Review 10 -- No Title

Employing Bureaucracy is a more gripping book than its title would imply. Seldom is a historical treatise so timely as this one. Today, union and nonunion firms are reconsidering the prevailing organization of work and systems of employment to improve profitability. Jacoby skillfully examines the period of transition from labor's vulnerability to unstable employment, wages and hours--wrought by the competitive labor market--to the modern employment system. He guides us along a chronological expedition to find the roots of post-War personnel policies. We witness the transition from the traditional "drive system" to the familiar bureaucratic structure of jobs, with its web of formal personnel rules and its emphasis on centralized (personnel department) control.