Guide to the Joseph N. Scanlon Papers, 1940-1964 AIS.2005.13
Arrangement
Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Joseph N. Scanlon Papers
Creator
Scanlon, Joseph N. (Joseph Norbert)
Collection Number
AIS.2005.13
Extent
2.25 Linear Feet(2 boxes)
Date
1940-1964
Abstract
Joseph Scanlon served as a cost accountant, an open hearth tender, and a steelworkers local union president before being hired as director of research and engineering for the United Steelworkers of America in 1946. While serving on several committees regarding industrial production and working for the United Steelworkers of America, he developed the Scanlon Plan of gain-sharing which required company management and union workers' cooperation to increase production efficiency. This collection contains correspondence regarding the Scanlon Plan at various companies and Scanlon's correspondence with other individuals interested in industrial relations. There are also photographs of Scanlon and various papers about profit sharing and other issues surrounding company finances.
Language
English
.
Author
Zachary L. Brodt.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives & Special Collections Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Biography
Joseph N. Scanlon was born to Irish immigrants in Cleveland, Ohio in 1899. He served with the Navy in the early 1920s before being trained as an accountant. His experiences with industrial relations began when he worked as a cost accountant for a small Ohio steel company. Scanlon quit this position to tend an open hearth at the mill and in 1936 became a volunteer union organizer for the C.I.O. Steel Workers Organizing Committee (S.W.O.C.). By 1938 he was president of S.W.O.C. Local 169 in Ohio. While serving in this position, Scanlon managed to save the plant from closure by having plant management meet with the union at the union headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa., to create a more efficient production plan based on workers' suggestions. Because of his success in saving this steel mill, United Steel Workers of America President Philip Murray hired Scanlon and in 1946 made him director of their department of research and engineering to aid other ailing companies. One year later he resigned his position in the USWA to become a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Industrial Relations Department, a post he held until his death in 1956. During World War II Scanlon served on labor advisory committees for the War Production Board. In 1948 he was a member of Life's Round Table on the Pursuit of Happiness, and in the 1950s was a technical advisor to the Anglo-American Council on Productivity of the Mutual Security Agency.
Scanlon is best known for his origination of the so-called "Scanlon Plan". This plan was developed in 1945 as a combination of different methods he had used to help companies become more efficient and productive. The Scanlon Plan is a set of profit sharing arrangements based on a company's historic ratio of labor cost and sales value of production. A key attribute of the plan is that union workers and management work together to cut costs while still maintaining or improving production by utilizing suggestions made by the workers. The money saved through these suggestions is then put aside and distributed among the workers and management. This placed emphasis not on individual achievement, but rather on the production of the workers as a whole because all bonuses were based on overall profit, thus making co-workers more likely to push each other to work more proficiently. The Scanlon Plan was applied to various industrial companies throughout the country and, after Scanlon's death, was continued by his associates, Fred Lesieur and Carl Frost.
Scope and Content Notes
This collection contains correspondence regarding Scanlon's work with the USWA and various national committees, his position at the Pursuit of Happiness Round Table, and the Scanlon Plan at several companies. Personal correspondence with friends involved in industrial relations throughout the world is also present. There are photographs of Scanlon and various papers about profit sharing and other issues surrounding company finances. Clippings about Scanlon and the success of his plan are also present, as are several reports by the Anglo-American Council on Productivity, which evaluated post-WWII British industry.
Arrangement
Each series is arranged chronologically.
Series I. Correspondence, 1944-1960
Series II. Industrial Relations Publications, 1940-1964
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Betty J. White Jordan in November 2005.
Preferred Citation
Joseph N. Scanlon Papers, 1940-1964, AIS.2005.13, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Previous Citation
Joseph N. Scanlon Papers, 1940-1964, AIS.2005.13, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Joseph N. Scanlon Papers, 1940-1964, UE/Labor 2005:13, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Zachary L. Brodt in May 2007.
Copyright
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Related Material
Harold J. Ruttenberg Papers, 1914-1998, AIS.1999.04, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Subjects
Corporate Names
Lapointe Machine Tool Company
United States. Economic Cooperation Administration
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