“You are the Company:” The Demands of Employment in the Emerging Corporate Culture, Los Angeles, 1900–1930

Abstract

In recent years, business historians have expressed increasing interest in the development and evolution of corporate cultures. This study carries forward this body of scholarship by exploring a fundamental point of tension in the construction of corporate cultures—the meaning and demands of salaried employment. In a period in which the workings of corporations were uncertain and rapidly evolving, leaders sought to define the meaning and duties of corporate employment in varied but always expansive terms. Corporations wanted employees to act like limited partners, or stakeholders. Whatever the specific tasks of their jobs, the ideal employee was expected to be salesperson, ambassador to the community, and political activist on die firm's behalf. This article probes the ways in which leaders of emerging corporations in Los Angeles struggled to persuade salaried employees to act with such a sense of ownership in the firm.