There is also the matter of the lives being led by those women and men who are working on the 12th floor. Many years ago, several critical observations were made about men who were working in corporate settings (this was before women played much of a role in corporate life other than serving as a secretary). Labels such as “man in the gray flannel suit” (Wilson, 1955) or “the organization man” (Whyte, 1956) were used when describing the conforming attitudes and behaviors of those employed by large corporations. A 1961 musical was even written by Frank Loesser about corporate life: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Have the norms and values changed over the past seventy years? The buildings are still straight up and tall (with a few postmodern anomalies thrown in). Are the men also still straight and upwardly mobile? And have the women followed suit? What has replaced the gray flannel suit? Perhaps, business casual—or “anything goes” if they are working from home. What is the new motto? Perhaps it is the title of a song from “How to Succeed”: “I believe in you [referring to himself]”. This phrase captured the spirit of individual accomplishment that was emphasized in contemporary corporate life during the 1950s (and beyond). I think it is still appropriate.
Another song from this musical capture another of the dictums of corporate life during the second half of the 20th Century: “The company way.” This homage to conformist life (doing it “the company way”) stands, ironically, alongside an emphasis on individual achievement (“How to Succeed . . .”). What about today? The intense individualistic spirit still seems to be alive and well among the Gen Xers and Millennials who tend to hop from job to job in search of greater status and more money. This job-hopping suggests that there is less loyalty to a particular corporation among Gen Xers and Millennials. However, they still may be doing it “the company way” with regard to the specific organization in which they are now working.
Perhaps individualism and conformism live alongside one another in the stone cities of Connecticut. These valued perspectives might not contradict each other; however, they certainly provide some ambiguity (one of the VUCA-Plus conditions). As Ken Gergen observed several decades ago, we are living with many values and images of ourselves that often swirl around our Heads and Hearts. Gergen wrote about the Saturated Self and the epidemic that he calls “multiphrenia.” Do those who work in the Stone City find that their sense of self is being pulled in several different directions. Their ambiguity-producing multiphrenia includes both a pull toward a distinctive individual identity (“I believe in you”) and a push toward fitting in (“the company way”). Their Heart might have become frozen given the dissonance inherent in this push/pull tension. Do they find personal and corporate survival by adopting a Stone Heart?
