Kathryn Lofton
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226481937
- eISBN:
- 9780226482125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226482125.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter thinks about the spiritually hopeful origins of mass-produced commodities. In the annals of modern design, it is difficult to imagine a more spiritless object than that of the office ...
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This chapter thinks about the spiritually hopeful origins of mass-produced commodities. In the annals of modern design, it is difficult to imagine a more spiritless object than that of the office cubicle. Yet its origin is full of spiritual hope. Starting in the 1930s under the direction of Gilbert Rohde, Herman Miller mass-produced modernism through understated furniture designed for living rooms and offices. When George Nelson took over as head of Herman Miller design, the research offices focused on reimagining the organization and circulation of information in professional contexts. An innovative designer named Robert Propst sought to revolutionize the workplace from a place where “workers performed meaningless, cog-turning activities.” His innovation, the so-called “Action Office,” was supposed to counter bleak workplace occupation through a spatial strategy of mobility, mutability, and communal exchange. This chapter describes the utopian hope and subsequent failure of the cubicle to achieve these egalitarian ambitions.Less
This chapter thinks about the spiritually hopeful origins of mass-produced commodities. In the annals of modern design, it is difficult to imagine a more spiritless object than that of the office cubicle. Yet its origin is full of spiritual hope. Starting in the 1930s under the direction of Gilbert Rohde, Herman Miller mass-produced modernism through understated furniture designed for living rooms and offices. When George Nelson took over as head of Herman Miller design, the research offices focused on reimagining the organization and circulation of information in professional contexts. An innovative designer named Robert Propst sought to revolutionize the workplace from a place where “workers performed meaningless, cog-turning activities.” His innovation, the so-called “Action Office,” was supposed to counter bleak workplace occupation through a spatial strategy of mobility, mutability, and communal exchange. This chapter describes the utopian hope and subsequent failure of the cubicle to achieve these egalitarian ambitions.
Barry M. Katz
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029636
- eISBN:
- 9780262330923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029636.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
Design surely had a role in shaping the computer, but far more important was the role of the computer in shaping design. This chapter studies the involvement of designers at two labs that formed the ...
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Design surely had a role in shaping the computer, but far more important was the role of the computer in shaping design. This chapter studies the involvement of designers at two labs that formed the research core of the Silicon Valley environment: the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, and the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center. At SRI Douglas Engelbart established the Augmentation Research Center where, in a hitherto undisclosed collaboration with Robert Propst of the Herman Miller furniture company, he developed a set of tools intended to enable geographically dispersed teams to collaborate across time and space. It follows the fledgling design community to Xerox PARC, where it contributed to the development of the first computer workstation, and concludes by studying its role in the first of the market-oriented Silicon Valley technology startups.Less
Design surely had a role in shaping the computer, but far more important was the role of the computer in shaping design. This chapter studies the involvement of designers at two labs that formed the research core of the Silicon Valley environment: the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, and the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center. At SRI Douglas Engelbart established the Augmentation Research Center where, in a hitherto undisclosed collaboration with Robert Propst of the Herman Miller furniture company, he developed a set of tools intended to enable geographically dispersed teams to collaborate across time and space. It follows the fledgling design community to Xerox PARC, where it contributed to the development of the first computer workstation, and concludes by studying its role in the first of the market-oriented Silicon Valley technology startups.
John D. Martin, J. William Petty, and James S. Wallace
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195340389
- eISBN:
- 9780199867257
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340389.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics, Financial Economics
This chapter presents many economic arguments in support of value(s)-based management, the idea that CSR fits in well within a VBM framework because CSR appears to make good business sense. Corporate ...
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This chapter presents many economic arguments in support of value(s)-based management, the idea that CSR fits in well within a VBM framework because CSR appears to make good business sense. Corporate social responsibility follows from the premise that it is important for a firm to operate in a socially responsible manner that considers the importance of all of its stakeholders and how they contribute to the company's long-term, sustainable creation of value. Economic arguments that support the business purpose of CSR include the fact that it can help recruit and retain employees, provide reputational risk management, assist in differentiating firm branding, and help avoid governmental scrutiny and interference. The existing academic evidence is consistent with the economic arguments supporting a firm's development of a CSR program.Less
This chapter presents many economic arguments in support of value(s)-based management, the idea that CSR fits in well within a VBM framework because CSR appears to make good business sense. Corporate social responsibility follows from the premise that it is important for a firm to operate in a socially responsible manner that considers the importance of all of its stakeholders and how they contribute to the company's long-term, sustainable creation of value. Economic arguments that support the business purpose of CSR include the fact that it can help recruit and retain employees, provide reputational risk management, assist in differentiating firm branding, and help avoid governmental scrutiny and interference. The existing academic evidence is consistent with the economic arguments supporting a firm's development of a CSR program.
