Bad bosses as a phenomenon

[David Horn]

(03-07-2019, 03:06 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I notice a huge difference in American business practice in seeking out potential bosses. In th eold days, most businesses promoted from within. It was rare, to be sure, but it happened: people could start in the mail room or on the shop floor and advance through the hierarchy of management. People of talent got recognized for such even if they came from modest backgrounds. To be sure, management salaries were themselves modest by current standards, and advancement was slow and steady. But it was possible, much unlike the sit6uation with the low glass ceilings of advancement in contemporary America.

The executive might be fifty years old and earning perhaps ten times what someone in the mail room or on the shop floor was getting. This executive was too old to splurge on sports cars or a trophy wife. So his house would be paid off and his kids were going to college. Fine.

But look what the company got. Its executives knew what was going on down to the shop floor or the sales route. Those executives (probably GI) could treat subordinates  well because they knew whence they came.

A dean of the Wharton School of Business apologized for educating an entire generation of business executives to do the wrong things.  He said they had not intended the result, offering examples of bad behavior by various companies over the years as teachable moments.  Unfortunately, the students learned that bad behavior pays off and is rarely punished.  Increased bad behavior grew from there