BLACKS IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD: ISSUES FOR THE MANAGER.

By Theodore V. Purcell '33 and Gerald F.Cavanagh. The Free Press (Macmillan),1973. 384 pp. $3.95.

What distinguishes this study of minority employment from the recent spate of industry reports is its focus on individual men and women whose lives and livelihoods are caught up in the struggle. As the authors themselves describe it, the book is a "listening book," wherein the actors - blacks and whites, workers as well as managers - are allowed to tell their own stories and the reader to form his own judgments.

Purcell and Cavanagh do not offer verbatim transcripts of their interviews. Instead, they have ordered their materials in ways that illuminate the forces making for change in employment patterns and the practices most likely to ensure continued progress. The authors have thought deeply about the issues, are forthright in stating their assumptions, preferences, and priorities, Not everyone will accept their judgments; nor need one to find the study useful. This reader would question their definition of preferential treatment and position on corporate social responsibility; and he is possibly more troubled than they with longer- run implications of quota approaches to equal opportunity. Disagreements of this sort in no way diminish, however, the study's contribution to our understanding or its value as a guide to the practicing manager.

The impression conveyed by the study's findings is one of cautious optimism. In the four electrical plants surveyed, the number of blacks in the work force increased substantially in the 19605, and they were judged to be doing as good a job as their white co-workers. Progress, to be sure, was not accomplished without incident, but there was less racial antagonism than expected and certainly less in 1970 than in 1960 and 1965. Blacks also made modest gains in the higher occupations, and moved into positions in the skilled crafts and in management. These breakthroughs were achieved without large- scale white resistance, though there was resentment when the upgrading or promotion seemed undeserved. In these plants, the reaction of whites to the integration and upgrading of blacks is very much a function of the skill and determination with which management implements its equal-opportunity goals. On the negative side, in these plants the relatively harmonious relationships developed at the bench and on the line do not extend yet beyond the factory gate.

A cautionary note: In 1969-70, when the surveys were conducted, unemployment was low and the nation had enjoyed several years of un-interrupted expansion. These are the conditions most favorable to progress in minority employment, for labor is scarce and gains for blacks come principally from enlargement of opportunities rather than from displacement of whites. Today's recession and the bleak prospects for near-term recovery present a set of conditions clearly inimical to progress. Already the pressures of job scarcity, stemming from employment cutbacks, have brought affirmative action commitments directly into conflict with traditional seniority arrangements to create a situation wherein it will be difficult to preserve, much less to improve upon, present moderate gains. This could have disastrous consequences. Increasingly, recession has undermined programs for social justice and exacerbated social conflicts. We can only hope, somewhat desperately, that the worst will be averted.

Professor of Business Economics at the TuckSchool, Mr. Macdonald teaches courses inPolitical Economy and the Business System andalso in Industrial Relations.