How Corporations Conform Employees to Their Will

The "Small Things"

As annoying as it was to work at _____, it taught me a lot about human psychology. at ____, during a given day, you have about 40 unique banal tasks that need to be accomplished, whether it be straightening rows of books or stickering DVDs. no human would be able to repetitively execute all these tasks without oversight day in day out. oversight came in the form of repetitive instructions -- in a neutral, non-judgemental way, i would be told repeatedly where the sticker goes on the letterbox, which books should be "faced out" on the shelf. pedantic though it may have been, this kind of repetition builds conformity to the mean..........whether this kind of doctrinaire organizational behavior is a good thing is another question, but there is no doubt that it was effective.