ABSTRACT
William H. Whyte's The Organization Man is undeniably important in providing the groundwork and knowledge base for a wide variety of critiques on business, society, family dynamics, and suburban and regional development in the second half of the twentieth century. He built on the theoretical foundation of the Frankfurt School scholars, and delivered these ideas of conformity, groupthink, and the social ethic to the masses. His interest in exploring the changing nature of business in post-war America was piqued by his knowledge of the 1949 class graduating from Princeton University and other top-tier peer universities. Whyte's central thesis is the replacement of the Protestant Ethic with the Social Ethic as the path to economic and professional success. His aims, however, have been largely misunderstood, as many consider his work to be a subjective "scathing critique" of post-war conformity rather than the objective ethnographic research it actually is.
