That's so interesting and seems so counter-intuitive to me. Like isn't a workplace better when people know each other and trust each other and get along? How do you create that when people are always moving around?
That's so interesting and seems so counter-intuitive to me. Like isn't a workplace better when people know each other and trust each other and get along? How do you create that when people are always moving around?
I think you misunderstand the purpose of a corporation. Its sole purpose is to make money for its ownership class with a minimum of effort on the part of the ownership class. "We gave you money, now go make us back that much, and more." Every decade or so, a new management fad comes out, to try to squeeze more juice out of the corporate orange. The year I graduated high school, the book, "The Mythical Man-Month" came out, criticizing the typical corporate expectation of the 1960's, which was mocked (quite accurately) by the idea that if a woman can have a baby in nine months, then nine women should be able to have a baby in one month.
Through the 70's and 80's, we went through about a dozen management fads, the names of which I no longer remember. Companies adopted them, trained their employees in the novel process, and then the programs died quietly because (shock!) they didn't work at all.
The idea of the corporate mobility fad (it was before my time, so I didn't experience it) was to emotionally bond the employee to the company, rather than to people or communities. It's a concept that goes back to the earliest forms of slavery, and carries through into modern brainwashing methods. Companies at that time (50's-60's) saw technology opening new markets in places there had never been markets, and they needed a working class that could forget everything they knew about X, and quickly master Y, move into the market, and capture it. Recall that most workers of that time were former soldiers from WWII and Korea, and were already accustomed to being "GI's" (General Issue, like boots and jackets) -- interchangeable parts in a machine.
Like the Mythical Man Month, it was a fad, and quietly died.
People really misconstrue the nature and purpose of a corporation. It has only one: make exponential profit for its owners. The corporation really (really) doesn't care about its employees. This always puts managers in a terrible bind, because many of them (not all) actually do care about their employees. They have to make cruel decisions -- or lose their jobs, of course.
"The Mythical Man-Month"!?!? I am laughing and horrified at the same time.
Great insights into how corporations work and how it doesn't really matter what individuals want or don't. The institution has its own imperatives. Have you ever seen the documentary, aptly called The Corporation--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(2003_film)
They compare corporations to sharks--they have to keep moving in order to survive. Always thought that was a good metaphor. The whole point of the documentary is that if corporations were people (which they are legally under the 14th amendment) they would meet all the diagnostic criteria for a sociopath.
That's so interesting and seems so counter-intuitive to me. Like isn't a workplace better when people know each other and trust each other and get along? How do you create that when people are always moving around?
I think you misunderstand the purpose of a corporation. Its sole purpose is to make money for its ownership class with a minimum of effort on the part of the ownership class. "We gave you money, now go make us back that much, and more." Every decade or so, a new management fad comes out, to try to squeeze more juice out of the corporate orange. The year I graduated high school, the book, "The Mythical Man-Month" came out, criticizing the typical corporate expectation of the 1960's, which was mocked (quite accurately) by the idea that if a woman can have a baby in nine months, then nine women should be able to have a baby in one month.
Through the 70's and 80's, we went through about a dozen management fads, the names of which I no longer remember. Companies adopted them, trained their employees in the novel process, and then the programs died quietly because (shock!) they didn't work at all.
The idea of the corporate mobility fad (it was before my time, so I didn't experience it) was to emotionally bond the employee to the company, rather than to people or communities. It's a concept that goes back to the earliest forms of slavery, and carries through into modern brainwashing methods. Companies at that time (50's-60's) saw technology opening new markets in places there had never been markets, and they needed a working class that could forget everything they knew about X, and quickly master Y, move into the market, and capture it. Recall that most workers of that time were former soldiers from WWII and Korea, and were already accustomed to being "GI's" (General Issue, like boots and jackets) -- interchangeable parts in a machine.
Like the Mythical Man Month, it was a fad, and quietly died.
People really misconstrue the nature and purpose of a corporation. It has only one: make exponential profit for its owners. The corporation really (really) doesn't care about its employees. This always puts managers in a terrible bind, because many of them (not all) actually do care about their employees. They have to make cruel decisions -- or lose their jobs, of course.
"The Mythical Man-Month"!?!? I am laughing and horrified at the same time.
Great insights into how corporations work and how it doesn't really matter what individuals want or don't. The institution has its own imperatives. Have you ever seen the documentary, aptly called The Corporation--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(2003_film)
They compare corporations to sharks--they have to keep moving in order to survive. Always thought that was a good metaphor. The whole point of the documentary is that if corporations were people (which they are legally under the 14th amendment) they would meet all the diagnostic criteria for a sociopath.