The Organizational Revolution in the United States - Essay Example

?The Organizational Revolution in the United s was possible due to huge contributions by the most eminent luminaries of the time. It was a period on the verge of centuries when the US and its people acquired more strength to further dominate in the world. However, it is vital to pay tribute to those who made that dream come true. On the contrary, the paper is dedicated to the negative impact of the organizational revolution on the society. Thus, "Organizational Revolution" provides Americans with the means and the "actual goods" to begin thinking about the end of society. First and foremost, the growth of the US potential in the inter-war period cannot be underestimated, as the progress was of industrial type. It is likely that the United States could not develop by the rural model of the 19th century. A change should be weightier in the most innovative sectors of the industrial breakthrough, such as aviation and automobile building. With this in mind, a well-known and century-long American insurance industry had become too influential in the metropolitan life with huge and tall buildings in New York, Chicago and other significant cities of the US: In the first decade of the 20th century, the Metropolitan Life had insurance in force totaling over $2.2 billion, so it built and occupied, 1909—10, an immense temple in the sky which was 700 feet high, the world’s tallest for a time (Johnson 576). Hence, the organizational revolution presupposed a significant shift from mainly rural to industrial development, from isolation to acknowledgement, from illiteracy to educational breakthroughs with knowledge of markets, society, politics and economy at large. It was the time of overall discovery of the American potential from inside out. In fact, both human resources and intellectual capacity of Americans let the country improve on its performance on the verge of the 20th century. Looking at the figures of Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan, their contribution into machine-building industry was too high to ignore it. In fact, both made America the first in the world’s tempos of automobile building. It was they who established the American image of “biggerness” present in every part of a car. Moreover, Ford and Sloane impacted the spirit of contemporary Americans devoted solely to cars, as it is the main type of transport in the country. The thing is that when Ford tried to make a car affordable for every single American, Sloane coped with the best strategy for launching such cars: “While Ford made the product as well as he could, then looked for people to buy it, Sloane produced the widest possible range of cars for the maximum spread of customers” (Johnson 731). Hence, America had a huge market share in the world arena concerning automobile industry. With a more pragmatic and capitalist vision of American luminaries, it touched upon every field of scientific and technological progress. Besides, business owners and the richest families of the time tried to impose the spirit of progress and superiority to every American so as to show them the very picture of the future innovations and breakthrough, as might be seen in the post-war period. Thus, engineering, consumerism, investment trusts, turnaround of capital locally and in the international perspective were some of the main trends of the economical growth as a consequence of the organizational revolution. Capitalism is always consumerism. In this vein, Americans got used to believe more in the actual goods and material amenities at their disposal, forgetting about the genuine virtues of the sound-minded society. This assumption comes as a result of the rural, small, and isolated community which the United States was at the outset of the independence and throughout the 19th century. However, the European basis of the five main social institutions was not neglected in the US. In turn it gave grounds to the economic expansion which became possible for the United States after the World War I and due to its isolation, to be precise. Different propositions from Europe in the inter-war period could not but boost the American economy and market share in the main sectors of trade and international partnership. Urbanization, industrialization, state and regional world markets gave way to America’s boastful position among the world’s countries suffering from the outcomes of the World War I and social as well as ideological changes in the most of European countries as well. Thus, the cultural attributes of Americans have transformed into specific goods and standardization of production. Starting with Whitney’s suggestions on the “American System” when there was no proper market in the United States, he predicted and, therefore, “grasped that the way to produce machinery or products in vast quantities at low prices was to achieve interchangeability of parts, uniformity, standardization, on a scale never before imagined” (Johnson 309). This idea was kept in mind by several generations of the most eminent Americans until the time had come. Overtly, Americans always strived to achieve more independence in the world due to the morals and educational, resource, and human capacity in hand. Thus, the industrial development as the point to start thinking about the end of the society was inevitable for the USA in the first decades of the 20th century and thereafter. To conclude, rapid technological and industrial advance of America in the beginning of the 20th century was well impacted by six reasons. It was promoted in an attempt to catch up and surpass the world’s major rivals of the United States. Inventiveness of American officials and Americans on the whole gave rise to the organizational revolution manifested through the following main reasons: 1) America (like Britain before it) had liberal patent laws, which gave the maximum incentive to human ingenuity 2) The scarcity and high cost of labor gave the strongest possible motive not only to invent but to buy and install labor 3) Standardization of machinery and parts 4) The extraordinary success of American agriculture, already noted, was one of the dynamics of industrialization 5) The abundance and variety of energy sources—first water-power, then steam-power fed by wood and coal, then electricity (Johnson 531). This is why Americans could not fail to refuse from the obsolete forms of their essential living when a new wave of industrialism and capital (financial) breakthrough evoked to the minds of different layers of the American society. Hence, material amenities have become more essential for Americans than immaterial virtues before. Works Cited Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1999. Read More