THE GAMESMAN: The New Corporate Leaders

Second cousin to Whyte's Organization Man, and no relation to Potter's Gamesman, Dr. Maccoby's man descended, he postulates, from frontiersmen and adventurers to become a modern day industrial knight-errant--the emerging corporate leader. Working with him in the ""psychostructure"" or ""sociotechnical system"" (business organization, that is), the author discovers types as well-delineated as Piers the Plowman. There's the Craftsman, the Jungle Fighter, and the Company Man. The professor has been able to place managers so neatly by the detailed interrogation of a diverse phalanx of corporate volunteers. The classification is supported by ""field notes"" and interpretation of dreams, statistics, and Rorschach inkblots. There's some fervent philosophizing about heads and hearts. McGregor's familiar types, the early-Scrooge Theory X manager, and the straight-arrow Theory Y manager are worked over, as is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Undeniably, Maccoby's typical Gamesman is a well-delineated character who operates energetically in a climate of challenge. But, if he's as bright as Maccoby paints him, he'll get the hell out of an environment given to psychological argot and into a nice little novel instead.