Entire car made in one factory Ford had a great reputation B Construction o cities grew taller o suburbs constructed for the middle and upper classes o as this and auto industry started to grow other industries started to grow C A Businessman s Country o businessmen became celebrities o Ford was called to speak on a lot of difference subjects Ford had a newspaper column people learned how he wasn t really a great guy o It almost took on the worship on these people like Ford almost a religious overturn o Calvin Coolidge president of the time said the man who builds a factory builds a temple The man who works there worships the temple o These people became models for good Americans o Business ideals were so idolized that some businessmen were treated almost god like One reason was because of the organizational revolution III The Organizational revolution 1920s was the era of the organizational revolution A Functional Groups o people felt the need to belong to certain organizations o the 1920s brought on the use of functional groups o individuals would align themselves w groups to help them w their jobs status etc chamber of commerce rotary club etc o in many instances certain groups of people a person became defined by the groups he she joined B Scientific Management o efforts to study greater efficiency in business o producing radios refrigerators more consumer goods o productivity increased in the US big time but it didn t stop o some industries adopted new techniques that came to be with just building things called welfare capitalism produced more worker satisfaction corporations hired psychologists to find out problems of the people were so they could create benefits and such so people would work harder o businesses increased organization by hiring making different positions o because you had these new positions universities had to organize degrees to have people to fill positions universities became more organized management degrees research fellowship o secondary schools did things to teach more efficiently create bureaucracy o churches created more bureaucracy o all of this comes a change in America s values a new group of Americans developed who were some where in the middle C New Middle Class o people who were doing the new jobs in the bureaucracies etc o more traditional values were centered around family individual autonomy family owned business o instead of individual thinking being valued an individual was valued only as a member of a group o new point of view group centered work centered organizations seemed to be more important than the individual o some people felt uneasy about it Henry Ford felt so uneasy about the new world he was helping to created that he created o Greenfield village Replica of a 14th century village Ford expected to get inhabitants there to live a more simple life tried to get employees to do this Used modern techniques to build the village o 1927 Charles Lindbergh accomplished first solo transatlantic flight form NYC to Paris the reactions to his flight were different if you liked old values you d think of it as an individual accomplishment new values look at a triumph of technology of the people who built the plant The success of the flight meant the success of the new society Lindbergh wrote a book about it called US Meaning the people who helped put the plan together the people who sent him messages via radio during the time etc o Debates on corporate values o In the economy companies produced all these good chickens IV Cultural Ambivalence Culture of the 1920s I Consumer Culture A Advertising product now what o enormous growth of industry to get people to buy your o before this decade advertisers weren t as prevalent as known o by the 1920s advertising blew up and the conditions of advertisements changed o ex Said ivory soap was 100 pure they didn t say pure o ex Brightly colored box o book called Psychology of Advertising basically the way to create demand would be to create ads that manipulate people into buying them because they believed these items were therapeutic o people felt the need to express how they felt II Modernity and the Therapeutic Ethic A Consumer Culture Freud and the Flappers o S Freud was the father of expression His patients were Victorian women who said they felt better when they expressed themselves o The flapper image of the decade A young Victorian woman single middle class Delighted in this new figure Short dresses publicly drinking