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Legacies of the Ford Sociological Department Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 6-2004 Deconstructing Fordism: Legacies of the Ford Sociological Department Georgios Paris Loizides Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Loizides, Georgios Paris, "Deconstructing Fordism: Legacies of the Ford Sociological Department" (2004). Dissertations. 1122. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1122 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DECONSTRUCTING FORDISM: LEGACIES OF THE FORD SOCIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT by Georgios Paris Loizides A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DECONSTRUCTING FORDISM: LEGACIES OF THE FORD SOCIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT Georgios Paris Loizides, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2004 Institutional theories of organizations state that organizations reflect society’s wider values and norms. Less attention has been placed on the questions of whether and how private interest organizations influence wider societal values and norms. This study examines archival material, as well as published primary and secondary sources, relating to the history of the Ford Motor Company, in particular its Sociological Department, in an effort to assess the company's progressive era project to instill in its workforce a particular set of values and attitudes, which were seen by Ford as healthy, and appropriate. Though we are used to seeing Henry Ford and his Ford Motor Company as makers of automobiles, in at least its early history, the company also engaged in “human engineering” through its Sociological Department. Ford was “making men” as much as he was making cars. The company's sociological project attempted to engineer American, working-class (family) men out of the thousands of mainly Southern and Eastern European immigrants that flocked to Detroit. This study pays particular attention to the implications of the Ford sociological project for race, ethnic, class, and gender relations. Therefore, the questions that this research answers revolve aroxmd what may be called the social dimensions of early Fordism, and are answered through an examination of the discourse and actions of the Ford Motor Company as a case study, imder the light of institutionalization and structuration theories. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3130610 Copyright 2004 by Loizides, Georgios P. All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3130610 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Georgios Paris Loizides 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge, and express my gratitude, to the Chair and members of the dissertation committee for their continuing help and support. In particular, I would like to thank the Chair, Dr. Vyacheslav Karpov, for his confidence and indispensable advice. His editorial comments and guidance have been invaluable to this study. Dr. Gerald Markle provided me with personal help in organizing this work, for which I am grateful. Furthermore, I foimd his work on the Holocaust, Meditations of a Holocaust Traveler, in particular his use of “snapshots” to tell a story, to be inspiring and at least in an indirect way influenced this study. Dr. David Hartmann was always available for advice, and has helped myself and others survive graduate school through working at the Kercher Center for Social Research. I am also indebted to Dr. Sonnad for sharing his wisdom so freely, and for his specialized help regarding the applied sociological aspects of this study. The historian of my committee. Dr. Kristin Szylvian, greatly helped in putting this study in historical context. Furthermore, she provided me with editorial comments for which I am thankful. Secondly, I would like to recognize the Western Michigan University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for awarding me the 2002 A. Robert Kleiner Memorial Scholarship, and thus greatly aiding in the expenses relating to the data collection for this study. The data collection of this study was also facilitated by the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan University, which in the summer of 2001 granted me university-sponsored transportation to and from the Benson Ford Research Center, for which I am grateful. Furthermore, I must ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments—continued acknowledge the help of the Graduate College for awarding me the Dissertation Completion Fellowship, thus faeilitating my physical survival through the last year of dissertation writing. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of my friends and colleagues at the Department of Sociology for their support and comments. Georgios Paris Loizides 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 Theoretical Statement of the Problem .................................................... 2 Empirical Statement of the Problem....................................................... 3 Research Questions ................................................................................... 5 Description of the Ford Sociological Department................................. 6 General Chapter hy Chapter Overview.................................................. 7 II. THEORY............................................................................................................ II Institutions and Institutionalization: Organizations in Institutionalist Discourse .......................................................................... 12 Conceptualizing Norms and Values: Structure, Aetion, Agency, and Power................................................................................................... 20 Structuration ............................................................................................... 23 Use of Theory ............................................................................................. 24 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 25 III. M ETHOD........................................................................................................... 28 Comparative and Historieal Sociology.................................................. 28 Case Studies ............................................................................................... 31 Archival Research..................................................................................... 35 Sources ........................................................................................................ 36 Limitations................................................................................................. 38 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents—continued IV. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................................................................. 40 Primary Sources ......................................................................................... 42 Secondary Sources .................................................................................... 45 Archival Sources ........................................................................................ 52 V. THE
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