World War II defined
Boss - worker relationships
Today's best workers are self-motivated

Almost all 50s bosses were WWII veterans. Military leadership is very top-down line of command directive with expectation of immediate compliance. That is how most 50s bosses led. Most lived in the communities where they worked and earned only slightly more than workers earned. Bosses tended to be highly respected for their leadership skills, knowledge and integrity.

Having survived the Great Depression and World War II most workers were thankful to have a job. Most were used to taking orders and happy to have any job that paid a living wage.

The 60s were a time of turmoil. No longer fighting Nazis and Communists the belief everyone was on the same team faded. Intergenerational conflict was fueled by opposition of young men to the War in Vietnam. Most elders were proud of their military service and had contempt for young men who denigrated what their elders considered a man's patriotic duty.

Distrust of government was fueled by discovery that government officials lied about the war in Vietnam. Distrust of politicians was fueled by discovery that President Nixon was a criminal. Implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 disrupted social norms.

The 60s to 70s transition was chaotic. Assassinations, civil unrest, gasoline rationing and resignation of President Nixon made it feel like we were losing the democratic republic that had served us so well. In search of answers I enrolled in a doctoral program at Southern Illinois University. Violent riots, a few months before I arrived, culminated in incineration of the university's hallmark Old Main Building.

Once there I was taken under the wings of two mentors who merged the physical and psychological aspects of motivation and leadership.

Dr. Wayne Ramp was a World War II veteran who believed in optimizing accomplishment of the physical aspects of leadership by clearly identifying the tasks to be done, teaching workers to do each perfectly then allowing those who obeyed orders to keep their jobs. I learned how to focus on what was really important and how to develop an effective industrial training program.

Dr. James Cannon Parker was a southern gentleman. He believed in optimizing the psychological aspects of leadership that result in workers being motivated to devote their lives to organizational excellence and success. James taught me empathy, motivation techniques, win-win negotiation, humanistic leadership and how to win an election.

While modern Organizational Management is development of a more humanistic work environment the real goal is increasing worker retention and productivity.

The university was in turmoil. The "Old School" University President resigned and was replaced by a man with leadership skills more attune with the times. Instead of punishing students he had Faculty and Students create and use a Student Grievance Policy and Procedure to deescalate conflict. As Graduate Student representative to the Faculty Senate, and Student member of the Hearing Board, I saw how leaders listening and responding to student complaints restored mutual respect and led to solutions everyone wanted. The result was return to normalcy.

My first post-doctorate assignment was using my new Organizational Management skills to introduce a team of medical professional's to interdisciplinary care at the University Of North Carolina Medical School. The goal was to learn if the interdisciplinary team approach to medical treatment, now practiced at places like Mayo Clinic, would be cost-effective at the primary care level. It was not.

Foreign competition arrived in the late 70s. German and Japanese firms reindustrialized using modern Organizational Management techniques like Total Quality Management which created a quality revolution. They used techniques invented in America, but ignored here, because having won World War II American manufacturers saw no need to change their way of doing business.

German and Japanese firms were producing and shipping high quality automobiles to America at less cost than American companies could produce similar less perfect automobiles here. In response to this threat some Americans bosses reverted to tactics learned in the military. Some even adopted punitive labor practices that further alienated workers. Bosses and workers no longer considered themselves on the same team.

Separation soared in the 80s. New Deal policies favoring workers were replaced by Reaganomics which favored bosses and owners. Disenfranchisement of unions made it difficult for workers to express their needs or concerns as owners merged businesses into corporate giants. Top executives began earning hundreds of times more than workers. Extreme wealth led to bosses isolating themselves further from workers by moving to exclusive neighborhoods. Then things got worse.

Made in America disappeared. Corporate executives exported the manufacture of goods to poor overseas nations where labor was cheap. America deindustrialized to only manufacturing things here impossible to manufacture offshore. Downwardly mobile workers were left with lower paid nonunionized customer service jobs. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and hope.

Customer service is different. Migration of workers from manufacturing to customer service jobs changed the boss worker relationship. Customer service is delivered face to face which can be a problem because customer service workers tend to treat customers like their bosses treat them. Focus on the psychological aspects of leadership makes sense when delivery of customer service, by a happy worker, is essential to profitability.

Quality customer service training works. Transferred to the new Estrella Mountain Community College in 1992 I watched as everyone there, from President to Custodian, completed Quality Customer Service classes. We created a positive culture that national surveys consistently show Estrella Mountain Community College having the best student-faculty satisfaction scores, and best college-community satisfaction scores, of all Arizona colleges.

Faculty also teamed up to teach The Wigwam Resort and cities of Avondale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park management teams how to merge the Total Quality Management processes, and Quality Customer Service processes, into an organizational culture still evident in each city today twenty years later.

Implementation of the merged processes took The Wigwam Resort from the verge of bankruptcy to being an efficient profitable business. As soon as the transformation was accomplished the parent company sold the resort to cash-rich foreign investors. Believing they had purchased a cash cow they abandoned the programs we implemented, cut staff to squeeze greater profit from the business, lost the Mobile 5 Star Rating and almost bankrupted the resort. The resort survived because wealthy businessmen, who wanted to maintain the Wigwam's cache, purchased and restored it to respectability.

Made in America is back. The 2020 pandemic disrupted supply chains as increased Chinese hostility and Russian aggression exposed the folly of depending on hostile communist nations to produce essential national security goods. Reindustrialization of America is progressing at a faster rate than even occurred during World War II. By 2023 America regained all jobs lost during the pandemic and added 14 million more.

Manufacturing returned with a new wrinkle. Awareness that any product essential to national security had to be manufactured, and delivered efficiently here, resulted in creation of a huge new industry. The need to shorten supply chains resulted in the building of huge automated local warehouses and product delivery systems. Companies like Amazon and UPS that store and transport goods became gigantic. Warehouse fulfillment centers, and transport of goods companies, now employ millions of workers.

Reindustrialization also resulted in development and use of computerized worker monitoring systems which have radically changed the boss worker relationship. Bosses sit in offices watching computer screens that monitor what workers are doing as they do it. How long workers will remain motivated to produce, while constantly being surveilled, remains to be seen.

Feeling disrespected and abused workers across America are unionizing in an effort to restore constructive worker boss relationships. Collective bargaining works when the economy is booming and workers are in short supply.

The boss-worker relationship has evolved. Worker resistance to deterioration of the work-life balance has emerged across America. Bosses are usually already motivated to do their best; the goal of modern management techniques is to motivate workers to be on the same page. The goal is self-motivated happy workers and increased productivity.

People are not machines.
Bosses and workers have the same human needs.
They are on the same team.