The old dispensation
Subtitle: loyalty in business
By: John J. Clancy.
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Madison [N.J.]; London; Cranbury
Language: eng
Number of pages: 339
Subjects: Corporate reorganizations -- History -- 20th century.; Business ethics -- History -- 20th century.; Employee loyalty -- History -- 20th century.
Other titles: Loyalty in business
Description: The Old Dispensation is the story of loyalty lost, the fading of the loyalty to organizations once so characteristic of American life. John J. Clancy asks the basic questions: Why? What has happened to the economy, the culture, to American management practices so that loyalty is waning or gone? How did loyalty emerge in the first place? Was there a time when corporate loyalty was waxing? In this work, Clancy essays a "natural history" of loyalty, the causes of its flowering, and its demise.

The story is told with a rich mixture of economics, management theory, historical accounts, public opinion poll data, Clancy's own survey data, and, particularly, the words of Clancy's subjects, employees of a rather typical high-technology company.

This is a cautionary tale. Although some observers - and some of Clancy's subjects - have celebrated the new social character and the new independence of American workers, Clancy argues that the erosion of mutual trust, the growing moral isolation of Americans, is a risk to them, to society, and to the corporation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 324-334) and index.