chapter 17 Flashcards
(41 cards)
What action did businesses take allowing them to still profit?
Industrialization lowered prices through large scale manufacturing SO producers developed new technologies and business tactics
What new concept did Railroad Companies create?
a management revolution that created a hierarchy of responsibilities, compartmentalized operations by function, and improved accounting
How did the United States become an Industrial Power/
taking vast natural resources in North America, including minerals, lumber, and raw material from the West.
Describe the shift in power/electricity in the 1890s-1900.
Due to steam and electricity growing, water-dependent industries began to use COAL instead
Kerosene was used instead of whale oil.
Wood was used to produce light & heat,
American factories and urban homes converted to electric power.
Who and what did Gustavus Swift do?
Create the assembly line to improve productivity & create a new enterprise.
This enterprise was vertically integrated and could handle ALL functions of an industry
Used predatory pricing to absorb competitors and attain market control.
Who and what did John D. Rockefeller do?
Took advantage of the oil shortage and the discovery of oil in PA during the Civil War (to develop his business)
Rockefeller developed ‘Rockefeller’s Standard Oil of Ohio’ and used vertical integration (for production and sales) and horizontal integration (for national distribution).
What did Rockefeller do in 1882
Create the TRUST
= Rockefeller could manage a number of different firms as a single entity.
Other companies (in linseed oil, sugar, and salt) followed
What happened in the U.S by 1900?
America’s largest one hundred companies controlled 1/3 of the nation’s productive capacity by 1900
Companies spend over $90 million per year on advertising space in magazines –> thus transforming press into a mass-market industry.
Describe the impact of Swift, Rockefeller, and Carnegie
They were criticized during economic downturns
Were applauded during periods of prosperity
Why was consumerism encouraged?
improved products became cheaper
railroads transported manufactured goods + fresh produce to national chain stores
Who was John Wanamaker
created the department store
= megastores that enticed customers with advertising and low prices
What did Montgomery, Ward, and Sears do?
built mail-order empires with money-back guarantee
What is “white collar vs blue collar”
White Collar = those who had high-positions and would work for someone else.
Blue Collar = those who would physically work on the shop floor.
What was a new concept in major corporations after the introduction of white and blue collars?
Middle Managers
- supervised departments that handled SPECIFIC activities (purchasing, accounting, etc..)
How did corporations create new systems to sell their products?
Established national distribution networks.
Traveling Salesman would be trained in the art of “hard sell”
- introduced merchants to new products
- offered incentives
- suggested sales displays
used scripts that had conversations to use with customers
Describe the role of women in the corporate office?
Employers began to assign secretarial work to women and by the twentieth century, 77% of all stenographers and typists were female.
By 1920 –> women held half of all low-level office jobs
This was something completely new for white, working-class women as they would often spend time at home, tending to children, taking in laundry, boarders, and piecework.
Women began to stray away from domestic work.
Describe Skilled Craft Workers
despite the managerial revolution, they retained autonomy as they were independent contractors
their power could not be limited (even through subcontracting) because of the strong ties between many laborers
however, as technology advanced, skilled craft workers lost their independence characteristics due to mass production
What is scientific management?
Frederick W. Taylor believed that he could reduce costs and improve employee efficiency.
Engineers had to time each task with a stopwatch; those who met the time standard would be paid more
Describe class difference
industrialization and incorporation widened the gap between white and blue collars.
three class distinctions were made = wealthy = middle class = struggling class
Describe health hazards and pollution in factories
Industrial labor was unregulated and there were high casualty rates in railroad and mining industries
industrialization contributed to air and water pollution, increase in pulmonary disease
Describe the impact of unskilled labor?
More and more women and children would work (even though they were instilled and paid lower wages)
1/5 children under 16 worked outside the home
African Americans were at the bottom of the pay scale and turned away from industrial or corporate jobs. African American women had to rely on domestic service instead. African American men worked in personal service or had to do the hard, menial jobs.
What did employers in the North and West do instead of the south?
recruit immigrants
Describe immigrants during the civil war and world war 1?
Between these two periods, 25 million immigrants entered the united states.
75% of residents in SF and NYC had at least one foreign born parent
Why were immigrants the ideal labor supply
took worse jobs at low pay
returned to home during economic downturns, reducing the shock of unemployment in the US
