Company Welfare Research Articles

Americanism and Paternalism: Managers and Workers in Twentieth-Century Italy

During the twentieth century, company welfare programs have been developed in Italy, as in other countries. Once they had been introduced in some large firms after the “Red years,” social programs spread to the rest of industry at the end of the 1920s, with more noticeable growth during the Depression years when, in other countries, such programs were on the wane. Companies investing in assistance and recreation did so not because this was perceived as being in the firms' interest in managing workers, but in obedience to directives from the Fascist government and in keeping with the corporate ideology of a regime that seemed to assure protection of the country's industry.

Introduction: Workers' Choices, Company Policies, and Loyalties

The history of industrial paternalism is full of paradoxes. Although depictions of the entrepreneur as provider and guiding spirit for numerous families gathered under his wing are readily associated with the cultural legacy of preindustrial life, companies have frequently introduced employee benefits in conjunction with innovations in technology and work relations. Imagery and practices featuring the personal solicitude of a familiar boss have been articulated by huge enterprises with elaborate managerial hierarchies. While trade unionists have routinely denounced company welfare plans as “A pocket full of tricks/To soothe the weary worker/When he groans and kicks,” more than one employer has echoed the lament: “Everything we give them for nothing makes them a bit lazier, and a little harder to deal with, and more prone to find fault.”

The Enlightened Paternalist in Action: William Hesketh Lever at Port Sunlight Before 1914

This article argues that religion as an instrument of company welfare and entrepreneurial control survived into the twentieth century. At Port Sunlight, Cheshire, in 1907 William Hesketh Lever, later first Viscount Leverhulme, employed over 3,000 in his soap factory and housed 3,600 in his adjacent company village. Among the numerous and relatively splendid welfare benefits he supplied was a church building, Christ Church, Port Sunlight. Significantly Lever determined the style of worship and conditions of membership. Moreover he personally selected the first minister, a Wesleyan and a Christian Socialist. By appointing the minister as his company welfare officer Lever obviously hoped to control all the religious instruments of value formation in the company village. If church membership was a reliable indicator, Lever failed miserably. After a decade of experiment he turned increasingly to the instrumentality of the masonic lodge.

Employer, Industrial Housing and the Evolution of Company Welfare Policies in Britain's Heavy Industry: West Scotland, 1870–1920

The history of working-class housing has become an imporatnt area of urban studies in recent years, as detailed investigations of building activities and property relations uncover the origins of housing initiatives. The growth of cities in the industrial North of England created their own peculiar building styles and housing problems, whilst the great metropolis of London continued to attract thousands of families into its eternal slums. There were also the new boom towns of manufacturing Britain, specialising in particular products as a regional division of productive expertise emerged. Swindon and Crewe flourished in the railway age of the nineteenth century, whilst Barrow and Jarrow belonged to a later period of iron and steel shipbuilding. The latter settlements were dominated not only by a few vital products, but by a handful of large companies with massive resources, which enabled them to undertake the housing of their first workers. These accounts may be complemented by the evidence of working-class dwellings in the early textile villages and larger industrial colonies of Lancashire and West Riding, or by the scattered documentation on the colliery villages which persisted through the major coal fields well into the twentieth century.

I Am An Industrial Nurse

I accept the responsibility of my position and will endeavor to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession. I will assist the physician-in-charge with the health maintenance of the employee and will provide nursing care as authorized by him. I will maintain adequate records and reports of all services rendered. I will strive to maintain cooperative relations with community physicians and health and welfare agencies. I will participate in company safety, sanitation and welfare activities. I will promote health education and engage in health counseling. To the best of my ability I will be resourceful, use sound judgment and have a sincere interest in people. I will be friendly with employee organizations and maintain a position of neutrality whenever matters of conflict with management arise. I will at all times maintain a confidential professional relationship with the employees, in conformity with legal and ethical codes. I will remember always — I am a nurse.

NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. George M. Wheatley has been appointed a third vice-president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, it was announced by Leroy A. Lincoln, president of the company. Dr. Wheatley will be associated with Dr. Donald B. Armstrong, second vice-president, in the supervision of the company's health and welfare activities. Dr. Wheatley began his work with Metropolitan in 1941. His services since then have dealt with the company's health and welfare program, which involves visiting nurse service, health education, research, and cooperation with medical societies and officials, and voluntary health agencies in the United States and Canada.