The Impact of the Organization

This has been enormous. The book The Organization Man came out when I was in college in the Fifties, and I was impressed by it.

When I was growing up in Ft. Madison, Iowa, there was an important difference between the Union Men (such as my paternal grandfather) that worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, (who thought about the people involved) and the Company Men (who thought about the company).

There was a Railroad Strike that the Union lost. My father survived because he was a small businessman, and could work for himself. His father went back to the farm and suffered a stroke that crippled him for the rest of his life. The Organization won, and the People lost.

By the time I went to college and became an Electronic Engineer, in 1959, and went to work for the FAA, there were no Unions. The organizations were all-powerful and still are.

In 1980 I went to work for the Computer industry, where there are very large organizations, such as Google, and networks, such as the Internet.

These are so advanced, we are not sure what to call them. Everyone there wants to be an influencer.