The Organization Man Goes To College

Even the Coffee Breaks are a carefully engineered and serious part of the Business School's Advanced Management Program. An intense twelve and one-half-week mind-stretching session, the Program grooms "mature, experienced executives for top management positions.

The lean, balding Englishman with a "British Cake and Oil Mills Ltd." tag on his vest pocket takes a sip of coffee and smiles. "Now we've been getting along fine with our trade unions for years. If a man wants to join a union, and it's in his interest to do so, we let him go right ahead. A "Right to Work" law would be absurd in Britain." A Californian manufacturer behind him overhears, turns around, and the pair are soon in eager debate over their coffee cups.

Benevolent Exile

Since Advanced Management executives--"AMP's", for short--are forced to deal with business problems through discussion and insight, rather than throught time-tested methods, the coffee hour debate in Hamilton Lounge or 2:00 .m. bull session is no more uncommon among greying sales amnagers than among freshmen in the Yard.

Pretend, for a moment, that you are about forty-four years old, married and with a family, a pillar of your community ("active in community affairs, but not a 'politician',"), and On Your Way Up in a rather large organization.

Given these peaceful conditions, you suddenly find yourself and your luggage shipped off to the Business School. You have a pretty good idea that you are about to be promoted, and another man just below you has been appointed to fill in at your job while you are away. In short, you have been benevolently exiled with pay.

Benevolently exiled, because, with the exception of dormitory living, AMP's are supported "in the style to which they are accustomed" during their stay at Harvard. Lobster, steaks and liquor flow in the upper regions of Kresge Hall, far from the pot roast and New England boiled dinners of the first floor serving line. "Of course, we wouldn't make our lowest salesman stay in accomodations the size of these dormitory rooms," a Texas vice-president declared, "But it's clean."

Dormitory living lends a spirit of asceticism and dedication to the program. Wives are left behind when the executive arrives at the Business School, and, whether he likes it or not, he is forbidden to work on company business during the training program.

"We've made up our minds"

But all the AMP's are in the same boat. There is a period of somewhat uneasy adjustment--to the role of "just another student," and to the drop in prestige which comes as you realize your opinions and insights of twenty years' business experience are different from and perhaps no better than those of the production engineer who is your roommate.

The AMP's have mixed reactions to their role as forty-four year old students. "We have one real disadvantage over the regular M.B.A. students," an AMP declared "in that most of us have made up our minds already about certain things. At home you are an important man in your community--here you're just another student.

"You have to fight back"

"There's one dean here that's had a lot of academic training, but not much business experience," another AMP complained. "He's used to handling men of stature in business like undergraduates. They fight back too. When you're in a group this size you have to fight to keep your identity. They're polite about it, but they fight back the same."

It is roughly the feeling experienced by the valedictorian of Wood-row Wilson H. S. when he discovers all the other valedictorians in his college freshman class. Golf-playing vice presidents, Army majors, men who never read anything weightier than Time suddenly find themselves thrown together to study, discuss, and (as one troubled AMP expressed it) "read, read, read."

The Program was orginally a "war baby" of the U. S. Office of Education, but in 1945, the Business School soon received numerous requests to continue the program on an industry sponsorer basis. By 1949, demand had boosted the Program's size from eighty to one-hundred and fifty executives per session.

To qualify for the program, an executive is first chosen from the ranks of his own firm. Some companies use the AMP sessions as training periods for men they desire to promote to higher jobs. For the executive, company sponsorship can be the touch of the sword-promotion--and it is not lightly regarded. Over half the class is earmarked for a specific promotion before they take the course. They fall into the amalgam of controllers, assistant treasurers, sales managers, and production engineers labeled "middle management" and the course prepares them for "top management."

"Doe is a rather quiet individual at times," reads a typical recommendation, "but we feel that through contact with other men in the same class he will gain more self-confidence. . .ultimately he may end up in charge of the entire manufacturing end of the business."

'Middle brass' to 'Top brass'

At the home office, there is an awareness that the man seleced to participate is the man "on his way up." William Whyte, in The Organization Man, remarked on the jealousy among a chosen executive's contemporarys. "At General Foods, we know that something is in line for a man when he comes here," said one AMP, "In my case, I was promoted before the course. This happens to be the best time for me to come."

"Of course, if you don't keep moving, you're dead,' a dropforge developing engineer remarked. "I won't speculate on what's on their mind for me--but a company doesn't spend all this money on a man if they don't intend to do something with him."

For other companies, it is an attempt at broadening a man's ability to handle his present situation. Company presidents, "top brass,' fall into this category of men who "have arrived," but who want to go places nonetheless.

"We have this sort of program right within our own setup," an English technical officer for the world-wide Uni-Lever Corporation said, "but being so damn big, we tend to look in a bit. This way we can find out what's going on in the world outside."

"Best Class Possible"

But being chosen by one's company is not enough. The executive must then pass a screening committee of senior faculty members who must weed out a few applications in order to reach a class size of one hundred and fifty. Working on a concept of "the best class possible," the committee divides applicants according to their function within a corporation, the size of the comany and geographical location. This fall's AMP class has 130 Companies represented (43 of them participating for the first time), 30 states, and 18 foreign countries. The average age of participating executives is 43.9 years old.

Before an executive comes, the company involved agrees to pay his expenses and salary for the time elapsed. With tuition $1750, room $285-300, board $700, and travel, entertainment and salary added to that; sending a man to the AMP program costs a firm about $5000. It must also pay a replacement during the executive's absence. "But it is a double training program in a sense," says William P. Gormbly, Director of the AMP program, "because a company is training the replacement for a responsible position at the same time its man is participating in the AMP program."

The AMPs' educational back-grounds vary tremendously. About twenty-five or thirty in each class have had engineering training. Others have bachelor degrees and some business education. For a few, it has been a matter of high school and night school courses afterwards. "But it's hard to judge which ones haven't been to college," one AMP declared.

Seven Course Program

In his courses, the AMP is expected to have enough factual knowledge to be able to begin working on actual cases right from the start. Each AMP studies Business Policy, Administrative Practices, Business and the World Society, Cost and Financial Administration, Marketing Administration, and Problems in Labor Relations.

Usually, the AMP knows a great deal about one area and little about the others, and in order to be promoted he must be familiar with all. "I lean toward production," said a