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Scott Billingsley, HIST 0647, Spring1999
Lowe, Graham S.,"'The Enormous File:' The Evolution of the Modern
Office in Early Twentieth-Century Canada." Archivaria 19 (Winter 1984-85):
137-51. Thesis: Lowe argues "that control, exercised mainly by
management, was a decisive force in both the rapid growth of clerical occupations
and the increasing rationalization of the office" (150).
He examines:
- how and why paper work became so important to modern capitalism,
- the social and economic changes associated with the rise of capitalism
and increased paper work,
- and how that changed office structures and introduced the rationalization
of clerical work.
- "The explosion of written records was the product of early twentieth-century
economic, organizational, and occupational changes which together constitute
an administrative revolution" (138).
Twentieth century corporations and governments in the U. S. and Canada
are large, centralized bureaucracies.
- Protocol, chains of command, and division of labor make organizational
life more efficient.
- New office managers and more clerical positions were created to form
the organizational hierarchy.
- Females began dominating new clerical positions.
- Lowe calls this "one of the hallmarks of the administrative revolution"
(139).
- Gender stereotypes relaxed and allowed women to work in previously
male-dominated offices.
- New gender stereotypes developed that subordinated female secretaries
to male managers.
- Most new clerical jobs appeared in manufacturing and service sectors.
(manufacturing, transportation and communication, trade, and finance)
- Increased economic activity required greater administrative coordination
to efficiently manage the proliferation of office tasks.
- Consolidation forced businesses to restructure their offices to become
more centralized and bureaucratic.
"Management exercised control through the office. . . . Offices
were thus subjected to increasing rationalization, bureaucratization, and
mechanization. As clerical work became more standardized, regulated, and
fragmented, working conditions became like those in a factory" (141).
- Professional managers implemented methods of cutting costs and making
office production more efficient. They controlled office and factory production.
- Production and inventory control systems
- Wage incentives and bonus systems
- Cost accounting systems: the reduction of all component costs in a
business, which was the basis for most managerial reforms in the early
20th century.
- The modern office developed around two principles: mechanization and
rationalization.
- Efficiency experts created methods for rationalizing and efficiently
managing modern offices.
- Mechanization increased pace of production, further regulated labor
process, and lowered wages.
- Typewriters allowed offices to create typing pools that resembled assembly
lines to produce correspondence, reports, and records.
- Hollerith punch-card machines allowed managers to record, sort, read,
tabulate, print, and analyze information that would make production more
efficient.
"This overview of the administrative revolution . . . has direct
bearing on the role of archivists" (151). This information allows historians
to study various aspects of modern society.
- Origins and evolution of modern business techniques and structure.
- Social, economic, and organizational forces that shape individual experiences.
- Personnel files, salary ledgers, departmental correspondence, employee
magazines, etc. document the working conditions and social position of
the growing number of clerks.
- Insight into the female workforce.
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