ABSTRACT
Early twentieth century business management aimed to improve office work productivity and maintain stable, satisfied workforces. As managers increasingly employed scientific management methods, work tasks became routine and impersonal. Personnel management in offices reflected a new form of paternalism, a far subtler means of control hidden in the folds of scientific management. Corporate personnel management among Atlanta firms varied greatly, during the early 1920s, most operated without centralized personnel departments, relying instead on personnel standards developed by individual executives or supervisors. At Atlanta’s Retail Credit Company, organization-wide scientific management of employees and company operations began in about 1912 and played a substantial role in employer and employee relations throughout the 1930s. Management’s attitude toward women at Retail Credit Company was a curious mix of paternalistic concern and hard-nosed efficiency. While management policies seemed stern and unyielding, many long-term employees apparently believed that these policies, which emanated from the executive’s personal convictions, were equitable and laced with an abiding affection.
