ABSTRACT
William H. Whyte's The Organization Man changed the public's perception of Fortune 500 corporations and then men who filled their junior executive ranks. The portraits Whyte painted in The Organization Man served as a non-fiction example of theoretical and fictional characterizations of the time. Retrospective criticism of The Organization Man focuses more on Whyte's interpretation of business society and his predictions for the, than on critiques of the work itself. The Organization Man generated much debate between its supportive and disobliging critics. But The Organization Man critics have identified a shift toward entrepreneurship. Critics have noted the increased self-reliance of the more recent generations of employees and their need to fend for themselves, driven by both a bottom-up attitude shift and a top-down "employment at will" workforce. Some critics note that Whyte's observations, while accurate, were perfunctory and straightforward, and note how different circumstances are today.
