Sometimes I have the feeling that the modern American workplace has regressed into a sort of feudal structure, where management is the aristocracy. The MBA is like a patent of nobility, and once you've got it, you're of the blood, and must never again really worry about your existence. If you toady to higher ranking nobility, you'll get a fief (management job) of your own complete with productive serfs (programmers, etc). If your fief is big enough, you can parcel out sub fiefs (lower tier management) to lower nobles (your business school/ frat chums) and be a liege lord.
And just like back in the day during feuds and other conflicts nobles who lost were almost always treated well by the victors and often were offered chances to switch allegience, today you can easily climb into a good job even if your company tanks (lacking a distinct skill set, managers are fungible; just look at the utterly disparate types of businesses that many CEOs have managed in their careers) and if that fails, there's always the golden parachute.
Back in the day, there were rarely serious consequences to the behavior of nobility as long as it didn't involve treachery towards those above you, and today this seems to be so with our manager class, at least as far as business decisions go. Being noble was enough.
You forgot to mention the regulatory mechanism (noble berth then, overpriced higher education generally only attainable by the offspring of nobility now) to ensure your serfs cannot easily attain nobility and the "old money" stays in the family.
I've felt modern capitalism is moving to resemble fuedalism for a while; moreover, what we're seeing now, especially in the States, is the moral problem of capitalism Adam Smith warned about.
America is not a capitalist system, it is a corporate fascist state. It is easy to fall into the trap of believeing this country is free, but it is a lie none the less. We have forced schooling to turn us into slaves, government restrictions that make it nearly impossible for all but the largest corporations to exist, and outrageous taxes foisted on the middle class to keep them from ever saving money.
The anarchists correctly point out that feudalism is the natural consequence of libertarianism (or "anarcho-capitalism", as the anarchists call it). Power ultimately flows from the barrel of a gun, and he with more money can hire more guns. Thus a libertarian "utopia" will invariably degenenerate to a state where the majority of people swear allegience to a liege lord in order to obtain protection from surrounding liege lords -- i.e., feudalism.
The only way to bypass the power of the gun is via consensus. If the majority of the people refuse to participate in a feudal system, a feudal system cannot operate. At one point in time we had a Constitution in this country that provided a mechanism for organizing and obtaining consensus, but over the past two hundred years the mechanisms therein have been corrupted by (tada!) the power of the dollars in the hands of corporate elites to the point where the mechanisms of government are being used to move the United States towards its feudal future.
We are already well on the way to the fate of the Roman Empire.
Are the world class managers actually MBAs? Does a MBA make you to some "liege lord"? This is the assumption most aspiring MBA seem to have.
Let's have a look at some world class companies. The management board of Daimler-Chrysler: 1x Engineering and Economics 1x Engineering and MBA 2x Economics 2x MBA 2x Law 4x Engineering
John Palmisano, President of IBM, is has graduated with a Bachelor in social and behavioural sciences. Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Chairman of the Board, has a bachelor in engineering and a MBA.
The first non-engineer CEO at Sony was Nobuyuki Idei, in 1995. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics. The president of Sony from 1989 to 1995 was Norio Ôga, graduate of Tôkyô National University of Fine Arts and Music.
The prime requisit of the best managers are very good social skills and a good judgement. A good knowledge of economics is plus, without doubt, but a good knowledge of the matter at hand, too.
Of course, this doesn't negate your quite correct observation, that there are several managers, which jump of the sinking ship, with their "golden parachute".
It makes me wonder, how many of those managers are MBAs.
An even better question is: what the hell are BBAs for? Compared to a MBA you spend double the amount of time learning, you have no other undergraduate degree so you know nothing but Commerce, and yet in the end it's not worth as much as an MBA. Why do people bother?
The MBA is like a patent of nobility, and once you've got it, you're of the blood, and must never again really worry about your existence.
Ha ha ha. You're very funny. Banks and consulting firms are laying off MBAs left right and center. I don't know whether NYC or London has more unemployed MBA/sq km, but they're both pretty high. Lots of people are even leaving the MBA off their CVs now, leading to embarassing silences when you interview them and ask about the gap in their employment history.
This sort of nonsense might go over well with people who've already decided that they hate corporations and everything about the capitalist system, but it's not backed by a shred of truth. You might as well say that an MS in CS makes someone one of the tech nobility and these people make all the tech decisions - it simply isn't true.
Ironically enough, MBAs and anybody in administration are generally the first ones fired.
When was the last time an MBA worked in design and development? This alone makes them VERY good targets for getting fired. For the company to survive you need a product people will buy, and frankly, all the MBA's in the world won't convince people to buy crap (because they can dig their own out of the toilet if they want it bad enough).
This is blatantly highlighted and made into a joke in the episode of Dilbert concerning the merger with Brainsuck. "The synergy will get you."
Promptness is its own reward, if one lives by the clock instead of the sword.
The New Feudalism (Score:5, Insightful)
And just like back in the day during feuds and other conflicts nobles who lost were almost always treated well by the victors and often were offered chances to switch allegience, today you can easily climb into a good job even if your company tanks (lacking a distinct skill set, managers are fungible; just look at the utterly disparate types of businesses that many CEOs have managed in their careers) and if that fails, there's always the golden parachute.
Back in the day, there were rarely serious consequences to the behavior of nobility as long as it didn't involve treachery towards those above you, and today this seems to be so with our manager class, at least as far as business decisions go. Being noble was enough.
Re:The New Feudalism (Score:2, Interesting)
Amen, brother! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Amen, brother! (Score:1)
Re:Amen, brother! (Score:2)
Feudalism is natural consequence of libertarianism (Score:2)
The only way to bypass the power of the gun is via consensus. If the majority of the people refuse to participate in a feudal system, a feudal system cannot operate. At one point in time we had a Constitution in this country that provided a mechanism for organizing and obtaining consensus, but over the past two hundred years the mechanisms therein have been corrupted by (tada!) the power of the dollars in the hands of corporate elites to the point where the mechanisms of government are being used to move the United States towards its feudal future.
We are already well on the way to the fate of the Roman Empire.
-- Eric Lee Green BadTux News'n'Views [badtux.net]
Re:The New Feudalism (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's have a look at some world class companies.
The management board of Daimler-Chrysler:
1x Engineering and Economics
1x Engineering and MBA
2x Economics
2x MBA
2x Law
4x Engineering
John Palmisano, President of IBM, is has graduated with a Bachelor in social and behavioural sciences.
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Chairman of the Board, has a bachelor in engineering and a MBA.
The first non-engineer CEO at Sony was Nobuyuki Idei, in 1995. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics.
The president of Sony from 1989 to 1995 was Norio Ôga, graduate of Tôkyô National University of Fine Arts and Music.
The prime requisit of the best managers are very good social skills and a good judgement. A good knowledge of economics is plus, without doubt, but a good knowledge of the matter at hand, too.
Of course, this doesn't negate your quite correct observation, that there are several managers, which jump of the sinking ship, with their "golden parachute".
It makes me wonder, how many of those managers are MBAs.
Re:The New Feudalism (Score:2)
An even better question is: what the hell are BBAs for? Compared to a MBA you spend double the amount of time learning, you have no other undergraduate degree so you know nothing but Commerce, and yet in the end it's not worth as much as an MBA. Why do people bother?
Re:The New Feudalism (Score:2)
Ha ha ha. You're very funny. Banks and consulting firms are laying off MBAs left right and center. I don't know whether NYC or London has more unemployed MBA/sq km, but they're both pretty high. Lots of people are even leaving the MBA off their CVs now, leading to embarassing silences when you interview them and ask about the gap in their employment history.
This sort of nonsense might go over well with people who've already decided that they hate corporations and everything about the capitalist system, but it's not backed by a shred of truth. You might as well say that an MS in CS makes someone one of the tech nobility and these people make all the tech decisions - it simply isn't true.
Re:The New Feudalism (Score:1)
When was the last time an MBA worked in design and development? This alone makes them VERY good targets for getting fired. For the company to survive you need a product people will buy, and frankly, all the MBA's in the world won't convince people to buy crap (because they can dig their own out of the toilet if they want it bad enough).
This is blatantly highlighted and made into a joke in the episode of Dilbert concerning the merger with Brainsuck. "The synergy will get you."