WHAT LITERATURE TEACHES MANAGERS    

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Certain books and their characters throughout time have influenced the course of history, culture, civilization and scientific thought. Less often examined is how literature and fictional characters influence the individual behavior of readers. In this course we examine how characters are affected by the behavior of persons in positions of power and we analyze how this translates into what we can learn about effective management of human resources in organizations by reading literature.

NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE COURSE:

In this course we seek to:  

become acquainted with key literary characters who have stories to tell about how organizations' hierarchies affect relationships,

examine how characters demonstrate that securing mutual understanding with others opens the door to a real potential to make a difference,

understand that controversial problems can and should be approached   from several different perspectives,

view each character through   the lens of our own experiences

PREREQUISITES:

There are no prerequisites.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Please send all written assignments as attachments to me at my email address: bobpasciullo@att.net or by regular mail to me at: 1 Beach Court, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Refer to Discussion page for discussion topics for each session.

GRADING SYSTEM

Grades will be based on participation in Bulletin Board discussions and written assignments. Grading will be distributed as follows between the two – 75% for written assignments and 25% for discussion.   The writing assignments and Bulletin Board discussion will require the integration of the substance of the respective reading assignments with the student's personal experiences and observations. The purpose of the assignments and the Bulletin Board discussions is to encourage you to share your analyses of the readings and lectures, and explore how they relate to your own experiences in the world of work.

COURSE MATERIALS:

The following book is required reading:

THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli

Excerpts from the following novels, short stories, plays and poems will be included in the instructional packets which you will receive from UWW.

Many years ago, one of my literature professors advised me and my classmates to “Read the great books- just the great ones. Ignore the others, there’s not enough time.” I encourage you to read these selections in their entirety when you have time to do so.

BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVNER by Herman Melville
THE CATBIRD SEAT by James Thurber

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE BOSS by Hugh Geeslin, Jr.
BABBIT by Sinclair Lewis
NORTH AND SOUTH by Elizabeth Gaskell
A RAISIN IN THE SUN Lorraine Hansberry
FOR MY PEOPLE Margaret Walker

THE POOL PLAYERS by Gwendolyn Brooks

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING by Alan Sillitoe

A GOOD MAN HAS NO SHAPE by Wallace Stevens

FACTORY WINDOWS ARE ALWAYS BROKEN by Vachel Lindsay

THE MILLER'S WIFE by Edward Arlington Robinson

THE SEAMSTRESS by Wanda Coleman

QUALITY  by John Galsworthy

MANY WORKMAN by Stephen Crane

 

Please note:

• Students are required to look up the biographies of the authors in resources of their choice.
• Rather than purchase Lorraine Hansberry's RAISIN IN THE SUN, students are advised to borrow copies from their local libraries.

OVERVIEW:

All types of organizations – whether large, small, profit or not-for-profit, have limits as to capital, equipment, space, etc. However, there is no limit for the creative capacity of organizations' major asset – employees.   This course explores examples of effective management of this creative force through selected readings.   The topics listed will be addressed by examining both major and minor characters and their responses to situations and events, some of which are brought about by their own actions, while others are thrust upon them.  

1.   CHANGING AN ORGANIZATION - LEADERSHIP

THE PRINCE Machiavelli

MANY WORKMEN Stephen Crane

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING Alan Sillitoe

2.   INDIVIDUAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS

THE DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE BOSS Hugh Geeslin, Jr.

 3. HUMAN NEEDS

BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVNER Herman Melville

THE SEAMSTRESS Wanda Coleman

A GOOD MAN HAS NO SHAPE Wallace Stevens

 4. CONFLICT

NORTH AND SOUTH Elizabeth Gaskell

THE CATBIRD SEAT James Thurber

FACTORY WINDOWS ARE ALWAYS BROKEN Vachel Lindsay

5. INFLUENCING AND COMMUNICATING

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING Alan Sillitoe

6. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

THE MILLER'S WIFE Edward Arlington Robinson

QUALITY John Galsworthy

BABBIT Sinclair Lewis

7. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS

A RAISIN IN THE SUN Lorraine Hansberry

FOR MY PEOPLE Alice Walker

THE POOL PLAYERS Gwendolyn Brooks

It is a simple fact of our lives that business occupies a central role in everyday activities, and therefore, the managers of our business enterprises affect our lives as they effect their businesses. In business school one examines management practices by learning about how tycoons have led major organizations or by studying the theories of those who have advised them. There are the 19 th & 20 th centuries' “shakers and movers” of   the American industrial revolution, such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Averill Harriman,   J. Pierpont Morgan,   Jay Gould, and the   “organizational and management theorists” of the 20 th century– Frederick Taylor, William Durant, Abraham Maslow,   Douglas McGregor, W. Edwards Deming, and of course, theearliest of them all –Niccolo` Machiavelli of the 16 th century who wrote about the ends and not the means. Many of our earlier industrial giants reflected the American dream of the self-made person rising from poverty to riches and success.   The theorists reflected on how they and others managed the affairs and progress of business enterprises.

In this course reading selections portray various characters whose lives, activities and attitudes in different times and different places provide a view from the bottom or near bottom of the management hierarchy.   We chronicle these individuals and their workplace experiences and relationships with management to allow contemporary managers, embryonic managers and students of management theory to expand their perspective of what is life like for the lower level wage earners who are “'managed.” From these diverse workplace snapshots, I hope you will obtain a deeper sensitivity to those who work with and for you in any type of business and gain a clearer understanding of the human factors in being an effective and successful manager.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs shown below illustrates a generally accepted theory of levels of human needs. The diagram is instructive for managers. In some jobs, employees are able to achieve satisfaction at just the first level – physiological. As one moves to higher levels of the pyramid, one gains insight into the ways that greater satisfaction may be achieved according to what is provided in work situations. Managers sensitive to human needs may consider providing opportunities for their satisfaction as a means of motivating employees.

  We will be relating aspects of the reading to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs during this course. A larger copy is included in your packet of instructional materials.

SESSION   1.    (JAN. 26 – FEB. 1)

LITERATURE SHAPING AND PROMULGATING THINKING  

Over the years, books by historians, philosophers, social scientists, and policy analysts have helped to shape and guide the thinking of presidents and their advisors in regard to domestic and foreign policies and America's position in world affairs.   The war on poverty in the 1960's, led by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, was given a major impetus by Michael Harrington's “The Other America.”   Ronald Reagan was greatly influenced in embracing tax cuts during his administration by George Guilder's, “Wealth and Poverty.”    Today, there are numerous books that it can be claimed provide prescriptive and instructive advice to neoconservatives and liberals and those of other political persuasions.   President Bush's advisors, such as Messrs. Cheney and Rumsfeld,   subscribe to views expressed in books like “An Autumn of War” by   Victor David Hanson   and “Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision” by Roberta Wohlstetter.  

While no single book is pivotal in providing a philosophical matrix for policy decisions, there is a constant flow of texts from theorists on all sides of the political spectrum to promote their ideas.   Non-fiction is the predominant fodder for politicians and their supporters as they develop a road map to reach their goals, whereas fiction plays a role in the training of members of the legal profession.   (An article written by Adam Liptak in the 10/30/04 edition of the New York Times , pointed out that 40% of the law schools include literature courses in the curriculum.   The article cited the top ten works of fiction used in law and literature classes based on a 1995 survey:   “Billy Budd” by Herman Melville was number one followed by “Measure for Measure” by William Shakespeare and “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.)

The business world, on the other hand, is dominated by texts mostly of the “how-to-do” genre, such as Jack Welch's how to make General Electric a world colossus or Sidney Harmon's “Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life” or Prof. Jeffrey Seglin's “The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business.”   It is instructive to note that in spite of the fact that supervisory personnel at all levels are besieged with an overflowing stream of books and articles with prescriptions and instructions for managing successfully, we observe daily that the global business world is filled with corruption and greed, from United States to Russia, with England mid-way, and from Italy to China.   We in America are all too familiar with Tyco, Enron, Halliburton; Italy has its largest food producer, Parmalat; England its Hollinger International; China its Southern Securities brokerage and Russia its gas and oil conglomerates; each under extensive scrutiny for nefarious activities undertaken by corporate leadership.

The question, therefore, is where does an individual who wants to be a value-driven manager turn for guidance when holding a position of fiduciary and ethical responsibility! What resources are there for the manager who represents the intellectual backlash against corporate scandals that have dominated the business world these last two years?

The response for this value-driven manager is to discover the essentials of leadership and gain a deeper understanding of the human condition through fiction, whether, novels, short stories, poetry, plays, or essays.   From this genre, a committed manager has the opportunity to forge a new vision of the world's most dominant institution – business!   From a variety of selections, a perceptive reader will be able to sense a profound shift in the fundamental assumptions about being a manager and a leader.  

However, before we begin with the initial selection, Machiavelli's “The Prince,”

I would like you to create a personal framework from which you can sift, analyze and reflect on the readings in the context of your own experience and individual goals.   

ASSIGNMENT 1.   DUE 1/31/04

• Write a brief description of your employment and educational experiences. Include observations about any supervisors, positive or negative, who made a lasting impression on you. If you are in a managerial position at this time, what areas, issues, problems are of most concern to you? (Be specific, using examples where applicable.) Describe your managerial asperations.
•  Review the article, "In the Negotiation Sea, Are You a Carp or a Shark" by Claudia H. Deutsch (NY Times 10/12/31in your packet). In a few short paragraphs, tell me if you are a shark or a carp and explain why you fit the category.
• Read the one-page vita of Bob Pasciullo (included in your packet) so you know a little about your course facilitator - the one who will provide a grade for your extensive efforts throughout the term!

SESSION 2: (FEB. 2– FEB. 8)

Over a decade ago, December 1989 to be more exact, Harvard Professor Harvey C. Mansfield wrote “Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power,”considered by many political scientists to be a highly original analysis of the topic. Prof. Mansfield noted in the early part of his book that among the famous political thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, not one had developed a political entity in which executive power was defined.   In the ancient model, the purpose of government was to improve the character of its citizenry and to enhance virtue, and executive power had no role in this paradigm. Mansfield, however, pointed out that Aristotle considered the possibility and rejected it and was joined by other political sages who thought that executive power was inconsistent with democracy.   Mr. Mansfield observed that it was not until Machiavelli   that political science began   to develop the concept of executive power as we understand it today.  

History has not been kind to Machiavelli.   Recent academics are drawing a sharp distinction between the Aristotelian concept of government and the modern post Machiavellian regimes. A longstanding academic tradition has made “Machiavellian” a synonym for evil. Note while reading The Prince closely, Machiavelli did not set out to legitimatize wickedness; he was carefully describing in graphic detail how 16 th century rulers gained and maintained their positions. He was being descriptive , not prescriptive . The Prince is considered the first “how-to” manual for managers. We are all familiar with the cliché “the ends justify the means” and that it is ascribed to Machiavelli who considered “virtue” a function of means, not end. However, a careful reading of “ The Prince” will help to clarify his view of the essence of modern executive power – the capacity for decisiveness, sudden decisions, and often secrecy, and the conditions which require such actions.   His book is basically about how to manage a “takeover” effectively and efficiently.

ASSIGNMENT 2.   DUE   2/8

Complete the reading of The Prince

 

SESSION 3 (FEB. 9 - FEB. 15)

ASSIGNMENT 3. DUE 2/14  

Please write a 2-3 page analysis of Machiavelli's recommendations to a ruler when acquiring new territory (see quote below) with examples from our contemporary world either from a nation (s) or a corporation(s).   Hints (There are so many!):   present warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, on-going rebellions in numerous African nations, corporate mergers and acquisitions throughout the industrial world)

 

“To hold them securely, it is enough to have extinguished the line of princes who ruled them formerly and to maintain pre-existing conditions.   When there is no change of customs, men will live quietly. Anyone, who conquers such territories and wishes to hold onto them must do two things: the first is to extinguish the ruling family; the second is to neither alter the laws nor the taxes. Thus in a short time they will become one with the conqueror' original possessions.”

 

SESSION   4 (FEB. 16 - FEB. 22)

Alan Sillitoe's SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING

The excerpt is the second chapter in Alan Sillitoe's picturesque description of the life of Arthur Seaton, a lathe operator in a Nottingham Bicycle factory.   While not autobiographical according to the author, Sillitoe did piecework at the Raleigh Bicycle Factory after he quit school at age 14. Piecework is a term used for work that is paid according to the number of pieces successfully completed. Three months later, he quit this job over a wage dispute and became a capstan lathe operator at a plywood factory. Bored after 18 months, he entered military service in 1946.   Sillitoe in this relatively brief period of gaining piecework experience in a bustling factory merged his personal experiences with his observations of the actions and emotions of his colleagues at the workplace.   He once commented that Arthur represents a compilation of many personalities on and off the job. Therein lies the significance of the novel – the fact that it describes multi-faceted individuals. Those who have not experienced the harsh reality of assembly-line work and especially piecework, often perceive the factory floor filled with overall covered drudges engaged in tedious tasks much like their robotic machinery. In a close reading of this single chapter, one discovers that his working class characters are individuals and not caricatures. The working relations between Seaton and Robboe, the foreman (does the name suggest anything to you?), and Seaton and the rate-checker, and Seaton and his co-worker, Jack (and wife Brenda!)   provide insight into working class existence on and off the job and the workers' attitudes and temperaments regarding their lot in life.   SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING is praised for its verisimilitude in capturing working class life.    

This straightforward story follows Arthur Seaton's progress from factory floor through marriage and his affairs with two married sisters resulting in one's pregnancy and the other's abortion.   The actions leading up to these events and the events themselves are integral components of the development of the main players in the novel, but for those of us focusing on management- worker relations there are more subtle facets that measure Arthur and Jack and Robboe against the backdrop of the ever increasing need to increase productivity in this on-going and ever-driving industrial revolution.

ASSIGNMENT 4. DUE 2/21 

In our course description, this novel was placed under the Topic 1: CHANGING AN ORGANIZATION – LEADERSHIP.

In the 4th paragraph on page 39, beginning with “Arthur and Robboe tolerated and trusted each other.” and ending with “…speaking with loud mouths and passionless eyes.” explain in 1-2 pages why you think this chapter and in particular this paragraph should or should not be placed under this topic.Also discuss how Maslow's Hierachy applies. Substantiate your views with examples from the chapter.  

SESSION 5    (FEB. 23 – FEB. 29)

Read the article on Wal-Mart practices from the New York Times (January 13) included in your instructional packet and the poems listed below.

These three poems, each by a major American poet, depict displacement and the fundamental class conflict between the workers and their employers.  

VACHEL LINDSAY – FACTORY WINDOWS ARE ALWAYS BROKEN

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON   - THE MILLER'S WIFE                                         

WALLACE STEVENS – THE GOODMAN HAS NO SHAPE

ASSIGNMENT:   DUE   2/28/04

Each poem comments on limitations.   In a brief 1-2 page essay , explain how the poems' concepts relate to the on-going debates and issues within our contemporary business practice as illustrated in the article on Wal-Mart and any other current situation you can describe. Add recommendations you have to reduce the constraints on workers. As always, consider the Needs Hierarchy in your discussion.

SESSION 6:   (MAR. 1 - MAR. 7)

Herman Melville   BARTLEBY THE SCRIVNER: A STORY OF WALL STREET

“I would prefer not to” replies Bartleby, the law clerk, to requests by the kind and elderly lawyer-manager.   As we read, we find that Bartleby gives the same reply to every legitimate request.   All attempts to communicate and all strategies including power tactics fail; the frustrated lawyer still cannot bring himself to discharge his insubordinate

clerk.

This short tale, or novella, brings into focus the nature of the rights and responsibilities individuals have in relationships with others, such as employer and employees, and as human beings. The simple facts of this tale would demand that the recalcitrant Bartleby be discharged after the first “I would prefer not to.” However, how many lowly workers when asked to do or help with some office or store drudgery would yearn to say, “I would prefer not to? ”Note that Bartleby is not selective in what tasks he refuse to do; Bartleby, unfathomable hero, rejects not only specific tasks, but the entire oppressive world of the typical Wall Street law firm. The work of scrivners 150 years ago involved copying legal documents by hand, reading copies back to each other to check for error and as described by Bartleby's boss was “… very dull, wearisome and lethargic” work and that for people with “sanguine temperaments” the work might be “altogether intolerable.” (Melville, while not an attorney, was a customs inspector on the New York docks during his long years of literary eclipse and personally experienced the drudgery of a bureaucracy. His brother was an attorney where he would have gained his knowledge of the legal profession).

We note at first Bartleby accepts and completes his assignments, but when asked to help with a short legal document, he responds, “ I would prefer not to,” his mantra throughout the remainder of the story.   His very conventional boss is mystified and tries to get Bartleby to work and finally Bartleby's passivity causes his death in the Tombs when he tells the cook   “I prefer not to dine.”

In reading Bartleby, recall past history lessons that described the world of work in the 1850's when the Industrial Revolution was creating large numbers of factory and office jobs that were numbing and dehumanizing. Those who tried to make a distinction between slavery and industrial workers referred to these workers as “wage slaves.”

ASSIGNMENT: DUE   3/6/04

The story ends with the much-quoted exclamation: “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!” The tale is a cry against an oppressive social structure. Write a brief essay, 1-2 pages, directing your analysis to the above quote in this context. What relevance does it have to work life today as you know it? What managerial tactics would be effective in dealing with a problem employee such as Bartleby? Where would Bartleby's situation be on Maslow's Hierarchy and how would your suggestions fit in with Maslow's Theory?

SESSION 7:    (MAR. 8 – MAR. 14)

Wanda Coleman   THE SEAMSTRESS

 John Galsworthy   QUALITY

These very brief sketches, one by a Peace Corps volunteer and one by an author who was awarded a Nobel prize in Literature, describe the overpowering pressures on a woman who sews in a factory during the day and sews at home at night for extra money to help her family survive and an old world craftsman who can't and won't compromise his “Ardt!”

Peter Drucker, the management guru, wrote “We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.”   What is the motivation that drives the seamstress to work day and night?   Where does she get her inner strength to face the daily drudgery of her sweatshop working conditions? And the old craftsman –what motivates him to continue his “Ardt” while knowing that his livelihood is in a downward spiral?   

From Adam Smith, 18 th century economist, who believed in the incentive system to spur on the working man and woman to perform optimally to 20 th century Abraham Maslow,   the founder of humanistic psychology,   who categorized human needs and their role in why individuals work,   a myriad of theorists throughout the decades have tried to explain what impels, what incites, what induces individual to act as they do.

ASSIGNMENT:   DUE   3/13/04

The last sentence in the sketch about the seamstress   “And what makes her battle it so hard and never give in?” and the response by the young man who took over Mr. Gessler's boot shop describing his craftsmanship “Would ‘ave the best leather, too, and do it all ‘imself. Well, there it is. What could you expect with his ideas?” paint sympathetic portraits of two workers who are worlds apart but each have human needs impacted by mass production.   In  1-2 pages, identify and suggest ways that inequities at the workplace can be reduced and how   management can improve the workplace to lessen   conflict between workers' needs and the   economic system.   Use examples from the readings to support your views.

SESSION 8:   (MAR. 22– MAR. 28)

Elizabeth Gaskell's NORTH AND SOUTH

Chapter XVII “What Is A Strike?” provides the minutest snapshot of the working class discontent rampant throughout Great Britain in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.   Elizabeth Gaskell was an extremely popular writer and like Charles Dickens, (her contemporary and the editor of her works that appeared in his periodical Household Words),   addressed   major social issues of the times.   This brief excerpt captures the dilemma of a middle class woman, Margaret, sharing with a working class father and daughter their discontent as mill workers as they debate the rights and wrongs of union strikes and industrial action.   Gaskell's first book Mary Barton (1848) focuses completely on the working class community while in North and South , the author juxtaposes class and gender in a larger exploration of the industrial unrest.

Critics have pointed out that the title North and South was a poor choice because it suggests to readers, and particularly American readers, that this is a novel of stark polarities.   (It appears that there was a dispute over the title with Dickens, who serialized the novel in his weekly journal Household Words and the title North and South was preferred over the title using the name of the main character, Margaret Hale.) However, throughout the novel the differences between North and South are emphasized   - the South represented gentility, middle class values while the North was “ big smoky place,” conflict between trade and gentry, fundamental conflict between employers and workers, conflict between genders, etc.

Elizabeth Gaskell in her “industrial” novels emphasizes the social needs of the workers in conflict with the desires of industrialists. She does not accept the notion that the rights of capital have no obligations and can exist without responsible compensation for those who produce the value.   Her character, Margaret Hale, tries to convince John Thornton, mill owner, that a more enlightened attitude toward his workers would benefit all concerned. Thornton believed, like his colleagues, that the sufferings of the poor are self-imposed – “… but the natural punishment of dishonesly-enjoyed pleasure.”   In the chapter “What Is A Strike,” we find Margaret chafing at the constraints of her life, but more important, we see the futility of the workers for changing the system in the life of Betsy, an innocent victim of the industrial system waiting for death from an occupational disease and her father drinking away the pain of his labor. While the style of the writing is quaint to contemporary ears, there is no question about the accuracy of the depiction of the social conflict.

Notes for Elizabeth Gaskell's NORTH AND SOUTH

p. 134 FACTORY ACT of   1819 forbade the employment of children under 9; this was affirmed by SHAFTESBURY ‘S FACTORY ACT OF 1833 which limited hours of work for those between 9 and 13 to nine hours a day, and those between 12 and 18 to twelve hours a day.   In 1844 an ACT cut the working day for children between 8 and 13 to six and one-half hours.

p. 132   dang: beat, knock down; with strong overtones of violence

p. 133   welly clemmed :   nearly starved

p. 134   bated: lowered, decreased.

p. 136 knobsticks:   a blackleg, someone who works during a strike or lock-out, often brought in from outside.

p. 136   be farred: be blowed   (put them out of your mind)

p. 136   a four-pounder … to common on: a four pound loaf … to eat.

p. 136 spreeing: go out on a spree, get away from routine for a spot of pleasure.

ASSIGNMENT:   Due 3/27

This selection emphasizes the pervasiveness of stereotypes and the serious consequences when stereotyped individuals behave in ways that conform to the stereotype.   In a 1 –2 page essay discuss the stereotypes and the conflicts they represent as described in the chapter   “What Is A Strike” and explain how you would address this problem in your workplace.   How would you apply Maslow's view on “needs” to assist in resolving the problem?    

SESSIONS 9 and 10:     (MAR. 29 – APR. 11)

James Thurber   - THE CATBIRD SEAT

Hugh Geeslin, Jr. - A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE BOSS

In these two stories we find many parallels:

Two bosses – Mr. Fitweiler (The Catbird Seat) and Gladstone Mott (A Day…)

Two managers – Erwin Martin & Mason

Two change agents – Ugline Barrows & John Shaw

From these major characters, their interpersonal relationships, managerial styles and behaviors, the reader is provided a wide-lens view of an office workplace and an insight into what provokes people to act in situations that fit in the various stages of needs categorized by Maslow.  

The skilled craftsmanship of the authors in exposing each character's ability or lack of ability to cope with circumstances and interpersonal conflict is demonstrated by their short, brief descriptive strokes. The choice of character's names and their physical description provide hints of what is to come in the character's relationships with each other.   For instance, note the comments about the company presidents indicating that neither one is well-equipped   to deal with problem employees or interpersonal conflict.   Gladstone Mott feels that “ People and their motives were past his understanding and they had always been.”   In Thurber's famous story, Fitweiler is described as “pale and nervous” and we learn something about his character when he “took his glasses off and twiddled them.”   (“twiddled them” !!!) when facing his ordeal.   The two managers   are also treated as deftly by the authors – Erwin   Martin concocting an evil plan “to rub” out a power hungry new manager who threatens his department and Mason “…standing always at the elbow of his boss” to protect him from “one of his unhinged mistakes.”    

ASSIGNMENT:   DUE 4/10/04

Write an epilogue (1-2 pages)   to each story addressing the following issues:

Will Mott and Fitweiler change their attitudes and behavior as a result as a result of Barrows and Shaws' outbursts?   How about Erwin Martin and Mason? Compare the results with the outcome in Bartleby, the Scrivner where the manager was not able to deal with a "problem employee." From your personal experiences as an employee and/or manager and your readings, what do you foresee for the future of both companies?

SESSION 11: (APR. 12 - APR. 18)

Sinclair Lewis BABBITT

We will be reading the first and last chapters of one of the major books of the 1920's by a Nobel Prize winner. BABBITT joins Lewis'   “novels of the twenties” which include MAIN STREET (1920), ARROWSMITH (1925), and DODSWORTH (1929).    A critic once said that BABBITT   “…became an overnight best-seller because all the Babbitts read it, and each   of them said to himself, “How true – of my neighbor.”   However, thiscomment misses the point of the novel by a wide-mark.   George F. Babbit is and should be accepted for what he is – “a type” -   and the one main characteristic of the type is its “automatic self-blindness.”

Babbitt   is a resident of Floral Heights, a suburb of Zenith in the state of Winnemac, a place of non-existing persons and places – an abstraction. But an abstraction created to emphasize a rigidly - bounded section of American life.   Like Machiavelli's PRINCE who is mistakenly remembered all these centuries primarily as the epitome of all things evil, Lewis' Babbitt has long been recognized as the personification of the American businessman.

In the book, we find Babbitt in conflict with that part of middle-class society which he strives so hard to become a part   - THE ZENITH BOOSTERS'CLUB.   Babbitt's conflict with this segment of middle-class America is not demonstrated   by his attacks on all those bourgeois values espoused by him in the first chapter, but by his efforts to expand his tedious, humdrum daily life through new experiences within the context of “boosterism.” Babbitt, in spite of wanting to satisfy his inner-self, represents Lewis' need to categorize and evaluate the “everyman” of America's commercial segment.

Sinclair Lewis wrote about his own past and what he experienced personally in writing MAIN STREET.   His research for BABBITT was based on a collection of his observations of life in Mid-Western cities – the grubbiness, the shams, the follies of the commercial spirit in American life.   Many books were written about American

businessmen before BABBITT – overachievers like Horatio Alger, tycoons, industrial giants.   Lewis observed and listened to a different kind of American   businessman -   Rotarians and Chamber of Commerce Members, the erstwhile real estate salesmen, the enterprising developers. Sifted from his copious notes and observations about the manners and the language of these mid-level business types was material that became the source for gross materialism, bigotry, and hypocrisy.

Mark Schorer, a prominent critic and author, in his introduction to an edition of BABBITT, wrote

“How could this book, in 1922, have been anything but a stupendous success,

and Babbitt himself anything but a monstrous if inverted icon? America has been discovered.”

ASSIGNMENT:   DUE  4/17

In the two chapters assigned along with the above notes and your research on Lewis and his works, please comment on-line in the discussion section how and if Babbitt (the type) was a major instrument in expanding and intensifying the adversarial relations between labor and management   that continues to this day. Use examples to support your view.

SESSION 12: (APR. 19 - APR. 25)

Margaret Walker  FOR MY PEOPLE

Gwendolyn Brooks  THE POOL PLAYERS

Stephen Crane  MANY WORKMAN

(NOTES AND ASSIGNMENT TO BE ADDED)

SESSION 13      (APRIL 26 – MAY 2)

Lorraine Hansberry   A RAISIN IN THE SUN

WHAT HAPPENS TO A DREAM DEFERRED

by Langston Hughes

“What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore –

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over –

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

In   an introduction to Raisin In the Sun, James Baldwin, the prominent black author, wrote: “…never before in the entire   history of the American theater had so much of the truth of black people's lives been on the stage.”   The recipient of the Best Play of the Year Award in 1959 by the New York Drama Critics has been published in 30 languages and produced on thousands of stages worldwide.   In 1961, the film adaptation by the author won the Cannes Film Festival.   This American classic was an American Playhouse TV production in 1989. Martin Luther King, Jr. following Hansberry's death at age 34, honored her with these words:

“Her creative literary ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.

Robert Nemiroff, her husband and literary executor,   explains in a introduction to the play why the New York Times described   Raisin   as “The play that changed American theater forever.”  

  “Produced in 1959, the play presaged the revolution in black and women's consciousness – and the revolutionary ferment in Africa - that exploded in the years following the playwright's death in 1965 to ineradicably alter the social fabric and consciousness of the nation and the world.”

Black Americans have created a rich and diverse canopy of literature in all genres - an integral and important part of the literature of our nation.   Although Raisin describes a black family living in a predominantly black section, the Southside of Chicago, after World War II,   it could be any community today.   In the approximate three week segment in the life of the Younger family described in the play, we find conflict, love, diversity and divisions, etc.   These human characteristics occur not only in the black experience, but also in the lives of everyone struggling with daily existence and hopes for a better future.   The cultural differences, the political arguments, the economic stresses, the desire to improve the quality of life, etc., evoke no surprise today as the play did in 1959. The four decades since it was first stagedhas not diminished its power; the power for the reader and/or viewer to share the harsh realities of existing on the lower levels of the social, political and economic agendas of our nation.

ASSIGNMENT:   DUE MAY 2

Read the following article by Bob Herbert from the New York Times. In 2-3 pages, talk about what you have learned about families caught up in situations like the Youngers and the people described in the article. Explain how their experiences and desires relate to Maslow's theory. Discuss what a manager needs to consider and has to be sensitive to regarding the needs of people at the lower end of the salary scale.

January 23, 2004

OP-ED COLUMNIST

The Other America

By BOB HERBERT

Either the president doesn't get it, or he is deliberately ignoring the hard times that have enveloped millions of Americans on his watch.

"For the sake of job growth," said Mr. Bush, to the loud applause of the Congressional bobbleheads at his State of the Union address, "the tax cuts you passed should be made permanent."

Job growth? That's the weirdest thing Mr. Bush has said since he told a CNN discussion group, "As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards."

Nearly 2.5 million jobs have been lost since Mr. Bush became president, and the most recent employment statistics have made a mockery of the claim that tax cuts for the rich would be the engine of job growth for the middle and working classes.

Two days after the speech, Eastman Kodak announced plans to cut its work force by as much as 23 percent — 12,000 to 15,000 jobs — by the end of 2006. The news sent tremors through Rochester, where Kodak has its headquarters. More than 21,000 Kodak workers and their families live in and around Rochester.

The economy created a meager 1,000 jobs in December. Moreover, according to a report released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute, there has been a nationwide shift of jobs from higher-paying to lower-paying industries. In New Hampshire, where the Democratic presidential candidates are locked in a fierce primary fight, the wages in industries gaining jobs are 35 percent lower than in those losing jobs. New Hampshire is one of 30 states that have fewer jobs now than when the recession officially ended in November 2001.

When millions of families are suffering in the midst of what is billed as a robust recovery, we should start looking closely at the possibility that the system itself is breaking down.

This goes far beyond the issue of employment. The Times ran a front-page article on Wednesday about Gov. George Pataki's proposed state budget. The ominous subheadline read: "Plan Relies on Gambling to Aid Poorest Schools."

I wrote a story last week about the tens of thousands of low-income youngsters in Florida who are eligible for a children's health insurance program but are being put on waiting lists. State officials say they can't afford to insure the kids now. In California, an estimated 300,000 eligible children are being shunted to similar waiting lists. No one knows when they might get coverage.

President Bush got at least one thing right on Tuesday night, when he said, "Americans are proving once again to be the hardest-working people in the world." Those who are fortunate enough to be employed often have to work long hours, or string together two and three jobs to make ends meet. They are working harder and harder just to keep from falling behind.

The Bush administration has offered up a perverse acknowledgment of this struggle: a proposed change in Labor Department regulations that would enable employers to deny overtime pay for millions of workers.

Most of the Democratic presidential candidates, especially Senator John Edwards, have been hammering at these issues for some time. In his "Two Americas" speech, Senator Edwards says there is:

"One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. . . . One America — middle-class America — whose needs Washington has long forgotten. Another America — narrow-interest America — whose every wish is Washington's command."

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Robert Pasciullo, in association with Josephine Pasciullo and Phylise Banner
Email: bobpasciullo@worldnet.att.net      Phone: (518)581-1744
University Without Walls, Skidmore College