Organizational behavior in historical perspective

Cover stories

Part 1 of this article 'The taming of emotions' described how in the West during the middle ages, the first guild associations struggled to discipline our more spontaneous and fierce impulses. In later centuries our early industrialists experienced great difficulty to control violence, abuse of alcohol, raving, obscene language and sexual intercourse in their factories. In our days these impulses, or rather their more offensive and outrageous manifestations, may have been tamed but what happened with the underlying drives and emotions? What happened with jealousy, disappointment, triumph, anger, sexual attraction, resentful gossip and power games? Have modern offices and factories now become graveyards of emotional tranquility and neutrality?

Changing balances of power and informalization...

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