"You are the company:" The demands of employment in the emerging corporate culture, Los Angeles, 1900-1930

A corporation may spread itself over the whole world, and it may employ a hundred thousand men, but the average person will usually form his judgment of it through his contact with one individual. Union Oil Bulletin, 1923 1

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 …