ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between informal criteria of success and the perpetuation of discriminatory practices. The means by which individuals rise to higher positions in the organizations in which they work out their careers has long been a matter of dispute. Some students of business and industry have stated that "pull," "connections," and "family contacts," are important in success. At least one high industrial executive has echoed this with emotion, and another declares that such factors as "race, nationality, faith, politics, and sectional antecedents," are important criteria of selection in all organizations, probably less so in industry than in political, church, and academic bodies. The alleged influences were being a member of the Masonic Order; not being a Roman Catholic; having an ethnic background largely Anglo-Saxon and Germanic; being a member of a local yacht club; and being affiliated with the Republican Party.
