Peter writes ...
Future students of mine will be required to read 'The Puritan Gift' by Hopper and Hopper. This is a warm-hearted but unflinching critique of our Western managerial and technological culture. It is in many senses "a hymn of praise to America" but, in this, sees the cracks, cranks and follies, as readily as it bears witness to nobility and fortune.
Early on, the authors report that in its infancy and prime:
"A subtle but robust blend of respect for the rights of the individual and the group - which, in its managerial expression, may be described as collegiality - lay at the beating heart of America's evolving commercial and industrial life."
Later, focusing upon "the Business School Counter Culture", the authors talk of how "Collegiality was succeeded by the worship of the all-powerful or 'imperial' chief executive."
A full review will follow, possibly as a last post to DC 2007.
I have borrowed the picture of the Chrysler Building, one of the world's greatest buildings, from RachelleB
