Control through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management (Studies in Industry and Society, 6)

Winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland Prize from the Society of American ArchivistsWinner of the Alpha Kappa Psi Foundation Award for Distinguished Publication on Business Communication from the Association for Business Communication Caught in the midst of an information revolution, today's business managers and scholars are trying to assess the likely effects of the sweeping changes now taking place in technolocy and in organization. In Control through Communication JoAnne Yates looks back to the last major shift in the use of communication and information-and writes the first full and detailed account of the process by which modern managerical systems came to be created within the American business system. Focusing on the evolution of corporate communication as an integrated whole, Yates examines its functions, technologies, and genres in case studies of the Illinois Central Railroad, Scovill Manufacturing Company, and E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Frontmatter (page N/A) List of Illustrations (page ix) Foreword (page xi) Acknowledgments (page xiii) Introduction: The Transformation of Internal Communication (page xv) 1 Managerial Methods and the Functions of Internal Communication (page 1) 2 Communication Technology and the Growth of Internal Communication (page 21) 3 Genres of Internal Communication (page 65) 4 The Illinois Central before 1887 (page 101) 5 The Illinois Central after 1887 (page 133) 6 Gradual Systematization at Scovill (page 159) 7 Du Pont's First Century (page 201) 8 Du Pont, 1902-1920 (page 229) Conclusion (page 271) Notes (page 277) A Note on Archival Sources (page 329) Index (page 333) The recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Waldo Gifford Leland Prize and the Association for Business Communication's Alpha Kappa Psi Award for Distinguished Publication on Business Communication, Yates discusses how modern managerial systems evolved within the American business system. In early nineteenth-century America, business enterprises were generally small, family affairs. Joanne Yates. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.