How Does Hamper (and Moore) Assert His Individuality?

Name: Professor’s Name: Course:Date: Every institutional structure or corporation has a different strategy and vision which it works towards. These goals or targets steer a company forward and represent a shared vision for a particular corporation. While the management of a corporation could be heavily invested in these goals, unfortunately, in some instances, the employees may not be, and this can be the beginning of an unfruitful partnership. Every successful company boasts of a management and a workforce which works in tandem with each other. In such a corporation, information flows seamlessly, and everyone knows their roles. Dissemination of information from the management to the workforce and vice versa is without any hiccups. Such corporations can be said to have successfully synced their vision with the individual goals and visions of their employees. However, the truth is, the above is not an often occurrence, and many institutional structures find themselves at odds with their workforce. In Rivethead, Ben Hamper vividly explains how this divide or disconnect can occur and set the employees and their management on different paths. Successfully aligning the needs of the workforce and those of the company is not an easy thing and as Hamper describes in his essays, for GM, it was quite an uphill task with employees like him seeing out their tenures having unsuccessfully aligned their strategies with those of the company. Individuality is indeed a difficult thing to achieve while working in a corporation whose structures are antagonistic with those of a particular individual. However, as indicated in Hamper’s Rivethead, while it can be challenging, a modicum of success while pursuing individuality is indeed achievable, but absolute freedom is only possible without the structures of corporations. The needs of individual employees are almost always at odds with those of the organization. However, gradually, organizations coupled with their competent managements and sound corporate strategies are often able to strike a balance and make sure employees are in line with their goals without feeling like they have given up a lot. Corporations which consider their employees as their biggest asset often work to ensure their workforce is always kept satisfied and happy. In Hamper’s the Rivethead, GM is not one of the organizations which seem to care about the personal needs of its employees. Hamper wanted to escape from the shadows of his father who had been a GM employee, but fate had other plans. In one instance, he notes that “working the Rivet Line was like being paid to flunk high school the rest of your life. An adolescent time warp in which the duties of the day were just an underlying annoyance. No one really grew up here. No pretensions to being anything other than stunted brats clinging to rusty monkey-bars” (Hamper, 185). The above statement is a testament to how the disconnect between institutional structures and the needs of individuals often occur. Hamper sought for something different, but all he got was an opportunity to be like his...