Under the chairmanship of Joseph's son, Seebohm, the company adopted Sheldon's proposals for a more functional style of organisation, but he tempered this with a belief, shared by the Rowntree firm's senior managers, that industry existed for more than the profit of shareholders.
[8] Anticipating later writers such as Elton Mayo and Frederick Herzberg by some years, Sheldon argued that, while basic economic needs must be met, wider personal and community needs were equally important.
In 1904, Joseph Rowntree had given away half his personal fortune and almost two-thirds of the shares in the company to three Trusts to pursue a range of charitable, social and political work.
[9] Although with the passage of time, the Rowntree company was to change and develop in new ways (particularly with new brands and marketing from the 1930s on), and in 1988 was controversially [10] bought by Nestlé, it retained a tradition of good management throughout, in keeping with the philosophy of its founder and those around him.
[9] Sheldon explored this in his 1923 book, The Philosophy of Management, which demonstrated his twin concerns for sound business and ethical practice when he stated: "The cost of building the Kingdom of Heaven will not be found in the profit and loss accounts of industry, but in the record of every man's conscientious service."