Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-338) and index.

The transformation of the corporate world is one of the most extraordinary events of the twentieth century. Not long ago, loyalty was the hallmark of the "company man," and the corporation he worked for seemed to provide permanent security. But the company man of the 1950s - or even the 1970s - would hardly recognize the corporation of the 1990s. The buildings may look the same, but everything else has changed.

How and why this transformation took place is the subject of Company Man, a brilliant social history of business. Anthony Sampson begins with a perceptive look at capitalism as it began to develop its modern form in the middle of the nineteenth century and the notion of the company man - respectable, reliable, and reasonably well paid - began to emerge. Sampson follows the evolution of this species into the twentieth century as formerly entrepreneurial organizations began to ossify into bureaucratic, complacent structures that reached their peak in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Then, for good reasons, everything began to unravel, with consequences not only for the companies but also for the millions of people who relied on them for their livelihoods. The changes of the past twenty years have been brutal and are continuing.

Corporate raiders, Asian competitors with new and better ways to manage, computers taking over the functions of middle managers, and fads like reengineering that cause tremendous disruption all mean there's no longer any such thing as a typical day at the office - or a typical career. The office and the company man have been fixtures in the lives of middle-class people for well over a hundred years. Anthony Sampson provides answers and a look into the future for the many people who want to know what happened and why. Will the corporation still be the source of a middle-class lifestyle for millions? Or will it evolve so that its riches will be dispensed to a corporate aristocracy consisting of the CEOs and their top management ... with everyone else becoming temps who hop from assignment to assignment to serve the new corporate elite? Company Man provides the perspective to assist readers in coming to grips with this massive transformation.

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