Table Of Contenti
n the United States, a strong work ethic has long been upheld as a
G WorK BETTEr
necessity, and tributes to motivation abound—from the motivational R
posters that line the walls of the workplace to the self-help gurus who a
draw in millions of viewers online. Americans are repeatedly told y
they can achieve financial success and personal well-being by adopting
a motivated attitude toward work. But where did this obsession come
Live BETTEr
from? And whose interests does it serve?
Work Better, Live Better traces the rise of motivational rhetoric in the
workplace across the expanse of two world wars, the Great Depression, W
and the Cold War. Beginning in the early twentieth century, managers
recognized that force and coercion—the traditional tools of workplace o
discipline—inflamed industrial tensions, so they sought more subtle means r
of enlisting workers’ cooperation. David Gray demonstrates how this
K
“motivational project” became a highly orchestrated affair as managers
and their allies deployed films, posters, and other media, and drew on
B
the ideas of industrial psychologists and advertising specialists to advance
E
their quests for power at the expense of worker and union interests.
T
T
“Work Better, Live Better provides invaluable insight into how
E
corporate management attempted to refashion the American
work ethic in the twentieth century. An ambitious, intelligent, and r
thoughtful account of work and its ideological management that is
essential reading for anyone interested in the history of capitalism.”
L
—Tim Strangleman, i
author of Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery v
e
“By focusing on the idea of ‘motivation’ and the level of effort, energy, and
engagement that managers have historically put into attempting to shape
B
the inner psychic lives and experiences of workers, Gray renders strange
E
and unusual some of the most familiar tropes of economic culture.”
T
—Kim Phillips-Fein,
T
author of Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade against the New Deal
E
DaVID GRay
r
is teaching assistant professor of American studies
and history at Oklahoma State University.
MOTIVATION, LABOR,
AND MANAGEMENT IDEOLOGY
Cover art by Packer (poster artist), “We’re
Ready for the Challenge Tomorrow, Let’s do
the Job Together!”. c 1941–1945. Courtesy
National Archives and Records Administration
DaVID GRay
(NAID) 516115.
www.umasspress.com Cover design by Frank Gutbrod
GGrraayy__ssooffttccoovveerr..iinndddd 11 1100//1155//2200 33::4466 PPMM
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WoRK BETTER
LIVe BETTER
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WoRK BETTER
LIVe BETTER
MOTIVATION, LABOR,
AND MANAGEMENT IDEOLOGY
DaVID GRaY
University of Massachusetts Press
Amherst and Boston
Copyright © 2020 by University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978- 1- 62534- 534- 9 (paper); 533- 2 (hardcover)
Designed by Jen Jackowitz
Set in Minion Pro and Cache
Printed and bound by Books International, Inc.
Cover design by Frank Gutbrod
Cover art by Packer (poster artist), “We’re Ready for the Challenge Tomorrow, Let’s do the
Job Together!,” ca. 1941–1945. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration
(NAID) 516115.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Gray, David (Ph. D. in American Studies), author.
Title: Work better, live better : motivation, labor, and management
ideology / David Gray.
Description: Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020] | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020019274 | ISBN 9781625345332 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781625345349 (paperback) | ISBN 9781613767832 (ebook) | ISBN
9781613767849 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Management—United States—Psychological aspects—History.
States—Psychological aspects—History. | Psychology, Industrial—United
States—History. | Success in business—United States—History.
Classification: LCC HD70.U5 G687 2020 | DDC 658.3/14—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019274
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
A portion of chapter 2 was previously published as “Managing Motivation: The Seth
Seiders Syndicate and the Motivational Publicity Business in the 1920s,” Winterthur
Portfolio 44, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 77– 122. A portion of chapter 4 was previously pub-
lished as “New Uses for Old Photos: Renovating FSA Photographs in World War II
Posters,” American Studies 47, no. 3 (2006): 5– 34. Used by permission.
for Sarah
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1
Motivation, Management, and Industrial Modernity 18
CHAPTER 2
Quests to Shape the Worker’s Mind 51
The Rise of Psychological Motivation
CHAPTER 3
Visions of Striving 81
Debating Work’s Promises in the Great Depression
CHAPTER 4
The War over Motivation 119
Prosperity Rhetoric and the Remaking of Work’s Rewards during World War II
CHAPTER 5
Selling Workers on Their Jobs 160
Consumption- Based Motivation and Management Dominion in the Postwar Era
CHAPTER 6
The New Hucksters of Cooperation 203
Cold War Consensus Campaigns and the American Way of Work
vii
viii | Contents
EPILOGUE
Motivation in an Age of Diminishing Rewards 250
NOTES 275
INDEX 329
