Conforming to Type
Page 57
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ACH of us likes to think of himself as an , individual with a character .all his own. At the same time, this does not prevent us from classifying r people into types. We are encouraged to make it bit by the fact that everybody else seems to know we are talking about when we refer to a typical . clerk or a typical self-made man; and we are only ly disturbed either by the risk that a protest will )dged by the bank clerks' union and the league of made men, or by a vague conjecture as to the label people apply to us.
describe a man as a typical haulier is not altogether tingless. It may evoke a different picture from ,body who hears the phrase, but all the pictures probably have a good many things in common. : readers of Mr. C. S. Dunbar's book on "Goods cle Operation "—a new edition of which has just published—would agree that the characters he duces to the public-through this medium conform ly to the accepted pattern.
)t. that Mr. Dunbar attempts any detailed analysis ental processes, or concerns himself with the usual ional stock-in-trade of fiction writers. His .gonist, Bill Overall, served in the last war, as his r did in the last .but one. The main traffic carried e eight 5-6-ton platform vehicles is to and from a 52 miles away. By a• process that surely calls for investigation—Mr. James Callaghan would enjoy ask—the business has escaped nationalization and erating under permit.
fore the war, the father looked after the business his daughter did the typing and invoicing, and ?vas relief driver, canvasser, spare .mechanic, etc.. drivers, most of whom had been with the firm for .ars or more, did the greater part of the maince work, and there was one whole-time mechanic. of the vehicles were garaged in a shed behind the ill home; the rest stood on a piece of waste ground to it.
Cautious Father e son is keen to expand the business, the father cautious. They are in touch with a number of :s who would like to make use of certain services an be fitted into the Overall organization with ddition of two articulated 10-tonners. The book on narrate how the firm steadily grows both in nd variety of operation.
Viously, the Overall family are lay figures'that Mr.
ár manipulates for his own purposes. It is ;t by accident that 'he has delineated a type of dual with which we are all familiar. The haulier iflea be best described by what he does, rather by what he thinks and feels. He is the type that ; about things by acting them out in his life. This v Mr. Dunbar reveals him to us. In addition to almost miraculous power of survival, the .Overall seem to have the right temperament for the job. s like coming out of light into darkness to turn ery different book. Called portentously " Manageunder Nationalization," it probes into the dark )f the sOul of a district manager of the Road .ge Executive, He also is intended to be a refireive figure rather than a real person. Less than five years ago, he had his own business. Now 50 years of age, he has been in road haulage all his life. At one time a fitter, he acquired vehicles through hire purchase and with his wife as clerk moved to a city and started up on his own.
So far his career has been not unlike that of the founder of the ,Overall bdsiness. The district manager built up a somewhat larger concern. At the time of acquisition he had 60 vehicles and over 100 employees. He is now in charge of more than 1,000 vehicles and 4,000 employees, earning a salary of £1,600 per annum, less than a third of his former income. The book is based on a series of discussions with him on the work he • is doing, the difficulties and problems he has encountered and the changes that have been made as a result of nationalization.
As may be expected, he had misgivings at first, but soon caught the enthusiasm of creating something new. He has worked hard, and evidently regards himself as an exceptionally good district manager. His is a strong character, with no qualms about exercising authority. There is an undercurrent of uneasiness, however, in the comments he makes, rather as though he partly realizes
that his role is that of the worm subject to a process • i •
of Slow integration n the bird's gizzard.
Seeking Authority . The district manager finds himself "at the fourth layer" in the nationalized transport industry, and there are two further layers before the road haulage depot is reached. There is a functional• organization, whereby the district engineer, traffic superintendent, staff assistant, accountant and stores assistant are each responsible to a specialist officer at divisional level. The district manager must seek authority to buy a new vehicle or scrap an old one, to spend more than £400, or to make appointments above a salary of £515 per annum.
His attitude towards the headquarters of the Executive is revealing. There is a "lack at national level of personalities who have the necessary commercial experience in road haulage, or in the proper control of large-scale organizations." There is an "increasing flow of paper from the Executive." Only one in five of the circulars received from headquarters and division have any significance, but they keep coming at the rate of two or more each day.
Inside the organization many managers were "losing their commercial instincts," and salaries were not high enough to attract the right recruits. "Legislating for the weakest link in a chain is fatal in the live organism of management. The best managers cannot swallow regulations which give less and less scope for their abilities and they will be driven out—leaving in charge the weakest, most parochial-minded and most timid souls."
So the district manager utters what would have been his own epitaph had the R.H.E. remained in being. The system was not created to obliterate the qualities that made him a successful haulier, but that would have been its inevitable effect. As a type, he seems already poles apart from the elder Overall. If they were put into a play or a film, two greatly contrasting characters would have been chosen for the parts, and in this respect I do not think the instinct of the casting director would be wrong.