The Topeka Pet Food Plant has been one of the most highly publicized examples of organizational innovation in recent times. However, some of the publicity associated with it has been highly misleading. The authors offer a careful reexamination of the development and operation of the plant, outline the role that publicity has played in its history, and discuss the use of case studies in general.
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References
1.
WaltonR. E., “How to Counter Alienation in the Plant,”Harvard Business Review (November/December 1972), pp. 70–81.
2.
This article is based on information gathered during a five-year research project concerning some of the most widely known case studies in the field of management. Our statements and conclusions here have been assembled from published reports on Topeka, examination of many of the Topeka planning team's original documents, and discussions with members of that team.
3.
KetchumL. D., “A Case Study of Diffusion,” in DavisL.ChernsA. (eds.), Quality of Working Life, Vol. II, Cases and Commentary (New York: Free Press, 1975), pp. 140–141.
4.
Ibid.
5.
WaltonR. E., “Using Social Psychology to Create a New Plant Culture,” in DeutschM.HornsteinH., (eds.), Applying Social Psychology: Implications for Research, Practice and Training (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1975), p. 140.
6.
Ibid., p. 139.
7.
Ketchum, op. cit., p. 142.
8.
Walton, “Using Social Psychology,” p. 147.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Ketchum, op. cit., p. 139.
11.
KetchumL. D., “Topeka Organization and Systems Development,” an internal General Foods' document written to explain the Topeka system (30 December 1969).
12.
SchrankR., “On Ending Worker Alienation: The Gaines Pet Food Plant,” in FairfieldR. (ed.), Humanizing the Workplace (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1974), pp. 124–127; idem, Ten Thousand Working Days (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press1979), pp. 231–233.
13.
Walton, “Using Social Psychology,” p. 142.
14.
Walton, “How to Counter Alienation,” p. 75.
15.
“New Way to Run a Plant,”GF News (February/March 1972), p. 10.
16.
Walton, “How to Counter Alienation,” p. 76.
17.
Ibid., p. 77.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Ibid., p. 78.
20.
Ibid.
21.
GlaserE. M., Productivity Gains through Worklife Improvement (New York: Harcourt, 1976), pp. 61–62.
22.
WaltonR. E., “Innovative Restructuring of Work,” in RosowJ. (ed.), The Worker and the Job (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974), p. 162; Walton, “Using Social Psychology,” p. 141.
23.
WaltonR. E., “Work Innovations at Topeka: After Six Years,”Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, vol. 13 (1977), p. 423.
24.
Ibid.
25.
Ibid., p. 422; “How to Counter Alienation,” p. 70; and idem, “The Topeka Story: Teaching an Old Dog Food New Tricks,”The Wharton Magazine (Winter 1978).
26.
Walton, “How to Counter Alienation,” p. 71.
27.
SchrankTen Thousand Working Days, p. 233.
28.
Schrank, “Ending Worker Alienation,” p. 125.
29.
SchrankTen Thousand Working Days, p. 235.
30.
Schrank, “Ending Worker Alienation,” p. 124.
31.
WaltonR. E., “The Topeka Story, Part II: What's the Bottom Line?”The Wharton Magazine (Spring 1978), p. 41.
32.
FeinM., “Job Enrichment Does Not Work,”Atlanta Economic Review, vol. 25, (1975), p. 52.
33.
GombergW., “Job Satisfaction: Sorting Out the Nonsense,”American Federationist (June 1973), pp. 14–19.
34.
WaltonR. E., “Establishing and Maintaining High Commitment Work Systems,” in KimberlyJ. R., Robert H. Miles, and Associates (eds.), The Organizational Life Cycle (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980), pp. 220–221.
35.
Ibid., pp. 260–261; MilesR. E.RosenbergH. R., “The Human Resources Approach to Management: Second-Generation Issues,”Organizational Dynamics (Winter 1982), pp. 26–40.
36.
Ibid., p. 31.
37.
Walton, “Using Social Psychology,” p. 147.
38.
Walton, “Establishing and Maintaining Commitment,”MilesRosenberg, op. cit.
39.
WaltonR. E., “From Hawthorne to Topeka and Kalmar,” in CassE.ZimmerF. (eds.), Man and Work in Society, (New York: Van Nostrand-Reinhold, 1975), p. 117.
40.
Walton, “Using Social Psychology.”
41.
Ibid., p. 141.
42.
Ibid., p. 154.
43.
Ibid.
44.
WaltonR. E., “The Diffusion of New Work Structures: Explaining Why Success Didn't Take”Organizational Dynamics (Winter 1975), p. 12.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Ibid.; idem, “Using Social Psychology”; idem, “Establishing and Maintaining Commitment.”
47.
WaltonR. E., “Advantages and Attributes of the Case Study”Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, vol. 3 (1972), p. 77.
48.
Walton, “How To Counter Alienation,” p. 79.
49.
Walton, “The Topeka Story: Part II,” p. 41.
50.
Walton, “Advantages and Attributes.”
51.
Walton, “Establishing and Maintaining Commitment,” p. 218.
