Title: The old dispensation
First published: 1998
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.
Subjects: History, Business ethics, Employee loyalty, Corporate reorganizations, Industrial relations
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: HD2746.5 .C54 1998