Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 52

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

103 box(es)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Lemuel R. Boulware papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1917-1990 (inclusive)

Creator:

Boulware, Lemuel R.

Form:

Clippings (information artifacts), Articles, Photograph albums, Audiocassettes, Scrapbooks, Audiovisual materials, Speeches, Publications (documents), Photographs, and Correspondence

Abstract:

Lemuel R. Boulware was a leading figure in industrial relations in America during the 1940's and 1950's. As vice-president of General Electric Company with responsibility for public and employee relations, he developed an approach to labor relations that came to be called "Boulwarism." He was also a noted author and lecturer. His papers comprise correspondence, speeches, articles, memos, employee relations materials, photographs, clippings, etc.

Lemuel Ricketts Boulware (1895-1990) was an important figure in the history of labor relations in the United States in the 1940's and 1950's. He is best known for the program of employee and community relations he developed at General Electric Company between 1947 and 1961. This was a sales-oriented approach to employee relations in which the company tried to put together an employment package that took into account the "balanced best interests" of all involved. At the negotiating table, this approach took the form of presenting the union with a "fair but firm" offer and then sticking to it, even under threat of a strike. This approach came to be known as "Boulwarism" because of Boulware's role in developing it. It was praised by some as a way of overcoming the power of the labor unions and allowing the company, rather than the union, to receive credit for pay raises and other employee benefits; but it was condemned by labor leaders as mere unwillingness to negotiate and as a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach to bargaining. In 1964 the National Labor Relations Board ruled that "Boulwarism" was an unfair bargaining practice.

Boulware was born in Springfield, KY in 1895, the son of Judson A. and Martha Price Ricketts Boulware. He attended the University of Wisconsin, where he was captain of the baseball team and a member of Chi Psi fraternity. He graduated in 1916. It was at Wisconsin that he first developed his interest in business. He himself later recounted the advice given to him in 1915 by one of his professors, Stephen W. Gilman; when Boulware expressed interest in pursuing a career in business that would lead him eventually to become general manager of a company, Professor Gilman replied that he should master three areas of business: the "money" area, accounting and finance; the "things" area, production and engineering; and the "people" area, marketing, sales and employee relations. If he became competent in all three areas, the professor continued, then he would be ready for a company to give him a try as general manager. Boulware accordingly planned out his career with these goals in mind.

He spent some time studying and teaching accounting and commercial law at Wisconsin and working as an accountant when his plans were briefly interrupted by World War I. He enlisted in the army in 1917, and after training camp at Ft. Sheridan, IL he was stationed with the depot brigade at Camp Custer in Battle Creek, MI, where he attained the rank of Captain of Infantry. After the war he resumed his training in accounting and worked for a variety of companies, in addition to teaching night school at the Arbuckle Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He worked as comptroller for Consolidated Press of Hastings, MI, which was later purchased by E. W. Bliss Co. In 1920 he joined the Sherman Manufacturing Co. of Battle Creek, MI as purchasing agent, plant manager and assistant to the president.

In 1925 he went to work for the Syracuse [Easy] Washing Machine Corporation of Syracuse, NY as assistant sales manager. The following year he took over as general sales manager. In this capacity he oversaw the management and training of the sales force and developed the marketing philosophy that he would later use to develop his sales-oriented approach to employee relations. While at Easy he became a nationally-recognized authority on sales and marketing issues. It was during this period that he began contributing articles to business publications and came to be in demand as a speaker at business conferences and other functions. He became active in professional organizations such as the American Management Association and was a charter member of the Marketing Executives Society. He also served as associate editor of the journal Sales Management.

In 1936 Boulware was appointed director, vice-president and general manager of the Carrier Engineering Corporation, an air conditioning manufacturer in Newark, NJ. Just before leaving Syracuse for Newark he married Norma Brannock of Syracuse on 28 December 1935. Upon moving to Newark with his new bride and taking up his new duties in January 1936, Boulware immediately set about to restructure the company and make it profitable. His biggest accomplishment was to move the entire headquarters and main plant of Carrier from Newark to an empty factory site in Syracuse, making use of the local ties he had developed during his decade at Easy to negotiate a favorable deal from the local government and business community in Syracuse. This move both revitalized Carrier and reinvigorated the local economy of Syracuse, which was suffering due to the Depression. In 1939 he resigned from Carrier and set out with his wife on an extended cruise around the world.

Upon his return he went to work for the Celotex Corporation of Chicago as vice president and general manager from 1940 to 1942. The outbreak of World War II caused him to go to work for the War Production Board for two years, where he served as deputy comptroller of shipbuilding and later became Operations Vice-Chairman. He was subsequently awarded the Medal of Merit by President Truman and a citation from the Navy for his services to the war effort. It was during his time at WPB that he developed a close association with Charles E. Wilson and Ralph J. Cordiner of General Electric Company, who were also working for WPB. It was largely due to his acquaintance with Wilson that he was persuaded to go to work for General Electric after his resignation from the War Production Board.

In January 1945, at Wilson's urging, Boulware joined General Electric as marketing consultant and head of its affiliated manufacturing companies; he was elected a vice-president in November 1945. In June 1947 he was made head of employee and plant community relations, an assignment which became the defining job of his long business career. In 1946 General Electric had suffered a bitter seven-week strike, and the company was concerned about the very bad image it had with employees and the general public alike. When Boulware was given the new position, he expressed concern about his lack of experience in the area of employee and community relations but was told that the company wanted a totally fresh approach to its problems in this area. Boulware decided to apply his sales and marketing background to employee relations. He remembered the advice given to him by Professor Gilman at Wisconsin, and its implication that a successful company should deal with employees the same way it deals with customers. Boulware realized that labor unions were so successful at rallying the opinion of workers and the public against large corporations because their propaganda was better; they had succeeded in depicting the corporations as "brutes, crooks and exploiters," and they were able to portray any gain at the bargaining table as a "concession" extracted from recalcitrant management by union pressure. Corporate management had become so accustomed to this adversarial relationship that played along during negotiations, and only granted pay increases or other benefits under threat of a strike.

Boulware figured that the best way to counter the negative image produced by union propaganda was to treat employees as if they were customers and their job was a product, and "market" their jobs to them; in other words, he set out to discover what sorts of satisfactions employees wanted from their jobs, and then package the jobs in a way the employees would find attractive. The result of this was the GE "nine-point" job, a job package designed to provide employees with the optimum balance of material and non-material job satisfactions, together with the assurance that the "balanced best interests" of all concerned were being served and that the company was not taking advantage of them. At the bargaining table, the Boulware approach was to study the situation to determine the appropriate mix of pay increases and other benefits that should be included in the new contract, and then to place the best offer on the table immediately and hold firm to it, even under threat of a strike. This way, Boulware reasoned, the union would not be able to claim credit for forcing "concessions" from the company, and employees would give credit to the company, rather than the union, for their increased pay and benefits. In Boulware's view, the company was simply presenting a "fair but firm" offer in the "balanced best interests" of all; but union leaders decried this tactic as a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach to bargaining and dubbed it "Boulwarism" after the man most visibly associated with it.

Since his approach to contract negotiations depended on securing the goodwill of the employees toward the company rather than the union, Boulware instituted an active campaign on the part of General Electric to counter union propaganda with its own, through devices such as payroll inserts, posters in the workplace, employee newsletters and advertisements in local newspapers in plant cities. All of this was designed to persuade employees and the public that General Electric was a fair company that tried to satisfy the "balanced best interests" of all at the negotiating table and was a good corporate citizen in the communities where it had plants. One of the most innovative parts of Boulware's approach was to commission an economics primer from Lewis Haney, entitled How You Really Earn Your Living. This was intended to be a short introduction to free-market economics and business in general, with a view to reinforcing the positive public image that the company was trying to create. Boulware then persuaded managers to organize evening study groups for employees and their spouses to read and discuss the book and its message. Boulware later noted that the most interested participants were the wives of the General Electric employees.

While at GE, as throughout his earlier career, Boulware remained active in various professional organizations. He continued his "other" career as a lecturer and contributor to various business-related publications and was a frequent presenter at GE management training seminars. He also served on the board of directors for a variety of corporations.

In 1957 Boulware stepped down as head of employee and plant community relations, though he remained a vice-president and served as a consultant to his replacement, Jack Parker, who continued to follow Boulware's example. Boulwarism's greatest apparent triumph came in the fall of 1960, shortly before Boulware left GE, when a widely-publicized and strongly-promoted strike against the company collapsed after a few weeks. At this point the unions and their leaders appeared to be thoroughly discredited. However, in the next few years various court decisions went against General Electric, and in 1964 the National Labor Relations Board ruled that "Boulwarism" amounted to a refusal to negotiate and as such was an unfair bargaining practice. After a lengthy strike in 1969, GE effectively abandoned Boulware's approach, and "Boulwarism" was declared dead.

Boulware retired from GE on 1 January 1961 and settled with his wife in Delray Beach, Florida. He spent the rest of his life writing and talking about his experiences and ideas, and he remained very much in demand on the lecture circuit. He taught classes at Florida Atlantic University and was the recipient of several honorary degrees, including Doctor of Science, Doctor of Humane Letters, Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Education in Economics. His first book, The Truth About Boulwarism: Trying to Do Right Voluntarily, was published in 1969; according to Boulware, this was his first use of the term "Boulwarism" in print. It was followed in 1972 by What YOU Can Do About Inflation, Unemployment, Productivity, Profit and Collective Bargaining. He continued to be an active correspondent, not only with his wide circle of friends and former business associates, but also with economists, authors and politicians. His letters frequently appeared on the editorial pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald, and he remained an engaged and thoughtful observer and commentator on the political and economic issues of the day. He also maintained an interest in conservative organizations and Republican Party politics and was a frequent contributor to the campaigns of its candidates, though he often criticized Republican officeholders who had disappointed him and seemed to be going against the principles and platforms on which they had been elected. He was personally acquainted with many significant figures in industry and politics, including President Ronald Reagan, whom he knew from the days when Reagan, then an actor, was a spokesman for GE and host of a television program sponsored by the company.

In his private life, Boulware enjoyed hunting, fishing and socializing with his many friends and business acquaintances. He also enjoyed traveling extensively with his wife. Norma Boulware died in 1987 after several years of ill health. They had no children. After her death Boulware continued to write letters and grant interviews, most notably to Forbes magazine in 1989; however, his own ill health, including a stroke, severely limited his activity. He passed away at his home in Delray Beach on 7 November 1990.