The New Individualists: The Generation After the Organization Man

The ``organization man'' profiled in William Whyte Jr.'s classic 1956 study was a gray conformist. But his rebellious, artistic offspring brought their philosophy of self-actualization into the workplace, according to management consultant Leinberger and freelance writer Tucker, who tracked down and interviewed more than 300 of Whyte's original subjects and their now-adult children. This treatise offers a devastating, uncanny profile of the new corporate workforce and its need to shape up. The ``authentic self,'' the character type said by the authors to have replaced Whyte's organization man, is being supplanted, they claim, by yet another type--the ``artificial person,'' an ``alarmingly open-ended'' character whose outward optimism masks a gnawing pessimism and an ever-readiness to switch jobs or find a more comfortable niche in the corporate network. Leinberger and Tucker benefited from the full cooperation of Whyte, who supplied them with his original research files. Author tour. (Aug.)