organization man

organization man

a standard character type held by some theorists (especially William Whyte, 1956) to be increasingly found within modern industrial, commercial and some scientific and government organizations, in which executives and managers in an important sense ‘belong’ to the organization, and are dominated by a ‘social ethic‘ rather than an ‘individual ethic’, which leads to conformism and to mediocrity. Essentially the idea applies to Max WEBER's conception of, and fears about, modern BUREAUCRACY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000